I haven’t spent much time watching giallos, not for any particular reason really; I just haven’t got around to them yet. I decided to start with Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture a Duckling. Fulci made this movie in 1972 and it was promptly banned by the Catholic Church and got him in trouble with Italy’s film community. Until Anchor Bay released this DVD in 2000, it had never actually been released in the US.

A picturesque Italian community is shaken to its core after the dead bodies of young boys start showing up. It’s up to a reporter and the local bad girl to unravel the mystery before more kids are killed.

The premise is straightforward but the details are anything but. Fulci weaves multiple characters and plot lines throughout the movie, some are clearly meant to be red herrings while others lean towards the familiar Fulci WTF’s?

Not really horror, it’s more disturbing on different levels than I was used to from the other Fulci’s I’ve seen. There really isn’t much gore except for two scenes; that of a woman being beaten with a chain (which I think he’s done before) and a man scraping his face down the side of a cliff. Don’t go into this expecting the usual LF gore. If you can get past that then you should enjoy this movie. Even the bodies of the boys are pretty clean, it’s the fact that they are being killed mercilessly is what’s upsetting anyway, especially for the time it came out.

There’s quite a bit of nudity in the form of the “bad girl” who got in trouble in the big city and had to move back to her small hometown. You get long lingering shots of her naked. Of course at the time she’s naked she is standing in front of a little boy trying to seduce him. The whole scene made my skin crawl; I can’t imagine what people thought in 1972.

If you’re a fan of Italian horror and Fulci I would say to watch this movie, BUT only as long as you realize it’s not going to be a traditional Fulci gorefest. What you’re getting here is more like a murder mystery drama. It’s a bit long as well at 102 minutes. I think I would’ve liked it more if it was edited down some.

The Italian title is Non si sevizia un paperino, which literally translates to Don’t Torture Donald Duck. Most people assume the name was changed to Don’t Torture a Duckling because of licensing issues. A small Donald Duck shows up at one of the bodies although I still fail to see how this was enough to name the movie.

6 out of 10 obviously fake bodies but who cares?