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| BACO DA SETA, IL |
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aka The Silkworm (Int)
1973
Italy
Drago Film
Director: Mario Sequi
Story & screenplay: Mino Roli [Erminio Pontiroli]
Music: Mario Bertolazzi
Cinematography: Alvaro Lanzoni {Eastmancolor}
Editor: Maurizio Mangosi
Set design: Nino [Elio] Balletti
Cameraman: Riccardo D'Ottavi, Vittorio Dragonetti
Filmed: Exteriors shot in Livorno
Release information: Registered 17.01.74. Italy (22.03.74, 93 mins)
Cast: Nadya [Nadja] Tiller (Smerelda Amadier), George Hilton (Didier), Riccardo Garrone (Commisioner Guarnieri), Evi Marandi (Yvonne), Evi Rigano (Marcelle), Mario Feliciani (Planget, a lawyer), Vivi Gioi (an ex-lover of Costas'), Osvaldo Ruggieri (Raffaele), Carlos de Castro (Costas Mikeilis), and with Guy Madison (Robert)
This is something of a forgotten title in George Hilton's filmography. Apparently started in 1968 - with the shooting title Esmeralda and starring Hilton alongside Robert Taylor and Nadja Tiller - it wasn't actually released until 1974. By this time the title had changed and Taylor, who died of lung cancer in mid-69, was understandably no longer attached to the project. Whether it was uncompleted, or simply lay on the shelf for the intervening years, is unknown. Whatever the case, it helps to explain the presence of Guy Madison (in a seemingly late European role) and the two Evi's, Marandi and Rigano, who had popped up regularly in the sixties but disappeared with the end of the decade. Even when it eventually emerged onto the screens it received little in the way of distribution, and although there was an International version (as The Silkworm, a direct translation of its equally inexplicable Italian release title), this would appear to be lost at this time.
Esmeralda (Nadja Tiller), is obviously a temperamental lady. Before the credits have rolled she is shown harassing an ex-lover, Didier (George Hilton), who is busily in an embrace with a scantily clad lady-friend. A French singer living beside the Italian coastline, she has a taste for younger men, and makes a habit of picking up Lotharios in local nightclubs (her preferred choice obviously being those with the most appalling dance technique). This proves to be unwise when her latest conquest, a student and gigolo called Costas Mikeilis (Carlos de Castro), seemingly pilfers her valuable stash of jewelry. However, could it be that someone is using him as a convenient scapegoat; he's nowhere to be found, and the only clue as to his whereabouts is a jumper with a bullet-hole in its back?
Besides this, there are plenty of other likely suspects. In fact, as well as the aforementioned Didier, virtually all of Esmerelda's regular contacts seem to be of a distinctly untrustworthy bent. They include: her sister, Yvonne (Evi Marandi), a dolly-bird with a taste for the high life; Planget (Mario Feliciani), a lawyer who's simply too dour to be true; Marcelle (Evi Rigano), her homely secretary; and, last but not least, Robert (Guy Madison), a charismatic old flame whose has made an unlikely 'chance' reappearance.
Putting it kindly, this is something of a slow burner. In fact, it smolders away so languidly for the first hour that it appears in danger of freezing over at any moment. Even after this point, when the plot steps up a gear, it could hardly be accused of leaping into overdrive. There's an awful lot of extrapolation but - when it comes down to it - very little actually happens. This is not one of those labyrinthine mysteries of which Italian scriptwriters were so enamoured; both the crime and its solution are simplicity itself. Furthermore, although this is, in essence, a giallo, it is a giallo without any murders (until the final minutes, at least). The central 'jewel theft' scenario also brings to mind another rather underwhelming Hilton vehicle, Osvaldo Civirani 's The Devil with Seven Faces (71).
However, despite hardly being a roller coaster ride of a thriller, Il Baco di Seta is not without its charms, especially if you're an aficionado of late-sixties interiors in all their lurid glory. On display here is a selection of furnishings so brightly colored that they must have been in danger of causing over-exposure in the film stock. Mario Sequi, a director who'd been making obscure films since the late forties (he's probably best known for the Dana Andrews / Anita Eckberg spy film The Cobra (67)), directs with a laid-back - but not ineffective - style. Of particular note is the effective final sequence, which starts off with two characters fighting upon a livid red carpet and ends with a graphic demonstration of the guilty party's gradual lapse into madness.
There's also a decent and interesting cast. Guy Madison rarely appeared outside of the Western or War genre whilst in Europe, and this counts as his only giallo. It's really just a cameo role, but he gets a splendid entrance: emerging from the shadows to a clap of thunder and the windows crashing open. Nadja Tiller, a popular German actress who appeared in many films throughout the fifties and sixties, comes into her own as the film progresses, but she does look disconcertingly like Prunella Scales (Sybille from Fawlty Towers ). George Hilton disappears for most of the middle part of the film, but is quite animated in his archetypal charmer / red-herring role.
It's another one of those films where every chap - or every chap on the lesser side of fifty, at any rate - is busily trying to scheme or shag their way into a fortune. It's also one wherein an older lady with a penchant for toy-boys is revealed to be guilty of far more than simply wanting a younger sexual partner (see also Sergio Pastore 's Crimes of the Black Cat (Sette scialli di seta gialla, 72)). And her machinations are far more successful than those of the less sophisticated striplings around her. Quite what this says about the Italian psyche I don't know, but who cares when the wallpaper looks this good.
Review by Matt Blake
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