Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A Disappointing Continuation

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The first time I can say that I really liked a Giallo. Barbara Bouchet must be one of the most beautiful women to be shot on screen. Her slow motion lesbian scene with Rosalba Neri to Teo Usuelli's dreamy background score makes this film worth watching. Another lesbian scene under a waterfall was also terrific. The hunting scene where a paranoid Barbara Bouchet runs around like a scared rabbit was well edited. The plot, suspense and resolutions are all quite banal. But the beautiful women, the excellent score and the locales made me like this film. Farley Granger looked quite creepy i guess.(7.5/10)

Returning to view this film again after a gap of a few years I find I like it much more the second time around. It begins quietly as Barbara Bouchet is introduced to the Venetian villa of Rosalba Neri and Farley Granger. The rather washed out pan and scan print derived from video sources is not good but seems to be all there is and can soon be forgiven as the tense and vivid action develops. Granger is excellent, far better than I've seen him in other films of this period and of course he is ably supported by the lovely and sexy Bouchet and the beautiful Neri. The twisted story always makes sense, remarkably enough, and there is no shying away from the fact that this is steeped in an aura of sex and drugs and.....well maybe not rock 'n' roll, but an occasionally most effective score. Nudity is rampant throughout and whilst some of the sex scenes are gentle and consensual, some are most certainly not. There are also some marvellous sequences relating to past events, that take us out onto a very atmospheric lagoon and to a druggy party gone wrong. There is violence but not much in the way of gore, just more nudity instead. I don't recall a film when so many gorgeous costumes were worn and that came off so easily. Very effective and sleazy giallo.

Gorgeous young American secretary Greta (Barbara Bouchet) accepts a job with successful and charismatic author Richard Stuart (Farley Granger) in order to find out what has happened to her close friend Sally (Patrizia Viotti), who has mysteriously disappeared while in the writer's employ; to get to the truth, Greta must become a participant in the hedonistic lifestyle enjoyed by Richard and his beautiful wife Eleanora (Rosalba Neri) and ultimately risk her life in a deadly game of cat and mouse.With stars as stunning as Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri, neither of whom mind shedding their clothes when called upon, a strong story wouldn't be much of a priority to many, but to his credit, writer/director Silvio Amadio still bothers to weave a pretty good tale amidst all of his film's eroticism and debauchery, creating a neat little mystery that offers up several well executed scenes of suspense, excellent location work in the waterways of Venice and the surrounding marshlands, an atmospheric score (which utilises a theremin to add extra eeriness), and just a smidgen of gore.Nail-biting highlights include Greta's search of the Stuarts' cellar and a duck hunt that goes horribly wrong for our heroine, but the most memorable moment for me (as I imagine it will be for most men) has got to be Bouchet and Neri's amazingly hot, slow-motion, lesbian sex scene, which is more than worthy of a rewind or two.

"Amuck" (Alla Ricerca del Piacere) tells the story of a young girl Greta (Barbara Bouchet) who goes to work as a secretary for an American writer, Richard Stewart (Farley Granger). Richard Stewart lives with his wife Eleanora (Rosalba Neri) in a palazzo in Venice. Greta wants to investigate what happened to her friend Sally, that disappeared leaving no traces, while working for Stewart. The police in Venice have no clues about what happened. The couple involve Greta in psychological and sexual games, but if Greta's suspicions are right she may be playing a very dangerous game."Alla Ricerca del Piacere" is thrilling and sensuous at the same time. The lesbian scenes played by Rosalba Neri and Barbara Bouchet are fantastic. Throughout the whole film an atmosphere of ambiguity prevails. Relations grow and seem to fade, threats hover around and nothing is sure. There are other characters in the film: A silent butler, always present when one least expects and who seems to have a thousand eyes; and a gigantic and menacing fisherman who is their neighbor and is always walking around.Sally, Greta's missing friend, (Patrizia Viotti) appears is some flashbacks. In one scene she is bathing under a waterfall with Greta. Both are naked (of course!), embracing themselves, kissing and laughing a lot. They seem very happy! In another flashback, Sally is dancing and seducing - a scene that reminded me of an old song that said; "don't play with me cause you're playing with fire". The scene is fabulous. Patrizia Viotti should have had her place among the giallo female stars, but some years later she disappeared from the screen.This film is a small gem, but it's hard to find it in DVD. My DVD is from "Eurovista - Digital Entertainment". The DVD seems to have been copied from a VHS tape - it is not what one would call a good quality DVD, but still it is watchable (if you care about the film and not about technicalities).A good, weird and suspenseful story plus very sexy actresses. And there's Venice too. Everything is allowed under the venetian skies. What more do you want? So don't look back and go for it.