''Amuck!'' ( it, Alla ricerca del piacere, lit=In Pursuit of Pleasure) is an Italian ''

giallo In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...

'' film written and directed by

Silvio Amadio Silvio Amadio (8 August 1926 – 19 August 1995) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 24 films between 1957 and 1981. His film '' Wolves of the Deep'' was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. He is ...

Plot

Greta, a beautiful blonde American, is hired as the new secretary to Richard Stuart, a famous novelist who lives on an island near Venice with his wife Eleanora. Sally, the previous secretary, had disappeared without a trace. Unbeknownst to Richard and Eleanora, Greta has taken the job in order to investigate the disappearance of her lover, Sally. Greta learns that Sally was accidentally killed in the heat of passion during one of the kinky sex games the Stuarts hold in their mansion occasionally; a hulking man-brute named Rocco lost control and strangled the girl. The bizarre couple then kills their butler when he attempts to blackmail them over the incident. All that remains is for Greta to be disposed of, then the crimes will never be uncovered. Eleanora lures Greta into a three-way private orgy with Rocco and herself, in an attempt to get the easily excited Rocco to repeat his careless crime of passion one last time.

Cast

Farley Granger Farley Earle Granger Jr. (July 1, 1925 – March 27, 2011) was an American actor, best known for his two collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock: ''Rope'' in 1948 and '' Strangers on a Train'' in 1951. Granger was first noticed in a small ...

as Richard Stuart *

Barbara Bouchet Barbara Bouchet (born Bärbel Gutscher; 15 August 1943)
glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com; ...

as Greta Franklin *

Rosalba Neri Rosalba Neri (born 19 June 1939) is a retired Italian actress. Early life Born in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Neri was regarded for her beauty even in youth, winning a beauty pageant when she was still young. Eventually pursuing an acting ca ...

as Eleanora Stuart *

Umberto Raho Umberto Raho (4 June 1922 – 9 January 2016) was an Italian stage, film and television actor. Life and career Born in Bari, the son of an Italian father and a Bulgarian mother, Raho graduated in philosophy and then, immediately after the w ...

as Giovanni, the butler *

Patrizia Viotti Patrizia Viotti (1950–1994) was an Italian glamour model and film actress. She first gained attention in 1969 through her relationship with the singer Mal Ryder, who she met at the Piper Club in Rome , established_title = Founded , ...

as Sally Reece * Dino Mele as Sandro * Petar Martinovic as Rocco * Nino Segurini as Commissary Antonelli

Production

The original working titles for the film included ''Replica de un delitto'' () and ''Il passo dell'assassino'' (). In his book on Italian ''gialli'', Troy Howarth described the film as belonging to the trend of "sexy-trashy gialli" opposed to burgeoning films influenced by the films of Dario Argento. Film historian Roberto Curti echoed this statement, that along with Amadio's '' Smile Before Death'' (1972) were variations on the erotic ''gialli'' of the late-1960s.

Release

''Amuck!'' was first released in 1972. The film was released theatrically in the United States as ''Maniac Mansion'' in the United Kingdom as ''Hot Bed of Sex''. It was released by Something Weird Video on home video as ''Leather and Whips''.

Reception

From contemporary reviews, David McGillivray of the ''

Monthly Film Bulletin ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with ...

'' reviewed an 81-minute version of the film titled ''Hot Bed of Sex''. McGillivray stated the film was "cluttered with preposterous suspects" and "ham-fisted attempts at building suspense." From retrospective reviews, Adrian Luther-Smith wrote in his book ''Blood and Black Lace'' defined the film as "another seductive erotic thriller from

" recommending it to admirers of

and

Barbara Bouchet Barbara Bouchet (born Bärbel Gutscher; 15 August 1943)
glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com; ...

while finding the score occasionally resembled an episode of '' Star Trek'' and that "the sedate Seventies pace may be too slow for viewers brought up on a diet of MTV and bombastic Hollywood hyperbole."

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * 1972 films 1970s English-language films 1970s erotic thriller films English-language Italian films Films about writers Films directed by Silvio Amadio Giallo films Italian erotic thriller films 1970s Italian films {{thriller-film-stub