Un Posto Ideale per Uccidere- Dirty Pictures, Oasis of Fear

Written by Joe D on February 17th, 2008

vlcsnap-2463176.png
I just watched Umberto Lenzi’s Un Posto Ideale Per Uccidere AKA Dirty Pictures or the english title I prefer Oasis Of Fear. This is a great film! The cast is superb, Ray Lovelock, in perhaps his greatest role, Ornella Muti, so young, so beautiful, so innocent and so sexy, Irene Papas, so dark, so severe, so attractive, like a sexy Greek witch.
vlcsnap-2465365.png
vlcsnap-2938405.pngvlcsnap-2479730.png

This movie is a little like Hansel and Gretel with a sexy witch enticing our two innocent children into her gingerbread house, although the house isn’t made of gingerbread, candy canes, gumdrops, spun sugar. It’s made of champagne, caviar, exotic, erotic clothes, cigarettes, psychedelic music, and sex. Our story begins in Denmark where our two hippie love children are on holiday. They see the sights, run around Copenhagen and cavort like extras in a Dava Clark Five movie. But suddenly the Italian genre sensibility kicks in. They go into a Sex Shoppe, buy a ton of porno mags and bring them back to Italy to sell so they can pay for their vacation.
vlcsnap-2464124.png
This works out great, they’re rich, they live like hippie Gods in Italy, eating at fancy restaurants, feeding champagne to cats, releasing doves at stuffy establishments, dancing at psychedelic discos, just having fun. There’s a scene that I find fascinating. At one point Ray sells a 45 record of people having sex to a foppish rich guy on a yacht.
vlcsnap-2469882.png
vlcsnap-2469968.png Is That Moana Climax and the Heavy Breathers?

I’ve heard of “porno records” but I’ve never seen one. Frank Zappa was once busted for producing a “pornographic recording” and selling it to an undercover cop. Did people actually sit around at a stag party and listen to a record of people having sex? I heard Mickey Cohen bugged Johnny Stompanto’s bedroom and recorded Johnny and Lana Turner going at it.
mickey-fiance.png
You wanna go listen to a record?
johnny-stomp.pngJohnny Stomp
20070712044439lana_turner_in_the_postman_always_rings_twice_trailer_2.jpgOooooh Johnny, You Bug Me!
The Mickster made a ton of money selling pressings to Hollywood hipsters to play at Tinseltown shindigs. But back to Oasis of Fear, our two heroic hippies run out of cash and decide to produce their own dirty pictures starring themselves,
vlcsnap-2473938.png
they do but they get busted in Pisa trying to sell their wares and are told to leave the country,
vlcsnap-2474541.pngIs that the leaning tower of Pisa or are you just happy to see me?

they hit the road in their old MG and run out of gas out in the country. They spy the beautiful estate of the wicked witch and push their car in hoping to get some gas.
vlcsnap-2478392.png
At first Ms. Pappas tries to run them off, but then mysteriously she switches gears and invites them in. She offers them refreshments of all sorts, access to her copious closets of exotic outfits. Ornella dons an Eastern sari, she looks incredible, a vision from the Orient and she dances to a sitar record like a shimmering jewel.
vlcsnap-29382101.png
at one point Irene looks at her through a cut crystal goblet and we get a telidoscopic view of Ornella’s bare breasts spinning psychedelically before our eyes.
vlcsnap-2939171.png
vlcsnap-3679423.png
A bare chested Ray assumes various Yogic poses at the command of Ms. Muti, The Lion, The Cobra, ” We are each other’s total slaves” he says to a bemused Irene.
vlcsnap-2479446.png
vlcsnap-2479794.png
A heady brew of sexual intrigue is bubbling furiously on the stove when murder and treachery rear their ugly heads. I’m not going to reveal what happens, YOU must seek out this film to find out for yourself. One of the aspects of this film I find so appealing is the summoning up of a bygone time. The 60’s, the Age Of Aquarius, the Innocence of these two young beautiful people perfectly captures that time and let’s us re-expieience it, like a fly in amber or Ruth Gordon’s scent collection in Harold and Maude. There is a dance scene with a rock band playing and our heroes frugging and watusiying their hearts out. It captures the energy of that time perfectly.
vlcsnap-2470666.png
vlcsnap-2470960.png
You can feel what it was like to be alive then. To feel like the world was yours, sex and music were a magic carpet to fly you around the globe.
vlcsnap-2472004.png
vlcsnap-2470872.png
This is the birthright of every person, an ideal we’ve lost touch with today. This is one reson why films like this are important. They’re the Dead Sea Scrolls of the hippie era. We can all learn a lot about the Spirit of that Age. This is also a reason why I feel Lenzi is a great filmmaker. His film resonates with truth, true senasations, what a real person would feel, not some corporate crap selected by a demographic computer print out. There’s a dance scene in Mike Hodges’ great Get Carter that rings true with the same soul transporting realism. He also is a great filmmaker and you can tell from details like this. But for me the stars of this film are the stars. Lovelock and Muti are so captivating, so charming, you really care about them. And Irene Pappas is so evil, she’s great! The score is by Bruno Lauzi, a pop star singer. It’s great, melodic, moody, jazzy. Even the pop song that’s used in the film is excellent. It works , it’s got a hook, it grabs you and you dig it. I think the Marc 4 played on this song because the bassline is so ass kickingly funky and hip, it must be the incomparable Maurizio Maiorana.
vlcsnap-2476252.png
Looky here I just found the opening credits on YouTube!

7 Comments so far ↓

  1. Feb
    17
    7:20
    PM
    FilmWalrus

    I will still along way from being born in the 1960’s, but my fascination with the era is only fed by the disparity with my own background. Oasis of Fear sounds like a great time (even a little gaillo-esque), and I’ll have to seek it out. Any hints as to where to start?

  2. Feb
    18
    2:13
    AM
    admin

    My Dear Walrus,
    You can buy a DVD-R here: http://www.rezarected.com/giallo-italian-horror/oasis-of-fear-umberto-lenzi-1971-/prod_262.html
    or I can send you a DVD if you like.

  3. Feb
    18
    2:14
    PM
    FilmWalrus

    For the price, I might as well put one more film on my shelves that will leave guests scratching their heads.

  4. Feb
    18
    7:25
    PM
    admin

    This film isn’t really a giallo, no black gloved masked killer with a razor. It falls into the “People trapped in a House with Sex & Murder” category. Rocky Horror, The Black Cat, The Lickerish Quartet, Amok, even The Exterminating Angel. The list would be gigantic.

  5. Feb
    20
    2:23
    PM
    cinebeats

    This sounds really fabulous! Plus it has super foxy Ray Lovelock in “perhaps his greatest role” ?!!!!!!!? Obviously I need to see this… and soon!

  6. Feb
    20
    4:37
    PM
    admin

    Ray and Ornella are super sexy and charming! Their sensuality and beauty is heightened by the costumes and Technicolor film process. This movie is a fairy tale for adults.

  7. Apr
    30
    5:56
    AM
    Francis Beltronics

    This film is a classic and a must have collection and put it in your shelves. Love it!

Spruce up your comments with
<a href="" title=""><abbr title=""><acronym title=""><b><blockquote cite=""><cite><code><del datetime=""><em><i><q cite=""><s><strike><strong>
All comments are moderated before being shown * = required field

Leave a Comment