La tarantola dal ventre nero

Paolo Cavara (1926-1982) has given his contribution to the Italian Giallo genre with the movies “La tarantola dal ventre nero“ (aka „Black Belly of the Tarantula”) from 1971 and „… e tanta paura” from 1976. “La tarantola dal ventre nero” tells the story of an inspector who investigates serial crimes where victims are paralyzed while having their bellies ripped open with a sharp knife, similar way tarantulas are killed by the black wasp. Under the pressure of conspiracy and of personal problems the inspector quits his job, but still manages to detect the brutal murderer. Paolo Cavara’s professional directing is supported by a notable cast. In the first instance Giancarlo Giannini’s performance merits a special mention. He perfectly embodies the character of inspector Tellini transmitting the anguish and tension. The women victims are played by the most beautiful actresses of the 70s: Barbara Bouchet, Claudine Auger, Stefania Sandrelli and Barbara Bach: their destiny is to become sufferers of the sadistic murderer. “La tarantola dal ventre nero” is an enthralling giallo that draws a lot of tension (accompanied by a sumptuous score by M° Morricone) thanks to the professionalism by a director who manages to realize a high quality movie over the mediocrity of some 70’s movies of the same genre. “La tarantola dal ventre nero” is the sixth volume of Digitmovies’ series dedicated to Ennio Morricone’s music for the giallo genre. This CD project was made possible through the generous cooperation of C.A.M. (in whose archives the original stereophonic master tapes have been preserved) and through the help of Maestro Ennio Morricone who authorized every selected track and supervised the production. Ennio Morricone wrote a dissonant orchestral comment based on a varied scale acoustic and electronic musical experimentation. The macabre atmosphere is broken by two romantic lounge-style themes featuring the splendid voice by Edda Dell’Orso: the main title theme “Coiffeur pour dames” (tr.1, and its alternative reprise in tr.12) and a more sad, veiled theme for flugel horn and Edda’s voice (Tr.4, Tr.8, Tr.15). The horrible murder scenes are emphasized by avant-garde tension music like Tr.2,Tr.4,Tr.5,Tr.9. Some selections from the score were already available on the 33 rpm album Cerberus CEM-S0116, re-issued later on the CD C.A.M. CSE056, while track 6 & 7 were exclusively available on rare sonorization LPs of C.A.M. (CML 022 & CML 023).