Last year, I was thinking of purchasing a Blu-Ray copy of this film via a well-known auction site. For some reason, my instincts said not to - and I always follow my instincts. As luck would have it, I managed to see the film through another means.
The plot, such as it is, starts off simple. A newlywed couple return to the husband's home in Geneva. Soon after, the husband hears that his ex-girlfriend has died and is accused of murder. Later, the wife receives a phone call in which the mysterious caller tells her she will die to pay for her husband's apparent crime.
The plot becomes a lot more convoluted as is customary with gialli. The twists are admittedly good. I saw some of them coming, but not all. Unfortunately, however, there is no dramatic unveiling of these twists like you see in Lenzi's films or Argento's films. Expect no flashbacks to clues to the mystery or anything like that. The twists are just unveiled in a "here you are" fashion.
The central problem with this film is that, while it looks like a classic old-fashioned giallo of the Umberto Lenzi kind, it is incredibly slow and boring. Lenzi's gialli were generally slow, but he generally kept you engaged with bits of sleaze, character conflict, sudden turns in the plot or just a plain good mystery.
The director of this film doesn't follow the Lenzi approach. Instead, he produces what is for at least the first hour a boring melodrama with endless scenes of the couple kissing, rolling about on the lawn, driving around places in their car, sitting in bars doing not very much. Sound boring? It is. Even the sex scenes are boring.
I look upon Carroll Baker as a good contender for the title of "Queen of Gialli", even though I believe Edwige Fenech and Dagmar Lassander to have starred in better entries in the genre. Unfortunately, she is given little to do here except look glamorous and flash her breasts in seemingly every alternate scene. She was very beautiful and is a delight to look at. But this film totally wastes her talent. In the far superior, KNIFE OF ICE, a Lenzi-directed Giallo, she is given an opportunity to show what we can do acting-wise - and it's great. Again, this is because Lenzi knows how to make a film.
Jean Sorel walks through the film with the same expression on his face in every scene. I don't blame him. His character is boring too - nothing like the part he played in IN THE EYES OF THE HURRICANE (aka LUSTY LOVERS), a far better film.
The only positives I can say about THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH are that it is technically well-made, and the last 25 minutes or so make for reasonably good viewing.
If you want a good old-fashioned giallo of the non-gloved killer variety then I recommend KNIFE OF ICE, which Baker also stars in. Or maybe even THE FOURTH VICTIM, again starring Baker, opposite great British actor Michael Craig.
If you want one with both Baker and Sorel in it, watch A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (aka PARANOIA).
There are lots of other good "gloveless" gialli such as THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION, NO ONE HEARD THE SCREAM, CROSS CURRENT, HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON, TOP SENSATION, THE PSYCHIC (aka SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, MURDER TO THE TUNE OF SEVEN BLACK NOTES) and THE STUDENT CONNECTION, to name just a few. They are all better than THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH, even though they are all quite slow-paced.
The bottom line - THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH is a boring entry into the giallo genre. It should have been directed by Umberto Lenzi. He would have breathed some life into it, instead of us being left with the dead corpse of a film we got.
The plot, such as it is, starts off simple. A newlywed couple return to the husband's home in Geneva. Soon after, the husband hears that his ex-girlfriend has died and is accused of murder. Later, the wife receives a phone call in which the mysterious caller tells her she will die to pay for her husband's apparent crime.
The plot becomes a lot more convoluted as is customary with gialli. The twists are admittedly good. I saw some of them coming, but not all. Unfortunately, however, there is no dramatic unveiling of these twists like you see in Lenzi's films or Argento's films. Expect no flashbacks to clues to the mystery or anything like that. The twists are just unveiled in a "here you are" fashion.
The central problem with this film is that, while it looks like a classic old-fashioned giallo of the Umberto Lenzi kind, it is incredibly slow and boring. Lenzi's gialli were generally slow, but he generally kept you engaged with bits of sleaze, character conflict, sudden turns in the plot or just a plain good mystery.
The director of this film doesn't follow the Lenzi approach. Instead, he produces what is for at least the first hour a boring melodrama with endless scenes of the couple kissing, rolling about on the lawn, driving around places in their car, sitting in bars doing not very much. Sound boring? It is. Even the sex scenes are boring.
I look upon Carroll Baker as a good contender for the title of "Queen of Gialli", even though I believe Edwige Fenech and Dagmar Lassander to have starred in better entries in the genre. Unfortunately, she is given little to do here except look glamorous and flash her breasts in seemingly every alternate scene. She was very beautiful and is a delight to look at. But this film totally wastes her talent. In the far superior, KNIFE OF ICE, a Lenzi-directed Giallo, she is given an opportunity to show what we can do acting-wise - and it's great. Again, this is because Lenzi knows how to make a film.
Jean Sorel walks through the film with the same expression on his face in every scene. I don't blame him. His character is boring too - nothing like the part he played in IN THE EYES OF THE HURRICANE (aka LUSTY LOVERS), a far better film.
The only positives I can say about THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH are that it is technically well-made, and the last 25 minutes or so make for reasonably good viewing.
If you want a good old-fashioned giallo of the non-gloved killer variety then I recommend KNIFE OF ICE, which Baker also stars in. Or maybe even THE FOURTH VICTIM, again starring Baker, opposite great British actor Michael Craig.
If you want one with both Baker and Sorel in it, watch A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (aka PARANOIA).
There are lots of other good "gloveless" gialli such as THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION, NO ONE HEARD THE SCREAM, CROSS CURRENT, HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON, TOP SENSATION, THE PSYCHIC (aka SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, MURDER TO THE TUNE OF SEVEN BLACK NOTES) and THE STUDENT CONNECTION, to name just a few. They are all better than THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH, even though they are all quite slow-paced.
The bottom line - THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH is a boring entry into the giallo genre. It should have been directed by Umberto Lenzi. He would have breathed some life into it, instead of us being left with the dead corpse of a film we got.