Arabella Black Angel
| Arabella Black Angel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Stelvio Massi |
| Screenplay by | R. Filippucci[1] |
| Story by | R. Filippucci[1] |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Stefano Catalano[1] |
| Edited by | Cesare Bianchini[1] |
| Music by | Serfran[1] |
Production company | Arpa International S.r.l.[1] |
Release date |
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| Country | Italy[1] |
| Language | Italian[2] |
Arabella Black Angel (Italian: Arabella l'angelo nero, lit. 'Arabella the Black Angel') is a 1989 Italian film directed by Stelvio Massi. The film stars Tinì Cansino as an unsatisfied married woman who lives a double life as a sex worker. She finds herself the main suspect in a series of murders and attempts to find the real killer.
Plot Summary[edit]
Deborah Veronesi, evading a career blackmailer named Nick stalking her, goes to a warehouse sex party to partake in the activities, as her husband, Francesco, who was paralyzed on their wedding day, wants new writing material. The vice squad raids the warehouse and detains everyone, except for Deborah, who hides for her chance to escape. But a cop, Alfonso de Rosa, stayed behind to apprehend her, and, believing she's a prostitute, he wants to cuff her and force her over his car hood, where he rapes her while Nuck takes photos. He lets Deborah go after, and she speeds off, leaving her purse for de Rosa to find.
The next morning, Deborah evades another of Francesco's angry fits, flashing back to when she gave him a blow job in their car, which caused the crash that paralyzed him. De Rosa arrives, having tracked Deborah down, and he apologizes for not realizing she's a "respectable" woman. However, he wants more sex, threatening to tell Francesco about her arrest as blackmail if he doesn't abuse her as he likes. Deborah takes de Rosa to an outdoor storage shack, and when Francesco sees de Rosa with his face in Deborah's pelvis, Deborah kills the cop with a mallet blow to the head. The couple buries de Rosa in the yard, confident no one will be looking for him.
Francesco is inspired and decides to order Deborah to prostitute herself to various men, as he wants to write a book on a sultry female lead Francesco wants Deborah to become. Deborah objects repeatedly to his demands throughout the situation, but he makes her keep going no matter how objectified and ashamed he feels. Francesco's mother Martha, in the meantime, keeps the house together and warmly cares for the couple.
Nick calls someone about his photos of Deborah and de Rosa once he's reported missing, only for Nick to be stabbed with scissors by an unseen attacker. He's then castrated when he dies. Deborah is picked up by a man at a Western-themed bar, and when they go to a hotel room, Deborah pools champagne over her naked body, and then the two make love. After she leaves, the killer stabs and emasculates the man after shoving him into the hotel room. The leading investigator, Gena Fowler, is haunted by the crime scene, as the case evokes how her mother killed her father when she was a child. For most of her life, Gena has had nightmares of being stabbed and sexually mutilated as a consequence of her trauma. Things worsen when Agnese Borden, a journalist and Gena's girlfriend, publicizes revealing details of Gena's involvement, laughing and insulting her before they break up. Gena knows Borden is out to meet the killer, so they have a confrontation and violent fight at the park where the meeting is arranged, before Gena storms away. When night falls, the killer cuts Borden's throat with the scissors and mutilates her genitals.
In a final escapade, Francesco has Deborah pick up a male street prostitute, while he follows them, in a revelation that he was faking his paralysis. Simultaneously, Gena reunits with her estranged mother, revealed to be Martha, who she didn't see for years when Martha was institutionalized. They drive together while Gena makes a call to the police, but Martha speeds off in the car. After Deborah is done with the sex worker, Francesco appears, shocking Deborah with how he can still walk. He confesses he faked a condition for creative ideas, which ultimately failed, demanding Deborah keep providing inspiration for him. When she refuses due to his lies, Francesco rapes her while making sexually charged threats. The killer stabs him to death, at that point revealed to be Martha, who's shocked to have killed her son. Deborah meets Gena, who tells her Martha never understood sex and had an enraged mania that drove her to kill, reassuring Deborah it's not her fault. Deborah is last seen back at the sex club, making out with the members as she was when she first arrived.
Cast[edit]
Cast adapted from Blood & Black Lace.[1]
- Tinì Cansino as Arabella/Deborah Veronesi
- Valentina Visconti as Gena Fowler
- Francesco Casale as Francesco J. Veronesi
- Carlo Mucari as De Rosa
- Renato D'Amore as Scognamillo
- Ida Galli as Martha Veronesi
Production[edit]
Stelvio Massi was working on post-production on the film Taxi Killer when the producer announced the film had gone bankrupt, leading the film to be shelved. Massi moved on to direct Arabella Black Angel under the name of "Max Steel".[3]
The film stars Tinì Cansino, who was best known in Italy for her appearances on the television series Drive In.[3]
Release[edit]
Arabella Black Angel was released in 1989.[3][4] It was released by Penthouse Video in Japan under the English title of Black Angel with an 88-minute running time.[1] Vinegar Syndrome released the film as Arabella Black Angel as part of their Forgotten Gialli: Volume Four box set along with The Killer is Still Among Us and The Sister of Ursula.[2]
Reception[edit]
From retrospective reviews, critic and film historian Roberto Curti found the film to be derivative of Ken Russel's Crimes of Passion (1984) and finding it bared no trace of the visual flair Massi had showcased in the past. Curti also found Cansino's acting weak when performing the more sexual scenes in the film.[3] Adrian Luther Smith in his book Blood & Black Lace also noted that Massi "seems happy to wade around in the script's sex and violence" while finding Cansino to be what weakens the film, referring to her as an "unassured actress."[1]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Luther Smith 1999, p. 8.
- ^ a b "Forgotten Gialli: Volume Four". Vinegar Syndrome. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Curti 2022, p. 391.
- ^ Curti 2022, p. 9.
Sources[edit]
- Curti, Roberto (2022). Italian Giallo in Film and Television. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-8248-8.
- Luther Smith, Adrian (1999). Blood & Black Lace. Stray Cat Publishing. ISBN 0-9533261-1-X.
