Ruptured Review: The Sister of Ursula

Country of origin- Italy  
Year of release- 1978
Director- Enzo Milioni
Stars- Barbara Magnolfi, Stefania D'Amario, Anna Zinnemann

The film focuses upon two Austrian sisters Dagmar and Ursula who are holidaying along the Amalfi coast in Italy, in the hope of finding their long lost mother in order to share with her the inheritance from their father’s recent death. Although why they think a week long holiday will help them is never really explained. The two book into a large expensive hotel run by the oh so sleazy Mr. Delleri. Soon after arriving it becomes clear that Ursula is slightly disturbed, as begins to talk of her premonitions of murder and bloodshed which are quickly dismissed by her sister.

On the night of their arrival both sisters are taken to the hotel’s nightclub by the aforementioned Mr. Delleri who introduces them to the beautiful and very badly dubbed Stella Shining, which is a porn star name if there ever was one. And the shady Filippo who Ursula takes an instant dislike to and begins to develop paranoid fantasies about. Later that night we see a masked and leather gloved man who hires a local hooker as he wants to be a voyeur while she has sex with another man, she agrees and he hides behind the curtains in her room to watch the proceedings unfold. This is the first sex scene in the film and frankly it almost goes beyond the normal standards of softcore and stands on the borderline of hardcore, this is something that corps up in every one of the many sex scenes in the film. After the hooker is finished, the masked man steps out from behind the curtains and without an ounce of mercy kills the woman. The next morning Ursula’s paranoia and premonitions worsen, and continue to do so as the bodies begin to stack up.

This film had a good deal of potential. Both its stunningly beautiful setting, which is often nicely presented by the films good quality cinematography, and the often interesting character of Ursula could have been interesting plot devices in a less self-absorbed film. But unfortunately this film has an almost perverted obsession with visual indulgence that becomes very tiresome very quickly and puts the ‘killer on the loose’ aspect of the film into a near subplot position. Whether it be the numerous panoramic views which after a while become very repetitive, or the sleazy glamour of the hotel’s interior this film wants to show it all and show it often. It may do this to try and fill out an otherwise fairly empty by-the-books plot which features mostly vapid unlikable characters that I felt nothing for as they were murdered in often nearly bloodless ways. Of course a big aspect of this film is the sleaze, which didn’t feel sleazy, yes it did often border on hardcore but I didn’t come away from the film with the same urge to wash off the grime as I did with other sleazy Giallo’s such as Strip Nude for Your Killer. All the sex scenes in this one were annoyingly long winded and generally shoddy in both acting and delivery. Although seeing the talented Stefania D'Amario masturbating with a gold chain was interesting. Overall this was a rather disappointing film that left me annoyed by just how empty it all was, unless you’re a Giallo completest this isn’t really worth your time, it gets a 3.5 from me.