THE DOUBLE (1971)

3 stars

Radiance Films. 4K UHD. 20th July

Italian title: La controfigura

THE DOUBLE is a weird one, as it is often described as a giallo thriller, but for much of it it plays out more like a soap opera!

Director Romolo Guerreri had previously explored this sub genre in 1968’s THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH. The film under review here has a screenplay by Alessandro Continenza and Sauro Scavolini based on the novel ‘La controfigura’ by Libero Bigiaretti.

Intriguingly it starts with Giovanni (Jean Sorel) driving his car into an underground car park – there a mysterious, frightened looking man pulls out a gun and shoots him. As he falls to the ground in slow motion, Giovanni’s life flashes before him…

He is on holiday with his wife Lucia (the gorgeous Ewa Aulin), on a beach in Morocco. They go nude swimming and make love (hope they don’t get sand anywhere unnecessary). Whilst there they spot hippie type Eddie (Sergio Doria) who has setup his tent with his funky VW Beetle. Lucia seems fascinated by him, which makes her husband jealous and angry and leads to an argument.

Somewhat confusingly a dead body is found on the beach which looks like Eddie but isn’t. This is already doing my head in!

They hang out with their friends Roger (Silvano Tranquilli) and Marie (Marilù Tolo) which much flirting going on. Then Lucia’s mother Nora (Lucia Bosè) turns up, with Giovanni finding her attractive. Meanwhile Eddie keeps popping up in the background.

What’s going on? The storyline jumps about with little cohesion and appears to be more about who is hooking up with who than anything resembling a thriller with a mystery – though it does keep cutting back to Giovanni in his death throes in the subterranean garage.

Fascinatingly odd in many ways, it is attractive to look at, even if the script doesn’t make much sense. Who is the bearded man from the opener and why has he targeted Giovanni? Partway through things do flip, though I am not going to spoil it here – it is still isn’t very coherent. The music score by Armando Trovajoli is notable

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS

Audio commentary by Tim Lucas

Archival interview with director Romolo Guerrieri and star Eva Aulin newly edited for this release

Appreciation by author Stephen Thrower

Easter egg

Plus Reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original posters and limited edition booklet featuring new writing by author and critic Nathaniel Thompson

Limited edition of 3000 copies