| The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review |
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THE TENTH VICTIM
(La Decima Vittima)
Rating:  ½
Italy. 1965.
Director – Elio Petri, Screenplay – Elio Petri, Ennio Flaiano, Tonino Guerra & Giorgio Salvoni, Based on the Short Story The Seventh Victim by Robert Sheckley, Producer– Carlo Ponti, Photography – Gianni De Venanzo, Music – Piero Piccioni, Production Design – Guilio Coltallacci. Production Company – Avco/Champion/Ponti.
Cast:
Marcello Mastroianni (Marcello Polletti), Ursula Andress (Caroline Meredith), Massimo Serato (Lawyer), Elsa Martinelli (Olga), Luce Bonifassy (Lidia)
Plot: In the 21st Century, a form of legalized killing known as The Big Hunt has been introduced. Contestants alternate either as Hunters or Victims with the winner of the round being the one that kills the other. The survivors of each hunt gain vast financial rewards if they can rack up ten kills. As one game reaches its climax, Caroline Meredith is paired against Marcello Polletti, although he doesn’t know who his Hunter is. Both sell the outcome of their particular game as a tv commercial and try to maneuver the other into position in Rome for the coup de grace, only to realize during the course of such that they are falling for one another.
This Italian sf film is an interesting pop artifact. It is an adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s novella The Seventh Victim (1953) – three victims presumably having been added to the title so as not to confuse the title with the Vale Lewton witchcraft thriller The Seventh Victim (1943). The actual story, which concentrates on Marcello Mastroianni’s various money and women problems and Ursula Andress’s pursuit of him and her absurdly straight-face reasons for trying to get him to the Temple of Venus for the commercial, is rather uninteresting – and not at all helped by Mastroianni’s bored playing. It is only during about the last quarter where one is not sure who is outmaneuvering who and who is falling in love with whom that the story gains any life.
And while the story is not that interesting – and the two central characters certainly aren’t – the film remains watchable for its background. Its portrait of the society is delivered amusingly tongue-in-cheek. Ads promoting the Hunt go: “If you’re suicidal the Hunt has a place for you. Why have Birth Control when you can have Death Control?” And there is a deadpan drollness to some of the killings like the bra with built-in gun and explosive riding boots. The film deliberately goes for a pop look in a way that only the 1960s could have – the sets and costumes are virtually all blinding white; a pair of sunglasses have been designed as a helmet that wraps around the entire head; mini-skirts come entirely backless or as ventilated strips; a tv set comes built into a wall and screens only the image of an eye blinking; and, for no apparent reason, a temple is empty but for two Black jazz musicians lying down and playing on black boxes.
This is a film that is probably well overdue a remake – and one could certainly see going down well as a contemporary action blockbuster. The premise was used as the basis of the fine reality tv show parody Series 7: The Contenders (2001).
Other adaptations of Robert Sheckley’s books include the Disney superhero spoof Condorman (1981) and the future body-snatching/time-travel film Freejack (1992). While not particularly well represented on the big screen, Sheckley’s science-fiction has a witty sense of the absurd.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1993
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