ii - Curvaceous, scantily clad and "sexually liberated" young women, sensuously cavorting, as the Italian erotic maestro steadily becomes more and more infatuated by their derriere, as in many of his later outings such as The Key, Paprika, Miranda or All Ladies Do It.

However, back in 1967, long before Brass had sealed a reputation in erotic cinema circles to rival that of Radley Metzger or Walerian Borowczyk, he embarked upon a lesser known thriller - Deadly Sweet (originally released in Italy as Col cuore in gola), adapted from a novel by Sergio Donati - himself a successful screen writer, working on films such as Once Upon a Time in the West , For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dynamite, amongst numerous others.

Seeing a welcome release from Cult Epics on DVD, the film is being marketed as a “Sexy Giallo Thriller”, which maybe isn’t entirely accurate. While the film certainly has some comparative qualities to the average gialli, such as a reasonably twisting plotline and the odd red herring, it lacks many of the required key elements, such as the numerous and bloody set piece murders, that are often seen as a defining factor of the gillio style. Instead, what we primarily have with Deadly Sweet is an off-beat thriller, which seemingly takes its queue from (and makes more than the odd passing reference to) Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up (1966), while using various elements of various crime sub-genres and turns them on their head, in an attempt to subvert the crime genre as a whole.

After the initial opening scenes of Jane Burroughs (17 year old Swedish beauty contest winner, Eva Aulin - seen the following year in Candy) and her brother Jerome (Charles Kohler) accompanying their mother to a morgue to identify their father’s body, we’re thrown into a vibrant London club scene. While Jane is trying to dance her cares away, she comes to the attention of Bernard (Jean-Louis Trintignant of Three Colours Red and Umberto’s Lenzi’s So Sweet… So Perverse), a visiting French actor.

Finding that his credit refused at the club’s bar, Bernard makes his way to the upstairs office to speak with the owner, only to find him dead on the floor and Jane cowering in a corner. Pleading her innocence to Bernard, Jane says that she believes the men responsible are those also involved in her father’s death. Now being in the frame for the murder themselves, the pair go on the run with the police and some rather unsavoury thugs on their trail, as they try to get to the bottom of the mystery in true amateur sleuth style.

From this point on the film rapidly morphs into a kitsch ride through 60's swinging London, overflowing with Pop Art styling (courtesy of legendary erotic artist, Guido Crepax) which brings to mind Roy Lichtenstein’s artwork.   Accompanied by a psychedelic soundtrack from Armando Trovajoli, this creates an overall ultra-hip background for love on the run. Alongside the vibrant use of colour, sharp cinematography (courtesy of longstanding Brass collaborator, Silvano Ippoliti, working on his first project with the director), numerous visual gags, fast cut editing and split screens, the film also skips into black and white sequences that are somewhat intentionally reminiscent of Film Noir, or more so Le Nouvelle Vague.

The DVD blurb states that the film could also be seen to have a Cinema Fumetti style that pre-dates Danger Diabolik and Barbarella. This is true in part as Deadly Sweet certainly does have some comic book qualities during the split screen sections of the movie, however this isn’t entirely consistent and it’s simply used as another ingredient thrown into a diverse mix. Besides this claim, the European Fumetti influence can be seen more prominently in Umberto Lenzi’s Kriminal from the previous year, when even then it was hardly a new concept.

It has to be said that amongst this glorious concoction of numerous visual styles, Deadly Sweet’s plot is rather marginalized; long sequences that are purely about swimming in the eye candy elements of the film totally sidetrack the story from moving forwards, which however seem to be Brass’ intent - approaching the typical crime thriller genre from a far more avant-garde mindset. Amongst these visually geared settings Aulin and Trintignant blend in perfectly; Aulin is simply stunning to look at (which of course Brass’ capitalises upon as much as possible) and Trintignant plays the almost Bogart-esque role in the required Alain Delon, ultra-cool manner. The couple’s chemistry certainly works well and this plays no small part in making the film a success. The duo later went on to star together in Guilio Questi’s off-beat giallo, Death Laid an Egg.

As a side note, those who also enjoy picking out bit-part cast members may spot a young Darth Vader himself, an uncredited David Prowse, alongside an appearance from British journalist / producer Janet Street-Porter (who had also appeared in Blow Up as one of her only other film credits).

Of course, the fact that the film is so visually driven could make it an acquired taste - certainly those expecting Brass’ later brand of soft-core erotica or anyone out to see numerous black gloved killings ala Bava or Argento could be sadly disappointed. Deadly Sweet is far more suited to an audience who enjoy their cinema to be very much about a visual experience… and if the swinging 60's psychedelic counter-culture, Pop Art visuals and European kitsch are your thing, you could do far worse than giving this earlier Brass outing your attention.

This Cult Epics release is the restored Director's Cut, which is probably the most complete version that could be assembled from the various surviving edits of the film. As with most of their releases, the overall quality of picture is pretty good throughout, although some small amount of ghosting is evident from time to time due to the PAL to NTSC conversion. The Italian mono soundtrack is pretty strong throughout, with a great English language commentary track from Brass, giving plenty of informative background on casting, shooting and his decisions in blending cinematic styles, as well as discussing working with Guido Crepax.