Beautiful blonde Barbara Bouchet runs Amuck! in a novelist’s Venetian din of inequity, while trying to solve her lesbian lover’s disappearance! If that doesn’t sound like a rip-roaring good time aboard the giallo express, I don’t know what does.
Trust me, Amuck! is most definitely a blast. This Eurotrash sleazefest is chock full of nudity, including a show-stopping, slow-motion lesbian sex scene with Bouchet drugged and writhing on the bed as Rosalba Niri has her way with the nubile blonde beauty. Let’s be real; it’s a rape scene. But this was the ‘70s, so it’s played purely as seduction for titillation’s sake. That’s Amuck! in a nutshell: skirting the line between sexy and gross with reckless abandon.
Amuck’s biggest selling point is clearly that German-born, American raised Giallo Queen Barbara Bouchet is front and center throughout, and usually in various stages of undress or just stark naked. As plucky publishing assistant Greta, Bouchet takes a job as secretary for novelist Richard Stuart (Farley Granger) in order to find out what happened to Stuart’s previous secretary, the missing Sally—who was also Greta’s lover. Greta is subjected to one degradation after another, thanks to Richard’s wife Eleanora, played by fellow giallo legend Neri in a deliciously sociopathic performance.
Helmed by Italian director and screenwriter Silvio Amadio, Amuck! was also released as Maniac Mansion and Hot Bed of Sex. The latter alternate title most accurately fits the sexual perversion of the film. At one point, a sex scene is scored by a hilarious “song” that repeats one word over and over: “Sexually…sexually…sexually” and on and on it goes. The movie’s deviant vibe reminds me of the wildly entertaining gialli that director Umberto Lenzi made with American star Carroll Baker. Like those films, Amuck! seems to relish putting its heroine through the sexually frenzied wringer. Bouchet is more than game for the madness, and turns in a charismatic performance. She makes for an engaging amateur investigator, a giallo character type that has rarely looked better than Bouchet does here.
If you enjoy seeing two true Giallo Queens at the top of their respective games—and who doesn’t, really?—Amuck! is required viewing.
The Starfire Lounge 
Amuck aka In Search of Pleasure is a criminally underrated Giallo Thriller, the script and performances – especially those of Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri, are fantastic and exquisite. Farley Granger is good in the film too, but I heard stories that he was a little uncomfortable playing the character how he was written. A big plus for me with the film was the tenderness of the romance between Greta and Sally, usually same sex romances of the time were played for hype and shock value, but here it feels very natural and normal. Writer and Director Silvio Amadio did an excellent job keeping the revelations hidden until near the climax of the film, and the twist at the very end was unexpected and fit in well with everything else. I have the film on Blu Ray from the UK’s 88 Films and it looks absolutely pristine.
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