The Blood Stained Butterfly

AKA Una Farfalla Con Le Ali Insanguinate

Director: Duccio Tessari

This week we take another look at a film from the much loved giallo sub genre but this time it’s one that isn’t probably as well known as the movies of Argento or Bava… with good reason.

Released in 1971, “The Blood Stained Butterfly” is brought to us by writer/director Duccio Tessari. Tessari’s career saw him work in multiple genres including comedy, action adventure and crime thrillers. He is perhaps most well known for his contributions to Spaghetti Westerns having co-written “A Fistful Of Dollars” for Sergio Leone, as well as directing a string of cowboy adventures himself.

It’s not clear if “The Blood Stained Butterfly” was an intentional attempt to cash in on audiences demand for giallo films in the wake of Argento’s “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage” released a year prior, but it does have many characteristics synonymous with the genre, such as the all important twist at the end and the inclusion of an animal (ok, insect in this case) in the title which has little to no relevance to the actual plot. The difference here though, is the film is dull as dishwater.

My suspicions were raised when star Helmut Berger (a name no normal person should be able to say without smirking) says in an introduction to the film that the director’s mind was somewhere else but they made the best of it. A very odd introduction to say the least.

The film starts with footage of characters and the Italian landscape through the silhouette of a butterfly. This small thing shouldn’t have been a problem, but I found myself getting more and more agitated that I couldn’t see the full screen the longer it went on. Then when the film finally drops the butterfly motif it begins introducing us to the characters via the means of a montage with text on screen telling us their names, something which took me about a minute to realise this wasn’t a continuation of the credits. Again, this doesn’t inspire much hope suggesting that the audience won’t be able to work out who is who without a cast list at the beginning of the film, and this introduction lasts 11 minutes! Regardless, it’s a fruitless exercise as there are so many characters that there is no way anyone could remember all of them for when the film starts properly. It’s like being introduced to a group of your partner’s friends for the first time; you nod at each person as their name is given to you, and you make it look like you are trying to remember but knowing full well you won’t be able to.

When the plot kicks in we are treated to a rather bloodless murder. There is quite an interesting scene of the killer making his get away as we see the view point from the various people that witness him on the different parts of his journey. Later that night we head back to the crime scene where a news crew are reporting on the murder in great detail, even showing the victim’s body. And is it me or does this guy have the largest microphone known to man?

The intricate detail of the murder doesn’t stop there as we then follow the police, and later on the criminal justice system process as they go into every single piece of detail possible. Some of it is quite interesting, I guess, but it’s a bit of an information overload. There were moments of similar detail in “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage” but these were delivered to a civilian character who then went off to try and crack the case himself, making it a slightly more relatable situation. When it’s just a load of forensic or legal specialists talking at each other it’s a bit of a chore.

During the film there is a strange gag (for want of a better word) whereby the police inspector (played by Silvano Tranquilli from “The Horrible Dr. Hichcock”) asks his assistant for a coffee from the machine but each time it is never the way he wanted. It’s either too bitter, too sweet or too cold but whenever the assistant gets coffee for any of the visitors it is always just right. It’s such an off choice and it’s not funny, it’s just annoying!

The plot is pretty basic but is bogged down by jargon. Characters seem to come and go without any real purpose, many of them looking the same as each other. So much time is spent on technical detail that we have no emotional attachment to any of the characters and subsequently don’t really care about the outcome. To relate this back to “Crystal Plumage” again, all the way through we follow Sam, who is a likeable character and we are well and truly on his side. Who are we supposed to feel connected to in “The Blood Stained Butterfly”? The man suspected of killing the girl at the beginning? The copper who is never happy with his coffee? I need to feel something towards the characters in a film, but here they are so subdued and show no emotion (apart from one Tommy Wiseau style room trashing scene) so I just felt indifferent.

The film lacks the visual style that is synonymous with so many gialli and the film is directed in a very workman like fashion, apart from one or two interesting shots. Don’t get me wrong, it’s better made than some of the shit films which I have reviewed, but the basic look of the film coupled with uninteresting characters makes it feel like a real slog. I dunno, maybe I was just in a bad mood when I watched it! The inevitable twist at the end of the film did raise an eyebrow from me and works well but it’s too little too late and the preceding outcome is just dreary and depressing. The film is pretty tame in terms of exploitative nudity and violence, which is a shame because at least then it might have been fun to watch. Having said that, there are two middle aged men that seem to both be “into” (or would like to be into) teenage girls, but it’s not fun, it’s just kind of gross.

The score by Gianni Ferrio is unmistakably 70s but it isn’t really my cup of tea. It works fine for the film, although is a little bit like lift music at points and the main theme just began to grate on me, probably not helped by the fact I had little connect to what was on screen. Ferrio would have a long and fruitful career, scoring over 100 movies and his main theme for the Spaghetti Western “Blood For A Silver Dollar” would later be used by Quentin Tarantino in “Inglorious Bastards”, because why take inspiration from something you like and try and make something new when you can just pay to use it instead!

I am grateful to Arrow Video for finding these films and releasing them – even if they are bad I’d rather see them for myself than not – but I can’t really recommend “The Blood Stained Butterfly”. There are so many better films of this ilk that are deserved of your attention, so don’t waste your time with it… unless you like spending 90 minutes not feeling remotely interested in what’s on screen, but even then, there are better films I could recommend for that too!