The Sweet Body of Deborah

Aside from this, though, there has also been some small disagreement as to the movie's actual authorship.

The credits suggest that the story was written by a Spanish writer called Santiago Moncada, who wrote Mario Bava's Hatchet for the Honeymoon and the brilliant Spanish thriller The Corruption of Chris Miller, released in 1973.

There is also a co-screenwriter credit for another writer, an Italian called Sauro Scavolini.

But Ernesto Gastaldi disputes both of these, saying that other names alongside his were there for co-production reasons only, and that, quote, All the thrillers I wrote, I wrote alone.

End quote.

And to be fair to Gastaldi, most commentators do tend to fall on his side of the argument, as the themes and concerns across the narrative are common in many of his screenplays, Jalo or otherwise.

Going on to say, though, that he and Fulci didn't have the best relationship because he found the director, quote, clever but difficult, end quote.

Regardless of his relationship with Fulci, this film effectively launched his career in Italian westerns, and he appeared in several of them over the following year, including Go Kill and Come Back, Any Gun Can Play, Professionals for a Massacre, and Hallelujah for Django.

And when I went back to check my notes for it, there wasn't much there beyond a note about a parrot's prostate, [laughs] so we pivoted to another George Hilton title first, one that covers some of the theme- same thematic ground sans the parrot or indeed its prostate.

[laughs] We'll get to Two Faces of Fear eventually, but today we're talking about Rovello Giereri's The Sweet Body of Deborah.

[gentle music] Now, this is a title we've both been keen to cover for a while, and I'd say you're the bigger champion of it, Peter.

You wrote a really excellent piece on it yourself years ago now.

[laughs]

Well, thank you.

Um, I just think that The Sweet Body of Deborah still hasn't been recognized as the influence on the genre that, that I think it was, and it's a film that hasn't had a UK or a US release, so hopefully we can nudge somebody towards releasing a copy of it, because I think it deserves to be seen.

Yeah, because we've had the Lamberto Bava box set from Severin-