Naked Obsession (aka Spiando Marina, aka The Smile Of The Fox)
Italy 1992
Director: Sergio Martino
Writers: Sergio Martino, Piero Regnoli
Starring: Deborah Caprioglio, Steve Bond, Sharon Twomey, Leonardo Treviglio, Pedro Loeb, Raffaella Offidani, Raffaele Mottola, Martín Coria, Roberto Ricci.
DVD Released: August 31st 2010
Cert: NR
Running Time: 99 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo English, Dolby Digital Stereo Italian
Subtitles: N/A
Distributor: Mya Communication
Region: 0 NTSC
The Film:
Mark Derrick (Steve Bond) is a US hitman that heads to Argentina on a contract, they need an out-of-towner and expert sniper for this hit. His employers also tell him that he's been hired because they know he will be well motivated given that his target is a member of the drug cartel that caused Derrick so much grief in his former life as a Miami NARC. Cue lots of sweaty sleepless nights as the hitman drinks himself into a stupor and relives the death of his wife and young son over and over. Luckily for him though his employers have set him up in a furnished flat that just happens to share a balcony with uber-slut Marina (Deborah Caprioglio) and it's not long before Derrick has fallen deeply in lust with his big-knockered neighbor to the extent that he starts to follow her all over town for a quick shag in random public places. True lust is never easy though and it soon becomes apparent that Marina is beholden to a dangerous drug lord but what are the chances it's gonna be the same bloke Derrick's been hired to snuff.....
The runaway spaghetti freight train that is the career of Sergio Martino continued into the 90's with this low-rent erotic noir thriller. The story is actually somewhat compellingly told in that things aren't simply spelled out for the audience with certain elements revealed in excellent cheesy little flashbacks that seem to be from another film almost - one about a good cop gone bad and his attempts at redemption. As for the acting; in the 90's when you couldn't get any of the B-list actors you wanted for your thriller you hired Jack Scalia, when you couldn't get Scalia I'm assuming you phoned up Steve Bond. And here he is in all his poor-man's-Scalia, unshaven, alcoholic, buffed abs glory. To be fair he actually isn't all that bad as the horny hitman, he pulls it all off quite admirably given the lines he has to work with, not to mention the massive tits he has to fondle and the pouty faced cheeseball of an 'actress' attached to them. Deborah Caprioglio really only has two things going for her and one of them isn't her acting ability. She is however unintentionally hilarious as Derrick's all singing, all moaning, snake loving, easy laying neighbor; Debbie certainly ain't a shy girl!
It's essentially a two person movie as well, with Bond and Caprioglio pretty much the only substantial characters in the film and Bond spends most of the flick wasted on J&B and staring at the walls of his apartment, there's very little action considering this was set-up as a hitman story. Oh and the bloody awful soundtrack sounds like a bunch of random gameshow themes have been merged together into one unholy symphony of 90's pop pain. My enthusiasm for this one started to wane at around the one hour mark when it became apparent that this hitman just wasn't going to actually 'hit' anyone anytime soon. That said it is a fun little Z-movie thriller if a tad overlong in my admittedly jaded opinion.
The Disc:
Very nice anamorphic transfer, colours look well saturated and the image is crisp, clean and well detailed overall with accurate flesh tones and solid blacks. There are some very minor instances of debris and print damage. The stereo English track is clean and clear with only a couple of noticeable instances of background noise/distortion. The Italian stereo track sounds a little muffled/tinny but then as seems to be the norm for Mya there aren't any English subs included, so it's not like anyone is gonna listen to it!
Review by Giuseppe Rijitano
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