Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Coventry Even if you only occasionally and/or accidentally stumble upon my profile, you must have noticed already that I'm a huge fan of Italian cult cinema from the '60s, '70s and '80s, and more particularly the so-called "giallo" is my absolute favorite sub- genre. Gialli are violent and often perverted whodunit thrillers from Italy that were tremendously popular from the mid-sixties until approximately the mid-seventies. The sub-genre was more or less founded by Mario Bava with his classics "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" and "Blood and Black Lace", released in respectively 1962 and 1964, but the glorious heydays were between 1968 and 1972, with brilliant highlights from a range of multi-talented directors like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino, Umberto Lenzi and Massimo Dallamano. But then, for some mysterious and incomprehensible reason, the giallo-reign abruptly ended in 1975 and, with the exception of one or two titles, no more decent gialli were made in the second half of the decade. There was a brief revival during the '80s, mainly thanks to Mario Bava's son Lamberto and his handful of good contributions ("A Blade in the Dark", "Midnight Killer", "Delirium: Photos of Gioia") but then the giallo passed away for good. It's most interesting to investigate why exactly the gialli of the late '70s stopped being good, and I think Enzo Milioni's "The Sister of Ursula" is the ideal study object…It seems as if newer and aspiring directors mistook the most important trademarks of the giallo and subsequently enlarged them in the most wrongful and distasteful ways! For instance, gialli have always contained sleazy sex footage and the lead actresses often provided gratuitous nudity, but watching "The Sister of Ursula" almost feels like watching hardcore pornography! There are many extended sex sequences; showing – in great detail - foreplay and both male as female genitalia, and that's really not necessary! Also, in older gialli the female victims were occasionally stabbed in the crotch with a sharp knife, which was ultimately perverse and shocking, whilst here in this film all the victims' intimate areas are sodomized with a big wooden dildo! That's right; it doesn't get any more tasteless than that! The plot and main characters of this late giallo are weak and uninteresting, with several minor stories that are interwoven with each other. There's the principal story of the lovely siblings Ursula and Dagmar arriving in sunny Amalfi to look for the mother that abandoned them when they were still children. They reside at a luxurious seaside hotel, where the lurid manager has an affair with the night club singer and his wife is a frustrated lesbian. Ursula becomes more and more asocial and forbids her sister to date the junkie who always hangs around the hotel bar. Oh yes, meanwhile there's also a mad maniac on the loose who loves to savagely destroy vaginas! Many long parts of the film – including the semi porn – are dull and badly acted. The best aspects and, in fact, the sole reasons to consider checking out "The Sister of Ursula" are the breath-taking Amalfi filming locations and the surprisingly exhilarating musical score.

L. Denis Brown The early Italian Giallo (yellow) films first appeared in the 1960's and were erotic thrillers which featured minimal nudity and largely avoided direct horror, but still had arresting and unusual story lines created largely through the complexities of everyday sexual interactions among ordinary people. At this time Hollywood, which had barely escaped from the rigid requirements of the Hayes code, still believed a flash of bare breast guaranteed an erotic film. Later, as North American films matured, the giallos tried to keep a step 'ahead' by an increasing emphasis on nudity and sometimes S & M practices. Eventually, when Hollywood moved to 'slasher' films that showed vastly more nudity as well as greater horror and violence, the giallo films which had remained relatively restrained, began to lose market share; and by the mid 1970's their end was in sight. 'The Sister of Ursula', first released in 1978 is a late film of this genre, I missed its perfunctory first release, and it only became accessible again here after a DVD was released by Severin in 2008. Its director, Enzio Milioni, probably sensing that his opportunity for creating many more films would be very small if 'Ursula' was not a major popular success, clearly decided to stir in everything he could to increase its viewer appeal. This did not work - I gather he only completed two more major films after making 'Ursula', even though the murders were plentiful, the work of a serial killer who used a most unusual murder weapon (No spoilers here - see the other reviews), and there were enough extended nude scenes, some portrayed in near porn style, to satisfy even today's jaded hotel viewers or late night cable TV audiences. I felt these interrupted the story to a point which eventually became very irritating, and overall most viewers have rated this film as inferior to many of the earlier Giallos. But whilst 'Ursula' is a violent story, the actual violence - unlike the eye candy - is not shown, only its consequences. To my mind this brings it much closer to being family entertainment, and ultimately it is still quite an enjoyable thriller with a psychologically interesting story line.Film Noir is a genre which is certainly not everybody's choice, and 'Ursula' has more sleaze with less satirical bite than many of the earlier giallos. But although it has too many plot holes and is clearly not a great film, 'Ursula' does have a number of other features going for it. It has easily read sub-titles which I find far preferable to the more usual very bad dubbing, and both the characterisation and acting are well above average. It is set in a magnificent period hotel offering a flamboyant art nouveau decor that is a joy to see; as well as interesting classical architecture and plenty of the requisite old stone walls or cellars. I wish a few more film makers would take the trouble to identify locations as good as this before they decide to start shooting. The lighting and the camera work also both earn high commendation. The story takes place on the lovely Amalfi coast of Italy, not far from Capri; and the Mediterranean scenery (for which I am a complete sucker as can be seen from some of my other reviews here) is intensely evocative. I had already reconciled myself to the thought that I would probably never travel in this area again, but after watching 'Ursula' I am already weighing the possibility of changing my mind. What more can an old man want or expect from a movie than this?

HumanoidOfFlesh Barbara Magnolfi plays Ursula,who along with her sister Dagmar checks into a beautiful hotel by the sea in sunny Italy.Soon the guests start to be murdered by an unseen assailant with a dildo.Ursula,being a touch neurotic due to the trauma of her fathers recent death has a bad feeling about the hotel and some of the guests,especially the shady Fillipo,drug addict boyfriend of the hotels resident cabaret star Stella Shining.I must admit that I'm a fan of super sleazy Italian giallos from 70's like "Giallo a Venezia" or "Play Motel",however "La Sorella di Ursula" is the worst of the bunch.The soft-core sex scenes are quite steamy,each one followed by a murder.Still the film is poorly acted and made.Give it a look,only if you are a fan of Italian sleaze.Enzo Millioni went on to direct only two more films after "La Sorella di Ursula" the most notable being "Fuga Dalla Morte"(1989),one of the five films that Lucio Fulci supervised and used the footage from it in "Cat in a Brain".

The_Void Well, it's safe to say that The Curse of Ursula isn't the greatest Giallo ever made, but there's plenty of sex and sleaze, and the whole thing is at least enjoyable. The Curse of Ursula came rather late on in the Giallo cycle - in fact, it had pretty much dried up by the time this film came along, and as such; it would seem that writer-director Enzo Milioni was extremely keen to put as much sex and nudity into the film as possible to ensure that people would watch it; and while this sort of stuff isn't really what I watch Giallo for, it doesn't go amiss in a film such as this, which has little in the way of a plot. As the title suggests, the film focuses on a woman called Ursula. Along with her sister Dagmar, she finds herself at a hotel, where the sisters are looking for their mother, believing she has a right to some inheritance left by their father. However, a vicious psychopath, who uses a dildo to murder his (female) victims has also taken up residence at the hotel, and begins dispatching of everyone who has sex...I had heard that this film was particularly sordid, and while I can certainly see why that is said, I have to say I was expecting more from it...though admittedly, I probably do watch a bit too much of this stuff! Sex fuelled Giallo's got more common towards the end of the cycle, which is unfortunate as the style of the earlier films was lost. As well as the sex, this film also features some pretty gruesome death scenes, which is nice but it does seem like director Enzo Milioni (with his first feature) is trying to force the film down the audiences throats a little bit as everything is completely over the top. The plot takes a backseat to the sex and gore, and typically it is a rather dull affair. There isn't much to it after the foundations are laid down, and while the twist ending isn't too bad; I have to say I didn't really care about it. There is some style in the film, the way we only see the killer's eyes, for example, shows some attempt to build atmosphere, but overall; if you're looking for a great Giallo, you really shouldn't track this one down!