Isabella, Duchess of the Devils

'Isabella Duchessa dei Diaboli' (1969) is a scurrilously camp, riotously rambunctious yarn by stolid genre filmmaker Bruno 'Assassination on The Tiber' Corbucci, based on a then-popular Fumetti (lurid comic strip) of the time. After the anguished young Duchess witnesses the brutal slaying of her parents, she is fortuitously spirited away by a loyal vassal, and is boisterously brought up as a bellicose, knife-throwing gypsy. (As an aside, I felt that Corbucci's playful framing of this rather melodramatic sequence made for an especially effective scene!) While the young duchess enjoys the open-air, free-for-all life of a rollicking Romany, deep inside her pert, pale bosom, she harbours a bitter, heart-hardening revenge for the righteous slaying of the truly malefic, beautifully named, 'Baron Eric Von Nutter'; the braying, vainglorious despot, who so gleefully sacked her father's lands and put him to the sword right before her tear-strewn eyes! And in the case of 'Isabella Duchessa dei Diaboli', her righteous revenge proves to be a titillating dish, best served with liberal flashes of bravura, bare-breasted swordplay! Corbuccci's direction is constantly nimble; and all the zesty cast equip themselves admirably in the bravura 'Buckling Swash' department, and our devilishly delicious heroine is both pretty, bellicose, and almost implausibly nubile; dispensing her singular breed of justice whilst in various juicily bawdy states of undress. This is a hugely entertaining romp, and it would make me even happier to see a pristine restoration of this exciting, full-breasted, buckle-swasher. Tally Ho!!!!!