Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

An Ideal Place to Kill Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 15, 2020

Umberto Lenzi's "An Ideal Place to Kill" a.k.a. "Oasis of Fear" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mondo Macabro. The supplemental features on the disc include restored vintage trailer for the film; exclusibe new audio commentary by critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson; video interview with director Umberto Lenzi; and more. In English or Italian, with optional English subtitles for the Italian track. Region-Free.

Now we have to improvise

The short X-rated inserts that appear in the bonus section of this upcoming release of Umberto Lenzi’s An Ideal Place to Kill a.k.a. Oasis of Fear should make it clear to you how decades ago some distributors wanted to promote the film. But its reputation as a sexploitation gem is seriously exaggerated. In fact, it is entirely undeserved. The inserts reintroduce only a couple of dirty pictures, plus one very short and suggestive, not graphic, sequence featuring Ray Lovelock and a double, and all of them are meaningless. The real Italian sexploitation films from the ‘70s were completely different animals. Lovelock actually did appear in one such film a few years later, Play Motel, so it is very easy to establish what type of sleazy fun Lenzi’s film failed to deliver.

In Copenhagen, happy hippies Dick (Lovelock) and Barbara (Ornella Muti) visit a popular sex shop and purchase a large stack of pornographic magazines and records to resell in Italy and finance their dream vacation. The plan works as intended and with the money from the merchandise the two begin living the good life.

But the good life turns out to be a lot more expensive than anticipated, so a few days after arriving in Italy Dick and Barbara run out of money. Shortly after, they get in trouble with the law when Barbara attempts to sell a few amateur pictures revealing the most intimate parts of her body to an undercover detective, and then another even less sympathetic detective behind a desk asks that they choose between leaving the country in twenty-four hours and getting booked in a local jail. The botched vacation becomes a full-blown nightmare when Dick and Barbara’s car stops running on a desolated road and they decide to steal a gallon of gas from a secluded mansion whose owner (Irene Papas) is planning a murder that would help her start a new life.

The film is based on an original story by Lenzi, which is neither great nor bad. It places the hippies in two drastically different worlds – one in which they are smart players, and another where they get played by smarter players – and by highlighting the flaws of the choices that destroy their dream vacation reconfirms the old truth that life is a big roller-coaster ride. This is basically it because the story does not have the smart twists and unexpected character transformations that make Lenzi’s big thrillers fun to watch.

But the film is by no means disappointing because it has a very interesting cheeky sense of humor that makes quite a difference. Indeed, it infuses the suspense and action with lightness that makes it practically impossible to take the film seriously, and the clearer it becomes that this was Lenzi’s intention, the more attractive the exploits of the hippies become.

Lenzi was lucky to be able to book the services of the prolific Italian cinematographer Alfio Contini, who lensed Michelangelo Antonioni’s visual stunner Zabriskie Point, but there are only a couple of sequences that leave a lasting impression. The best one comes at the very end, where Dick and Barbara are seen heading to a spectacular romantic beach, but it looks like a fairly decent replica of the final sequence from the much more serious and twisty thriller Paranoia a.k.a. A Quiet Place to Kill with Carroll Baker.

*Mondo Macabro’s release is sourced from a very beautiful new 2K master that was struck from the film’s original camera negative.

An Ideal Place to Kill Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, An Ideal Place to Kill arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Mondo Macabro.

I wonder if the new 2K master that was used to produce this release might have been prepared by the same folks that delivered the recent 2K master for Lenzi's Paranoia because they look very similar. The color grading jobs in particular have been done with the exact same awareness of detail, and when projected now these films reveal equally striking healthy ranges of primaries and supporting nuances.

I have an older R2 DVD release of In Ideal Place to Kill -- which was released in the United Kingdom under the alternative title Oasis of Fear -- and was able to do some quick comparisons. The new 2K master offers such a dramatic improvement in quality that from time to time it feels like the upgrade is from VHS to 4K Blu-ray. Delineation, clarity, and especially depth are simply spectacular on the Blu-ray release, plus there are some pretty dramatic improvements in terms of stability. The darker footage revelas the most striking upticks in quality -- simply because on the DVD transfer this is where the visuals become flatter and even break down -- but the truth is that the entire film now has a very solid organic appearance that ensures a completely different viewing experience. I was very, very impressed because on my system this film looks like it has been given an entirely new identity. Outstanding restoration. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

An Ideal Place to Kill Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit) and Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit). Optional English subtitles are provided for the Italian track.

I viewed the film with the English track, which should be the default track because the principal actors utter their lines in English. If you choose the English track, however, you should keep in mind that there are a few very short segments that were done in Italian without English dubbing, so for these segments you will see English subtitles.

The audio is clean and stable, with some quite good ranges of dynamic nuances. Obviously, it is properly pitched as well -- it is not on the R2 DVD release -- so the music and the actors' voices sound as they should. There are no encoding anomalies to report.

An Ideal Place to Kill Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Porn Smugglers - in this archival video interview, director Umberto Lenzi discusses the conception and evolution of An Ideal Place to Kill (apparently, his intent was to shoot a film that resembled Easy Rider, but producer Carlo Ponti turned it down), the casting of Ornella Muti, the use of the erotic content in the film and some of the problems it created, etc. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (24 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - in this exclusive new audio commentary, critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson deconstruct An Ideal Place to Kill and share plenty of interesting information about Umberto Lenzi's career and the period in which the film emerged.

• Trailer - fully remastered vintage Italian trailer for An Ideal Place to Kill. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (5 min, 1080p).

• X-Rated Inserts - four short inserts with explicit and suggestive content. (2 min, 1080p).

• Trailer Reel - a large collection of trailers for other titles from Mondo Mcabro's catalog.

An Ideal Place to Kill Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An Ideal Place to Kill is one seriously misunderstood film. It is not one of Umberto Lenzi's better films either. However, the moment you realize that it was never meant to be a sexploitation gem -- which is precisely what many of its fans believe it is, and plenty of distributors wanted it to be -- it becomes quite a charmer. I always suspected that it was some sort of a compromise because it has a cheeky sense of humor the legit Italian sexploitation films from the '70s very rarely tolerated, so Lenzi's admission in the excellent video interview that it was supposed to emulate Easy Rider finally puts everything that occurs in it in proper context. I enjoy the film and always had a spot for it in my collection, which is why I was eager to take a look at Mondo Macabro's Blu-ray release. It is sourced from a stunning new 2K master that makes the film look brand new. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.