The title of this movie, which translate to something like The forbidden pictures of a reputable lady, might lead you to believe it is rather lascivious if not straight-out pornographic. But that’s not true. In fact, for a giallo, it’s relatively tame. There’s no serial murderer, no gruesomely desecrated corpses left out on display, no duck-voiced maniacs to unmask.1 But there are two very good reasons to watch it: the music is by Morricone and there is a chess scene.
I will begrudgingly leave Morricone for another blog, but the chess scene is mine. It occurs a good hour into the movie. The reputable lady of the title was first being blackmailed and then stalked and, after all that, she’s not doing so well. The doctor has a strict prescription: no more pills or whiskey and a heavy dose of her husband’s love and attention. And, of course, if you’re guaranteed your husband’s attention, you get him to play chess with you.
They’re using unusual pieces and I haven’t been able to fully reconstruct the position, but I believe it is something like this:2
It seems like there might be a white pawn on d8, but it could also be standing next to the board, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Mostly because it’s bad enough without the straight up illegal pawn.
The weirdest bit is that this diagram isn’t even what she’s being blackmailed with! Apparently, there are even more embarrassing pictures of here around than her playing black in this diagram. The mind spins, reels, and boggles!3 Maybe these are really Le foto proibite di una signora per male.
Realism: 2/5 It’s a disjointed mess, but even disjointed messes get twos if both colours are on their own sides and there are no inexplicable minor promotions,
Probable winner: White, I guess, but if I’d have to play this in a blitz and black were to move, I wouldn’t feel too safe.
1. [Yes, that’s a real thing.] ↩
2. [You can make your own compromising pictures here.] ↩
3. [Possibly because it’s being blown.] ↩