A Black Ribbon for Deborah

A Black Ribbon for Deborah (Italian: Un fiocco nero per Deborah) is a 1974 Italian horror film directed by Marcello Andrei.

A Black Ribbon for Deborah
Directed by	Marcello Andrei
Screenplay by	Piero Regnoli Marcello Andrei Alvaro Fabrizio Giuseppe Pulieri[1]
Story by	Piero Regnoli Marcello Andrei Alvaro Fabrizio Giuseppe Pulieri[1]
Starring	Bradford Dillman Marina Malfatti Gig Young Delia Boccardo
Music by	Albert Verrecchia[1]
Cinematography	Claudio Racca[1]
Edited by	Gianni Oppedisano[1]
Production company	Paola Film s.r.l.[2]
Distributed by	Alpherat
Release date	26 September 1974 (1974-09-26) (Italy)
Running time	108 minutes[2]
Country	Italy[2]
Box office	₤118.676 million

Cast

• Bradford Dillman as Michel Lagrange
• Marina Malfatti as Deborah Lagrange
• Gig Young as Ofenbauer
• Delia Boccardo as Mira
• Micaela Esdra as Elena
• Lucretia Love as Wife of Ofenbauer

Production

Director Marcello Andrei and his co-writers originally conceived the film with an original idea of a dying woman passing the child she is bearing to another person.[3] Giuseppe Pulieri stated that the script he worked one was ruined by a producers attempt to exploit the film as part of the "demonic possession" cycle of films.[3] Pulieri stated that "The script stayed ten years in the drawer, I even pestered Raymond Stross into making it, to no avail ... they altered the story, the in all the usual bullshit: the witches, the sorcerer, the special effects..."[3]

The film began shooting on May 13, 1974.[3]

Release

A Black Ribbon for Deborah was distributed theatrically in Italy by Alpherat on 26 September 1974.[2] The film grossed a total of 118,676,000 Italian lire domestically.[2] Italian film historian Roberto Curti described the film as passing "almost unnoticed on its theatrical release".[3]

The film was first released on home video in the United States and the United Kingdom in the early 1980s.[3] It was released in the United Kingdom as The Torment.[2]

Reception

AllMovie defines the film a "low-wattage horror piece".[4]

Footnotes

1. Curti 2017, p. 119.
2. Curti 2017, p. 120.
3. Curti 2017, p. 121.
4. Erickson, Hal. "Deborah (1974)". AllMovie. Retrieved 24 June 2012.

References

• Curti, Roberto (2017). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1970–1979. McFarland. ISBN 1476629609.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• A Black Ribbon for Deborah on IMDb