Dirty pictures pay for a vacation in an oasis of fear that turns out to be AN IDEAL PLACE TO KILL, on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro.

Overgrown British schoolboy Dick (Ray Lovelock, ALMOST HUMAN) and nymph Ingrid (Ornella Muti, VIRGINITY) head to Catholic Italy selling Copenhagen-purchased pornography to pay their way. When their stock runs out, they produce some of their own using Polaroids and photo booths, leading to trouble with the authorities who want to send them back over the Swiss border. They head south instead after the last of their remaining money stolen by bikers and run out of gas near the isolated villa of military wife Barbara Slater (Irene Papas) who has just murdered her husband. The initially-apprehensive Barbara seems to warm to the free-love philosophy of the younger Ingrid and Dick (to whom Barbara seems attracted) but they soon discover that Barbara is trying to set them up and they turn the tables on her but the cat-and-mouse game is only just beginning.

A departure from the previous Umberto Lenzi giallo films featuring Carroll Baker, AN IDEAL PLACE TO KILL – not to be confused with A QUIET PLACE TO KILL, the English title of Lenzi's earlier thriller PARANOIA – incorporates elements from the Lenzi-directed ORGASMO (which was confusingly titled PARANOIA in the United States) with Baker but inverts the perspective by having the audience sympathies lie with the free-loving youngsters rather than the captive Barbara. It also looks forward to the more downbeat Lenzi thriller like SPASMO in which a not-so-innocent protagonist is hopeless trapped and manipulated (the latter film's bird motif even echoes this film's stalk-and-chase sequence set in an aviary). There is much fun to be had here with the attractive presences of Muti, Papas, and Lovelock with his iconic Union Jack jacket - all three of which are provided some great close-ups and group Techniscope compositions by NIGHT PORTER cinematographer Alfio Contini - some teasing nudity (body doubled since Muti was a minor and Papas did not do nudity), and Bruno Lauzi's loungy score is augmented by two versions of the main theme song – the title sequence version of which appears to be sung by an uncredited Lovelock who sung the theme songs for his vehicles QUEENS OF EVIL, LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN, LAST HOUSE ON THE BEACH, and PRONTO AD UCCIDERE – a trippy sitar piece, and a catchy dance number. Lenzi's next giallo were the more conventional SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS and KNIFE OF ICE followed by the aforementioned SPASMO. His final giallo was the entertainingly bad EYEBALL.

Released stateside and on video as DIRTY PICTURES and in other territories as OASIS OF FEAR or THE DEADLY TRAP (not to be confused with the same year's René Clément thriller), AN IDEAL PLACE TO KILL's previous digital incarnations have been less than ideal. The Italian rights holder apparently did not have access to or did not bother with tracking down the negative, so the anamorphic video master that appeared in Italy from Alan Young Pictures and in the United Kingdom from Shameless Screen Entertainment was a soft, fuzzy, and faded. The Italian cut of the film had a couple brief bits that did not appear in the export version while the export version also had some brief bits (including some subtitled Italian incidental dialogue for local color). A brief extra scene of simulated oral sex with an obvious body double for Papas was integrated into Shameless' version as one of a couple extra explicit bits meant for optional inclusion in export.

Mondo Macabro's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.35:1 widescreen Blu-ray was thankfully able to access the original camera negative which included the bits exclusive to the export and Italian versions, running over a minute longer than the Italian cut at 89:36. The image is sharper while the color scheme seems less faded than deliberate, with saturated color evident in gel lighting, Lovelock's Union Jack jacket, and wardrobe and décor accents. The Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track sounds cleaner than the English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, and I'm guessing the latter was sourced from video as was the case with Shameless' disc. Optional English subtitles are available for the Italian track along with another track for Italian bits and text on the English track. The body-doubled oral sex scene has also been integrated into this cut.

Film historian Troy Howarth and Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson provide an audio commentary, as they had previously on the 88 Films British Blu-ray of Lenzi's SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS. They hash out the alternate title confusion with the other Lenzi gialli, the thematic connections to ORGASMO – and even suggest a sort of ersatz trilogy of films with Lovelock as hippie characters with QUEENS OF EVIL and THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE – the influence on production value and content of the original scenario with Ponti's involvement, and the opinion that the film would have been kinkier with Baker in the Papas role.

In “Porn Smugglers" (23:44), Lenzi reveals that the film was intended as a cash-in on EASY RIDER with the young couple smuggling drugs into Italy, but Ponti did not approve. Lenzi credits Antonioni scenarist Tonino Guerra (RED DESERT) with the change to pornography, and that Lenzi turned down Ponti's request for Baker in the lead in favor of Anna Moffo (THE WEEKEND MURDERS) before settling on Papas. Papas refusing to do nudity and the need for a body double for both her and Muti blunted the more aggressive approach Lenzi wanted to take to the film's sex and violence. Although the film is compromised, he thinks the mystery elements still work. He also mentions that he had Lovelock in mind for ORGASMO in case Lou Castel (KILLER NUN) turned it down, but wanted Lovelock for this film from the start. The disc also includes an Italian theatrical trailer (4:07) as well as four X-rated inserts for optional use, including some hardcore pornographic magazine close-ups and some more shots of Muti's body double in the homemade pornographic photographs the couple take to make money. Mondo Macabre's clip reel rounds out the extras.