Ernesto Gastaldi is best known as the writer of some of the greatest Giallo's ever made - and with classics such as Your Vice Is a Closed Room and Only I Have the Key, The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion and The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh on his writing resume, it's not hard to see why. However, he also directed a few films - this being one of them. The Lonely Violent Beach is nowhere near as good as the films previously mentioned; but it represents a more than decent slice of Italian exploitation cinema, and it's made good by some interesting characters. The plot is pretty standard exploitation fare, and focuses on a married couple. It soon becomes obvious that the pair aren't happily married, and it turns out that they can't even have a happy weekend away, as their private party is soon crashed by a band of local bikers. The bikers tie up the bloke and the leader rapes his wife. The wife and the bike leader then fall for one another, and this is bad news for the husband; and for the bike gang...
The film isn't particularly violent - despite its title and the genre which it is a part of - and it's clear that Gastaldi was more keen to focus on the characters than merely violence. This is both good and bad; on the one hand, it makes the film more interesting on an intellectual level and it makes it stand out more from the crowd of similar exploitation films...but on the other hand, you go into this sort of film with a certain set of expectations, and this one doesn't really live up to those expectations. The film is extremely rare, and so every copy available is likely to feature the same grainy picture that I had to put up with. I can't really see this one getting a decent DVD release either, due to its obscurity. The acting isn't too bad, although it's not exactly award worthy either. Gastaldi's direction is fine as he makes good use of the beach setting and builds the characters up well. There are no real surprises in the plot, and there's not a great deal of tension and suspense either, which renders it a bit flat. I liked this film, however, as it's different from most of its ilk, and I'd say it's just about worth seeing.
