[[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dont_torture_a_duckling.jpg]]

''Don't Torture a Duckling'' (Italian: ''Non si sevizia un paperino'') is a 1972 {{Giallo}} film directed by Creator/LucioFulci.

When several young boys are brutally murdered in a small southern Italian village, the superstitious locals react with ignorance and violence. All misfits are immediately suspected, such as big-city tart Patrizia, local village idiot Giuseppe, and voodoo practitioner Maciara. A cop named Martelli comes to investigate, and is rather curious about a young priest, Don Alberto, who censors the town's reading material to keep it free of corruption. No one is truly innocent in this town.

The film's score was composed by Music/RizOrtolani, of ''Film/MondoCane'' and ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'' fame.

The film is DarkerAndEdgier than most other gialli of the time period, and Fulci himself considered it his best film.
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!!This film contains examples of:

* BigBad: [[spoiler:Don Alberto Avallone]] is the killer.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: No one in this movie is innocent. ''No one''.
* CainAndAbel: There's no hint of a sibling rivalry between them, [[spoiler:but the evil Don Alberto has no qualms about throwing his innocent little sister, Malvina, off a remote cliff, all because she witnessed his killing of the children. He fails, and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard it's he who falls off the cliff instead]] after a climactic fight.]]
* ChainPain: [[spoiler:Maciara]] is beaten to death with chains by an angry mob.
* CreepyChild: Downplayed with Malvina Avallone, a deaf and mentally slow girl who carries around a decapitated doll. At first, it's assumed that bullies have simply broken her toy so Patrizia buys her a Donald Duck toy to replace it. It turns out, [[spoiler:she's actually [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior imitating the murders of the children]] by strangling her toys in a similar manner until their heads come off, leading to a mutilated Donald Duck toy, and a doll's head, being found near one of the crime scenes. [[SheKnowsToomuch Being a potential witness to the crime]], she becomes the murderer's next target]].
* DeathOfAChild: Death of ''children'' is more like it. Three -- and later four -- boys are killed, and a girl is [[SubvertedTrope nearly]] thrown off a cliff.
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Don Alberto's fall from a cliff is probably one of the ''most'' gruesome examples ever, which is ironically not very Disney. We even see his face [[{{Gorn}} getting smashed by the crags]] in slow-motion mid-plummet.]]
* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: [[spoiler:Maciara is beaten up by the bereaved fathers of the slain children, which is made obvious if you remember their heavily focused faces in several earlier scenes.]]
%%* {{Giallo}}: A classic example from the 70s, complete with gratuitous animal title.
* {{Gorn}}: The majority of the film is very light on gore, but [[spoiler:Maciara]]'s beating and [[spoiler:Don Alberto]]'s death are surprisingly graphic.
* GoryDeadlyOverkillTitleOfFatalDeath: ''Don't Torture a Duckling''
* GoryDiscretionShot: The camera cuts away when the young boys are murdered, and we only see the aftermath. Averted with the deaths of [[spoiler:Maciara and Don Alberto]], which are shown in graphic detail.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Don Alberto is about to kill another child by throwing them off a cliff, but Andrea foils his plan resulting in a struggle where he winds up falling from the cliff instead, ending him.]]
* InsaneTrollLogic: [[spoiler:Don Alberto's belief that by killing children, he's saving them from becoming increasingly lustful.]]
* JitterCam: Fulci uses handheld camerawork to add to the film's bleak atmosphere.
* KnightTemplar: [[spoiler:Don Alberto is a very conservative priest. He eventually turns out to be the killer. Unusually, his delusion doesn't involve punishing the boys for supposedly having lustful thoughts; he feels that by killing them before puberty can corrupt them, he is actually saving their souls from damnation.]]
* MarketBasedTitle: While ''Non si sevizia un paperino'' does translate from Italian to ''Don't Torture a Duckling'' it has a double meaning in that WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck is called Paperino in Italy and a mutilated Donald toy plays a key role in the mystery, so "Don't Torture Donald Duck" might be a more accurate translation but for obvious reasons would never be used so a more literal translation had to do even if there are no duckings to be found.
* MsFanservice: Patrizia, who is introduced naked. Could also be considered FanDisservice, since she's [[HarmfulToMinors trying to seduce Michele, but not to him]].
* NeverTrustATitle: No ducklings get tortured, though a mutilated ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' doll turns out to be an important clue.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:When interrogated by police, Maciara confesses to killing her baby under the mad belief that she gave birth to the Devil's child. The little skeleton we see her digging up in the opening is implied to be that child.]]
* PanUpToTheSkyEnding: The final shot of the film is of the clear blue sky after the camera pans away from [[spoiler:the shot of Don Alberto's bloody corpse after falling off a cliff.]]
* PeekABooCorpse: The discovery of the boy's body in the well.
* PoliceProcedural: Regularly, when they think they've finally found the suspect.
* PutOnAPrisonBus: Giuseppe doesn't appear again after he is led away on a cop car surrounded by the growing mob of townspeople. [[spoiler:This is despite the fact that he wasn't the killer.]]
* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Giuseppe the town pervert, Maciara, Patrizia, and finally Aurelia.]]
* SinisterMinister: [[spoiler:Don Alberto as it turns out. Though he has a reputation of being the GoodShepherd among the town, he's the one who's been murdering the children for [[InsaneTrollLogic incredibly delusional]] [[KnightTemplar reasons]].]]
* SoundtrackDissonance:
** American soul music and an Italian romantic ballad [[IntersceneDiegetic blaring from a car radio]] as [[spoiler:Maciara is beaten to death for her supposed murder of the three boys.]]
** And who can forget that beautiful score being played by the orchestra as [[spoiler:Don Alberto falls to his death while his face gets scraped on the side of the cliff?]]
* TautologicalTemplar: [[spoiler:Don Alberto does not see anything wrong with killing the children. As far as he's concerned, he's turning them into "angels" by letting them die before the world robs them of their innocence.]]
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: [[spoiler:Don Alberto is a kindly looking priest, but he's actually an insane child murderer, and the main villain. Compared to the film's {{red herring}}s--Giuseppe the town pervert, Maciara a haggard looking witch, Patrizia the strange city girl, and Aurelia a lonely reserved widow--it just goes to show that no one ever came ''close'' to pinpointing the actual culprit due to prejudgment of the suspects' outward appearance. The main characters are guilty of this, too, not just the villagers.]]
* VanHelsingHateCrimes: The townspeople blame the murders on Maciara, an unpopular witch, and [[spoiler:lynch her based on zero evidence (though it didn't help that she claims responsibility for their deaths at the precinct). The murders continue.]]
* VigilanteInjustice: The film makes perfectly clear that the acts of street justice that the citizens are performing are just the mob exploiting the situation to freely hurt and kill anybody they despise, and when they finally get their hands on the person who is actually responsible for the crimes, the alleged justice that this act brings is tainted by their savagery.
* WhoMurderedTheAsshole: Inverted. The townspeople use the string of murders as an excuse to accuse all the local outsiders and misfits of being murderers, including a witch and a mentally disabled man.
* WouldHitAGirl:
** The fathers of the murdered sons [[spoiler:when they beat Maciara to death, accusing her for their murder]].
** [[spoiler:Don Alberto smacks Patrizia around until she's unconscious when she stops him from murdering Malvina]].
* WouldHurtAChild:
** [[spoiler:Don Alberto is the killer of the four boys and almost makes his own ''little sister'' the next victim had Andrea not come in time to stop him.]]
** [[spoiler:Years ago, Maciara killed her own baby because she thought it was born of the Devil.]]
* YouMonster: In the English dub, at least, Patrizia cries out "You beast!" to the murderer [[spoiler:who is none other than Don Alberto the priest]].
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