The 10th Victim movie storyline. In the near future, violence is controlled in societies avoiding wars. Killing is allowed to violent individuals in a game called Big Hunt where the participants are alternatively Hunter or Victim. The winner of each round is awarded with a prize and the survivor after ten rounds, wins one million dollar award (in 1965). When the American huntress Caroline Meredith completes her ninth round, she comes to Rome to kill her tenth victim.
She negotiates with the sponsor Ming Tea Company to kill his victim in front of the cameras. The cynical Marcello Poletti is her target and has just succeeded in his marriage annulment with Lidia but has not disclosed to his lover Olga. Marcello suspects that Caroline is his hunter, but is not sure; further he falls in love with her and he is reluctant to kill her.
The 10th Victim (Italian: La Decima Vittima) is a 1965 Italian international co-production science fiction film directed by Elio Petri and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress, and featuring Elsa Martinelli in a supporting role. The picture is based on Robert Sheckley’s 1953 short story “Seventh Victim”.
It depicts a government-endorsed, televised Big Hunt, featuring contestants from around the world acting as “hunters” and “victims”; when Marcello Poletti and Caroline Meredith, the game’s two top assassins, are pitted against each other, they find that love is the most dangerous game of all.
Sheckley later published a novelization of the film in 1966, and two sequels (Victim Prime and Hunter / Victim) in 1987 and 1988, respectively. In the United States, the film was theatrically released by Joseph E. Levine’s Embassy Pictures.
The original short story was written from the point of view of a man hunting his seventh target, a woman, whereas in the movie she is the hunter. He finds her apparently defenceless sitting in a cafe. Talking to her, she tells him how she is new to the game but could not bear to kill her own target, and now expects to die. The hunter falls in love with his victim, as in the movie, and eventually reveals who he is. She has tricked him; she shoots him, joining the ranks of the “Tens”. The story was adapted for radio on X Minus One in 1957.
About the Story
In the near future, big wars are avoided by giving individuals with violent tendencies a chance to kill in the “Big Hunt”. The Hunt is the most popular form of entertainment in the world and also attracts participants who are looking for fame and fortune.
It includes ten rounds for each competitor, five as the hunters and five as the victims. The survivor of ten rounds becomes extremely wealthy and retires. Scenes switch between the pursuit, romance between a hunter and a victim, with a narrator explaining the rules and justification of the Hunt.
Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress) is a huntress armed with a high caliber Bosch shotgun, who has just killed a ninth victim and is looking for her tenth. To maximize financial gain, Meredith wants to get a perfect kill in front of the cameras as she has negotiated a major sponsorship from the Ming Tea Company.
Marcello Poletti (Marcello Mastroianni) is the victim. His winnings from six kills have already been spent by his mistress, Olga (Elsa Martinelli), and his ex-wife, Lidia. Caroline goes to Rome and impersonates a reporter whose assignment is to study the sexual preoccupations of Italian men. She requests an interview with Marcello at the Temple of Venus.
Suspicious, Marcello arranges for Caroline to be eaten by a crocodile before the cameras of a competing television company, but she escapes. Caroline lures Marcello to the beach and convinces him that she is in love with him. She drugs Marcello and hauls him back to the Temple of Venus.
Caroline shoots Marcello in front of the television cameras, but Marcello survives because he has loaded the gun with blanks. He then shoots her but she is saved by her bulletproof armor plate. Marcello and Caroline decide to escape from the Big Hunt and go on a plane, where they decide to get married. The movie ends with the pilot shooting flowers to the two.
The 10th Victim (1965)
Directed by: Elio Petri
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, Salvo Randone, Massimo Serato, Milo Quesada, Luce Bonifazi, George Wang, Evi Rigano, Walter Williams, Anita Sanders
Screenplay by: Tonino Guerra, Giorgio Salvioni, Ennio Flaiano, Elio Petri
Production Design by: Piero Poletto
Cinematography by: Gianni Di Venanzo
Film Editing by: Ruggero Mastroianni
Costume Design by: Giulio Coltellacci
Set Decoration by: Giovanni Checchi, Dario Micheli
Makeup Departmen: Giuseppe Banchelli, Lina Cassini
Music by: Piero Piccioni
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Interfilm
Release Date: December 3, 1965
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