Welcome to a game of legalised murder, where the ultimate winner nets a cool $1 million. The rules are simple: each participant must attempt to get through ten rounds - five as 'hunter', five as 'victim' - and while the hunter is privy to detailed information, his/her quarry must rely on intuition and a strong survival instinct. Film director Caroline Meredith (Andress) has just made her ninth kill and only promiscuous Marcello Poletti (Mastroianni) stands between her and the jackpot.
Given it's mid-'60s dateline, The Tenth Victim frequently delights with thematic and visual inventions that have so obviously inspired a good number of modern-day directors: Ursula's bullet-firing bra and a contract with Ming Tea (for the rights to film her final kill during a tv advert) were acknowledged by Austin Powers, while the live view-to-a-kill mayhem can now be filed under 'ubiquitous'.
Overall, Petri's film is bracing stuff indeed, combining a trail-blazing sense of style with bizarre humour that hits the net more often than the corner flag: curiously, The Tenth Victim occasionally suffers when Andress and Mastroianni share the same scene - mostly due to script deficiencies - but lovers of Diabolik Bond-ian fare will have a ball.
