Davis would begin to explore with his electric band in the early 1970s) and thunderous, reverberating stings of electric guitar. As the cue progresses, a ghostly, siren-song melisma by Christy is added. A simplified version of the track, perhaps a demonstration recording, is also heard, with the double-tracked guitar playing unac- companied over a simple staccato high-hat pattern. A police siren introduces the scene
at Valmont’s nightclub, segueing into a splendidly anthemic psychedelic number, boldly played in solid 4/4 time with a full vocal chorus provid- ing the only melody over a rhythm sec- tion of electric fuzz bass and drum kit. The music, recorded with Phil Spector-like “wall of sound” reverb to make the musical performers sound about five times their actual number, then replaces the vocals with brass, at first playing in concert and then trading parts in a complementary frac- tured way, before the choir resumes. During the scene of Valmont’s pool party, a vocal song can be faintly heard in the background, playing over a turntable or radio, which the casual viewer may not perceive as an actual Morricone composition— but it is. As if chosen to bring a se- cret smile to the lips of his most at- tentive audience, the song is actually Morricone’s main theme for an ear- lier Dino De Laurentiis production, Thrilling (1965), an omnibus film co- directed by Carlo Lizzani, Gian Luigi Polidoro, and Ettore Scola. The Polidoro segment, “Sadik,” is about the efforts of a neglected husband to win back the attentions of a fumetti- loving wife by posing as the Diabolik- like criminal hero of her favorite comic, Sadik—essentially the same story later retold by Vittorio De Sica in his segment of Le streghe, which featured the very first screen appear- ance of Diabolik. The vocalist on this cue, incidentally, is not Christy, but Rita Monico. The film’s most experimental cue is heard during the Identikit sequence, consisting of a choppy, atonal electric keyboard “freak out” (to quote one of the bootleg CDs), played by Bruno Nicolai over soft-malleted drums.
