Film

The 10th Victim

Name: The 10th Victim
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction
Released: 1965
Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, Salvo Randone, Massimo Serato

Marcello Mastroianni plays a jaded playboy who'd rather flirt than fight for his life in a future where legalized murder is TV's biggest hit. Ursula Andress is the icy assassin assigned to kill him — on camera, for ratings. It's satire dressed as spy caper: sleek, funny, endlessly stylish, more interested in seduction and product placement than survival. A gorgeous, cynical time capsule.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy satire that plays a bleak premise for brisk, glossy laughs, with mid-century Italian style, sharp costumes and a lead who looks lost in the machinery.

Skip it if you want a tightly plotted thriller, since the story is more a sequence of sketches around one premise than a building suspense line, and its gags can feel thin.

What it asks of you: Ninety-two minutes of quick, episodic scenes that stay light on the surface; it rewards attention to absurd detail and set design more than to feeling.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Running Man1987

Schwarzenegger sprints through a gladiatorial TV death-game decades after Mastroianni dodged bullets for ratings — same cynicism about violence-as-entertainment, dialed up to blockbuster volume with one-liners and neon spandex.

But It trades style and irony for muscle and one-liners — much broader, much less interested in seduction than survival.

The Hunger Games2012

The same premise — televised killing as national spectacle — reworked for a teenage heroine and a franchise budget; less flirtation, more moral outrage about a society that watches and cheers.

But Earnest where the original was arch — if you want wit and swagger rather than sincerity, this plays it painfully straight.

Battle Royale2000

Japanese schoolkids forced to kill each other for a live broadcast — brutal, blackly funny, and far more disturbing than anything Mastroianni faced, but sharing the same target: a culture entertained by death.

But Genuinely violent and upsetting in ways the breezy Italian original never risks — this one means to horrify, not seduce.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The 10th Victim

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Most Dangerous Game1932

This RKO adventure invented the premise decades before it — a mad hunter stalking a human on his private island for sport — the direct literary and cinematic ancestor of every killing-game film since.

A tight, atmospheric pre-Code thriller — a shipwrecked hunter is stalked by a count who considers humans the ultimate prey, decades before the concept got a scoreboard or a wardrobe budget.

But Black-and-white, 63 minutes, and creaky by modern pacing standards — no satire, no comedy, just primal dread in the jungle.

Rollerball1975

Corporate futures replace personal duels with a brutal team sport designed to crush individualism — same paranoia about spectacle and control, filtered through helmets and motorcycles instead of designer coats.

But Slower and grimmer than its premise suggests — more meditation on corporate control than the giddy game of cat-and-mouse you're after.

Logan's Run1976

A shinier, sillier future where society solves its problems by killing people on a schedule — the same glossy production design and matter-of-fact cruelty, wrapped around a chase instead of a hunt.

But Camp value has aged into unintentional comedy in places — the special effects and dome-life philosophy may distract from the satire.

Death Race 20001975

Roger Corman's cross-country demolition derby where running over pedestrians earns points — cheap, gleeful, and just as scornful of a public addicted to watching people die for sport.

But Deliberately trashy and low-budget where the Italian film is glossy and cool — expect gore and gags, not tailoring and champagne.

Barbarella1968

Same decade, same continental glamour, same appetite for sending its stars gliding through absurd future-worlds in barely-there costumes — a companion piece in swinging-sixties sci-fi excess rather than a genre cousin.

But There's no killing game here at all, just psychedelic set design and Jane Fonda in space — pure vibe, no satire.

Danger: Diabolik1968

Mario Bava's pop-art crime caper shares the same mod fashion, wide screens full of gadgetry, and gleeful contempt for authority — Italian cinema's other great sixties fantasy of style over substance.

But It's a heist thriller, not a satire on media violence — the connection is purely aesthetic, not thematic.

Squid Game2021

Swap the swinging sixties glamour for a grim South Korean survival drama, but the engine is identical — desperate people compete in lethal games for the entertainment and profit of unseen watchers above them.

A nine-episode Korean series that turns childhood games lethal, indicting class and debt with real fury — the same TV-death-as-spectacle idea, but played entirely straight, no wit, no seduction.

But It's subtitled, several hours long, and genuinely grim — none of the swagger or camp of the sixties original, just dread and grief.

Turkey Shoot1982

An Australian exploitation film that takes the exact same setup — a government hunts undesirables for entertainment — and strips out every trace of wit or elegance, leaving pure grindhouse trash.

Ozploitation at its most unhinged — political prisoners hunted for sport by rich sadists — gleefully sleazy, cheaply made, and gloriously unashamed of what it's selling.

But This is trash cinema, proudly so — bad acting, cheap gore, zero of the elegance or wit that made the original a classic.