So Sweet, So Dead (1972)

Overrated and overhyped

Let's be realistic.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is yet another giallo helmed by a little-known director; the suggestive but actually deceptive original title, which translates to REVELATIONS OF A SEX MANIAC TO THE CHIEF OF THE MOBILE SQUAD, would lead one to believe that this is very low-brow stuff indeed – however, the end result (propelled by a pounding Giorgio Gaslini score) is not bad at all. Besides, there is a good cast on hand: the obligatory American 'star' is once again Farley Granger (looking remarkably more mature than in SOMETHING IS CREEPING IN THE DARK [1971]), but then we have what can best be described as cameos by "Euro-Cult" regular Silvano Tranquilli and three of its luscious starlets – Sylva Koscina (playing Granger's wife), Femi Benussi and Susan Scott; all the females are made to shed their clothes, with the latter two even involved in surprisingly explicit sex scenes! Incidenatlly, along with STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER (1975; also with Benussi), this was the most erotically-oriented genre effort I have watched so far; in fact, the movie under review was subsequently re-assembled and distributed as outright hard-core material under the moniker PENETRATIONS (but Granger understandably – and successfully – sued the producers over it)! The plot sees the traditional black-gloved killer targeting a small town's apparently unending population of cheating wives (leaving as calling-card photos of them caught in flagrante, albeit with their respective partners' face clinically erased); in this respect, it also emerges as one of the more moralistic giallo entries (at least, this time around one is spared the usual pursuit of the proceeds of either an inheritance or an insurance policy!). By the way, the film even foregoes the last-minute explanation of the killer's motives which concludes (unsatisfactorily) many a giallo – though, in view of just this unexpected striving for satirical relevance (which proves rather vapid nevertheless, given the sheerly exploitative elements by which it is surrounded), here was perhaps a case where one would have liked to know what made this particular person tick (a gratuitously deranged morgue attendant had been made to fit the bill all along, but the real culprit was not too far off the mark anyway)!!

An interesting addition to the Giallo genre. Most commentators have concentrated on the apparent misogyny and gratuitous nudity as well as the unfortunate version with porno inserts (which I haven't seen). I'm not sure about the first criticism and as to the second aspect it's an integral part of Giallo. Why else would most of us sit through badly dubbed plodding dialogue and awful acting except for the occasional glimpse of the unadorned form of Babara Bouchet or Sylvia Koscina? To mind my far more interesting is the political undertone referencing the corruption of the upper classes in 1970s Italy which is in tune with "respectable" movies such as 'Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion' and 'Illustrious Corpses'. I wouldn't want to spoil the movie for those haven't seen it, but there are also definite similarities with later efforts such as 'Dressed to Kill' and 'Seven'.In the Giallo catalogue, I'd put this up with 'Don't Torture a Duckling'. Not as flashy as Argento, but it has something. My DVD is I think a video transfer. Maybe time for a proper digital version?

"The Slasher" has a pedestrian plot of multiple murders of beautiful married women who cheat on their husbands. Not only is the lovingly rendered pictorial dwelling on their naked bodies both before and after death disturbingly unnecessary, this distasteful film's message seems to be that women who are unmarried can be acceptably promiscuous. However, once they are married and continue to be promiscuous they deserve death. Not so the husbands, whether condoning it or ignorant of it. They can have as many affairs as they want without any disapproval. What decadent hogwash! The sole redeeming feature of this film is the chance to see expatriate Farley Granger in a lead role at 47, and he looks good, even with the mustache. Unfortunately he's way too expressive for the one-note role he's given here. A year later, he looks even better in the comedy thriller "Arnold" in which he ironically gets bumped off in a nude shower scene in an odd reversal of "Psycho" ."

Most movie buffs will have seen the captioned Hitchcock film from 1950 and perhaps the earlier "Rope" (1948) but here is a chance to see another Farley Granger performance 22 years down the line - I was impressed how little he had aged.He plays Inspector Capuana in this very average Italian horror film from 1972.In fact I found him unwittingly distracting because I kept thinking of the above films and how he now looked a bit like Rock Hudson in his mature years, wearing a moustache.Put simply, it is the story of a psychotic maniac who murders unfaithful wives by stabbing them after first taking the necessary photographic evidence which he then liberally sprinkles at the murder scene to "justify" his act.I was amazed how he knew who all these faithless wives were and where he found the time for his "hobby".The victims all seemed to know each other so the film seemed to be set in a hot bed of adultery.All the usual horror film cliches were present - the murderer who always seems to magically appear in the house by apparantly walking through solid doors and windows,(doesn't anyone ever lock their houses in horror films?).The chase scene where despite the girl running away, the slower moving maniac is always closer behind, the car door which is always locked preventing escape, the closed doors and windows etc.My! how all these women loved to smoke!!None of them seemed happy unless puffing away continually - its amazing they hadn't all died earlier from lung cancer!.I only bought the video to see Krista Nell but she only had one decent scene and then gets "bumped off" for her trouble before her boyfriend arrives at her house for "a bit of nooky".My video arrived with rather irritating Japanese subtitles.What was rather comical was that Farley Granger was obviously originally speaking his lines in English (the other actors in Italian) but his voice had then been overdubbed by another English speaking actor so we could understand.Instead, I kept hearing in my head his real voice from "Strangers oon a Train"..."Bruno you're crazy"!I won't provide spoilers in the extremely unlikely event anyone would want to buy this title after reading this review.The plot becomes rather repetitve after a while and the characters of the femaile adulterous victims become very one dimensional and there is a lot of bare bosom around from virtually all these lady victims.Another "comical" character was the blond mortuary attendant, he really seemed to be in his element as a rabid necrophilliac!Overall poor and I rated it 3/10.