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Strip
Nude For Your Killer
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5
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Opening
with a doctor peering between a woman's legs and ending with
a joke about anal sex, Strip
Nude For Your Killer
wallows unashamedly in the sleazy and the prurient — this is
a giallo-style thriller focusing more on nudity and kinky
sexual situations than mystery and mayhem. The best gialli tend
to strike a fine balance between such elements (depending on
their individual plots, of course); it's safe to state that
this particular film is never going to be considered a top-tier
example of the genre. That said, it isn't exactly a bad thing
to have drool-inducing Eurobabes like Edwige Fenech (The
Strange Vice Of Mrs. Wardh, All
The Colors Of The Dark) and Femi Benussi (Bloody
Pit Of Horror, The
Killer Must Kill Again) gratuitously strutting their stuff
in the buff, now is it?
The death of a young
woman during an illegal abortion triggers a series of brutal
murders. First to die is the doctor who performed the operation,
stabbed to death by a switchblade-wielding assailant dressed
from head to toe in a black leather motorcycle suit and helmet.
The killer then begins targeting people connected to Albatross
Inc., a photography studio/modeling agency for whom the dead
woman once worked. A photographer's assistant is slain and mutilated
in his apartment, followed by the killing of Albatross' latest
discovery (Benussi) at the home of the studio's owner (Giuliana
Cecchini), a predatory lesbian who hits on the models she employs.
Suspicion naturally falls on the owner when her fat pervert
of a husband becomes the next victim, but then she, too, is
butchered by the killer in the midst of a botched blackmail
payoff. As the body count mounts and the police fumble around
for clues, womanizing photog Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo) and foxy
assistant Magda (Fenech, sporting an atypically short hairdo)
team up to unmask the murderer. Neither can be absolutely sure
that the other isn't somehow involved...
Strip
Nude For Your Killer would seem
to possess all the necessary ingredients for a bloody good time.
Sexy Edwige Fenech —
the "Giallo Queen" herself —
is in the cast, always a big plus as far as I'm concerned.
While the film lacks the style and panache found in even the
lesser gialli of genre masters Dario Argento and Sergio Martino,
director Andrea Bianchi (Burial
Ground) does a decent, if perfunctory, job, aided considerably
by cinematographer Franco Delli Colli (The
Last Man On Earth, Django, Kill...
If You Live, Shoot!). The murders aren't particularly gory
yet go a little beyond the usual slashed throats when we're
shown the aftermath, such as a severed ear and mutilated genitals.
Composer Berto Pisano's score fits the film like a glove — notably
the main title theme, which would feel right at home in a Seventies
porn flick.
And that leads me to the film's
biggest problem. Strip
Nude For Your Killer is much more
about stripping nude than killing.
With its overemphasis on sex and a plethora of pulchritude on
display (especially the luscious forms of Fenech and Benussi),
the thriller/suspense elements are afforded the last available
seat at the back of a very long bus. I feel that the whodunit
aspect should be at the center of any giallo, around
which everything else orbits; here the mystery is given short
shrift, treated almost as an afterthought. Derivative motifs
aside (the sleazy behind-the-scenes shenanigans at the studio
reminiscent of Blood And Black Lace,
a back alley abortion from What Have They
Done To Solange?), the fact that its resolution involves
minor, tangential characters we've completely forgotten about
seems like a lazy cop-out. A key set-piece, the murder of Benussi's
character, is undermined because the curvaceous actress spends
the entire sequence buck naked save for a pair of high heels.
How many women, upon hearing strange noises in a supposedly
empty house, would investigate in their birthday suit
— without so much as hastily donning a robe? Talk about distracting!
I'm supposed to be on the edge of my seat with suspense... Instead,
I'm thinking impure thoughts.
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Released
this week in tandem with two other Italian gialli (Seven
Deaths In The Cat's Eye and a newly remastered two-disc
edition of Argento's classic Bird
With The Crystal Plumage), Blue Underground brings
Strip Nude For Your Killer to DVD
via a generally excellent looking anamorphic widescreen transfer.
Other than some grainy nighttime scenes and the presence
of a "gate hair" in the lower right corner of the screen
for a minute or so (both conditions of the original elements),
the print is free of any noticeable blemishes, boasting vivid
colors and strong, deep blacks. The digital mono audio track (dubbed
English only) is clean and clear-sounding.
For
extras BU has included the theatrical trailer and a 12-minute
featurette, Strip Nude For Your Giallo. Massimo Felisati,
co-writer of the script, and actress Solvi Stubing, who plays
one of the Albatross models ("Patrizia"), are interviewed.
Felisati attributes the most violent scenes in the film to director
Bianchi's personal embellishments; Stubing recalls her break into
showbiz (as spokesmodel in a memorable ad campaign for an Italian
beer) and provides brief anecdotes about working on Strip
Nude with some of her co-stars.
10/26/05 |
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