Naked Girl Murdered in the Park

This early '70s giallo from director Alfonso Brescia does indeed feature a naked girl killed in a park. Prior to her untimely demise, the woman in question, rich bitch Barbara Wallenberger (Patrizia Adiutori), also sheds her clothes for a romp in the hay with her stable boy Günther (Howard Ross) and gets jiggy with insurance investigator Chris Buyer (Robert Hoffmann), who is on the scene to probe into the mysterious death of her businessman father Johan. Ladies' man Chris also gets to romp in the sack with Barbara's beautiful brunette sister Catherine (Pilar Velázquez), meaning that those looking for some T&A to go with their murder/mystery are more than catered for.

But while Brescia delivers in the boobs and bums department, he doesn't do so well when it comes to the intrigue, the brutality, or the sense of style that is synonymous with the genre. His film is visually bland, the plot is mediocre at best, and the death scenes lack imagination (and gore), making this far from essential viewing for giallo fans. As is usually the case with such films, some fun can be gleaned from trying to figure out who the killer is, although the motive is so abstruse that correctly predicting the murderer's identity is unlikely (it's even harder to guess if watching the atrocious VHS-quality pan and scan version I originally found, which was not just missing most of the nudity, but also the all-important wartime prologue).

A man is murdered on a carnival ride, and his daughter (Pilar Velazquez) starts getting terrifying telephone calls. She's soon stalked by a mysterious man in black.

Meanwhile, Insurance investigator Chris Buyer (Robert Hoffmann) attempts to get to the truth about the death by infiltrating the victim's family. Buyer finds that many dark secrets are hidden in the Wallenberger mansion. He also encounters the beautiful trio of Wallenberger women.

Of course, someone is watching, resulting in death.

NAKED GIRL MURDERED IN THE PARK is a giallo boasting a cast of odd, intriguing characters. It's filled with mystery and suspense, culminating in a twist finale.

Yes, nudity / carnality abounds, befitting of the film's era. Co-stars the stunningly beautiful Irina Demick and Patrizia Adiutori...

Well, my relationship with Giallo thus far has been so good that I wouldn't hesitate to name this sort of film as my favourite - but I was bound to come up against a completely redundant one before long, and that's exactly what we have here. Naked Girl Killed in the Park is as uninspiring as its title, which is unfortunate as the plot itself is ripe for springing a good Giallo from. We follow the murder of a rich man whose body was found on an amusement park ride. The most intriguing thing about this murder is that the man has just completed a one million dollar life insurance deal! Naturally, the insurance company isn't too keen on paying out after such a short period of time, so they send out their best agent; who starts his investigation by infiltrating the family and seducing the youngest daughter. Director Alfonso Brescia continually fails to generate any suspense and/or intrigue - and this means that the resulting film is really rather boring. The music rarely fits what's on screen - and the film also seems bathed in the score, rather than having the two exist in harmony.

The murders are far too tame, and while some blood wouldn't have saved the movie; it would have garnered it slightly more praise at least. The acting is mostly terrible, with Robert Hoffman (A Black Veil for Lisa, Spasmo) not doing brilliantly in leading a cast of unknowns with his under-wrought performance. The title of the film does come true as a naked dead girl does turn up in a park; but it's over half way through before that happens, and since the murder that kicks the plot off involves a rich man and a carnival, it makes you wonder why this title was chosen - probably to drag in more viewers. The plot is not very well handled at all, and I spent most of the film wondering what exactly was going on. It's not long before the movie starts to get boring, and it's that reason that is responsible for not even the rather good ending making any sort of impression on this Giallo fan. Overall, Naked Girl Killed in the Park is the worst Giallo I've seen so far - and while I don't doubt that there are worse films lurking in the wilderness of the Italian thriller, this one certainly isn't worth tracking down.

Wealthy financier Johan Wallenberger is murdered in a House of Horrors of Madrid amusement park.His daughter Catherine(Pilar Velazquez)is taunted by mysterious and highly menacing phone calls and stalked by a stranger.An investigator from insurance company named Chris(Robert Hoffman)comes to Catherine's mansion where her wealthy family lives including her often drinking mother Magda(Irina Demick)and her sexually active elder sister Barbara(Patrizia Adiutori)who will be later found naked and slashed in the park.Mediocre giallo directed by highly prolific Italian director Alfonso Brescia.The film is poorly paced and quite tedious at times.Still Spanish scenery is wonderful and there is plenty of nudity.There is an interesting back story about Nazi war criminals and pretty unexpected climax.6 razors out of 10.

I won't argue that it's a lot more appealing to mention a naked dead girl in the title of a horror movie but, in all honesty, a far more accurate description would be: "Fully Dressed Guy Killed in an Amusement Park Ride"… The plot of this ultra-obscure Italian giallo merely revolves on this rich bloke who's found murdered on a theme ride, only moments after he completed a million dollar life-insurance deal! Instead of paying the amount right away, the company puts one of their best investigators on the case and he infiltrates in the victim's family by seducing the youngest daughter. There naturally is a naked girl found killed in the park, only that comes after a whole lot of family-intrigues and character introductions. The discovery of the naked girl in the park (anyone notice how I LOVE repeat the title all the time?) does herald the beginning of a series of inventive murders, insane plot twists and effective red herrings, so it isn't such a misleading title after all. The story of this film is more or less textbook giallo-material, but it's rather slow-paced and the visual style isn't all that impressive. The murders sequences are pretty tame (no original modus operandi here) and the movie doesn't feature any truly memorable suspense sequences. All this probably clarifies why "Naked Girl Killed in the Park" is still very unknown and incredibly hard to find out there in DVD-land. Also, the cast doesn't contain any famous names and director Alfonso Brescia isn't such a prominent giallo-deity as, say, Sergio Martino or Dario Argento. Still, there's plenty of stuff to recommend to well-trained giallo fans, like a fair amount of sleaze, good music and quite a demented climax…. And a downright fantastic title, of course.