Der geheimnisvolle Killer

I have to admit this movie delivers exactly what it promises--any number of attractive women (and at least one VERY unattractive man) stripping nude for their killer. The featured actress here is Edwige Fenech, and just as in every one her other movies, you pretty much know she is going to strip nude for somebody. She is actually outdone here, however, by the voluptuous Femi Benussi who has only about ten minutes of screen time but spends at least seven minutes of it completely nude and another two and a half squeezed into an ill-fitting bikini.

As other reviewers have noted this movie is pretty politically incorrect which, depending on your temperament, you will either find offensive or ironically amusing. The woman pretty much fall into three categories: dumb, slutty, and dumb AND slutty. Edwige Fenech's character is strangely unperturbed after her lover grabs her by the throat when she implies he might be connected to one of the murder victims. Femi Benussi's character hilariously hops into bed with both men and women literally minutes after meeting them. Another woman stops a guy from raping her by willingly agreeing to have sex with him, then when he gets a little too, um, excited she turns down money he offers for services he was unable to render. The movie has the same tawdry revenge-for-an-abortion-gone-wrong theme of "What Have You Done to Solange?" but the murder victims are adults rather than schoolgirls and the murders themselves are slightly less tasteless. Still this movie sure seems a lot more sleazy than the earlier film because it is not nearly as well acted or directed. Bottom-of-the-barrel gialli like this and the similar "So Sweet, So Dead" manage to be sleazy, moralistic, and of course hypocritical all at the same time. Maybe that's why I enjoy them so much.

A young model dies of a heart attack during a back-alley abortion.After her death a mysterious series of bloody murders take place.Each of the victims are connected to the same studio that Evelyn worked at and each are viciously murdered by the knife wielding killer."Strip Nude for Your Killer" is a sleazy and violent Italian giallo that will surely please fans of Italian cinema.There is lots of nudity provided by Edwige Fenech,Femi Benussi and Erna Schurer.The jazz score by Berto Pisano is pretty good and the plot is actually very gripping.The killings are quite gory and sadistic and the cinematography by Franco Delli Colli is excellent.Check it out,if you like Italian giallos.8 out of 10.

The sleazy giallo picture here known as "Strip Nude for Your Killer" (1975) is misleadingly titled (no victim of the crazed killer is ever forced to strip; they're usually 3/4 naked to begin with!) but still manages to convey the film's two main selling points--sex and violence, dished out in fairly equal measure. The movie might more accurately have been called "Who's Been Killing the Entire Staff at Milan's Albatross Modeling Agency?" All we know for sure is that it's a leather-clad figure with a biker's helmet, a Darth Vader-like respiration problem, and a fondness for knife slaying. For the ladies in the audience, the picture features Nino Castelnuovo, so fondly remembered from 1964's "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," still looking hunky here and sporting a perfectly round butt; and for the men, another exquisite appearance from the Queen of Giallo, Edwige Fenech, short-haired here but still quite dee-lish. "Strip Nude" has been directed in a nonstylish, nonflashy manner by Andrea Bianchi. Its plot does hang together, despite the seemingly unavoidable red herrings, though the killer's motivation ultimately proves to be unconvincing (don't even try guessing who the killer is!). There are any number of genuinely suspenseful scenes, though, and the soundtrack, by one Berto Pisano, effectively mixes Euro lounge jazz with a funky theme that suggests the Temps' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Of the half dozen or so Edwige Fenech giallos that I've seen recently, this one is by far the bloodiest and sleaziest (just wait till you see the 300+-lb. guy with his blow-up doll!), but still nothing compared to what filmmakers get away with today. The folks at Blue Underground should be thanked for a fine-looking DVD of a true Italian rarity; still, I'd be thanking them more had they supplied some subtitles rather than the lousy dubbing. And oh...was it just my imagination, or was that indeed an anal sex joke that Nino pulls on Edwige at the film's tail end?

Strip nude for Your killer must be, for me, the most outrageously sexist giallo ever made. Fair enough, you've got to expect a fair amount of it in these movies(or else you'd be let down) but Andrea Bianchi runs with misogyny ball so far that he leaves the park, gets in a taxi with it, goes to the airport, and throws the ball on a plane to some uncharted island in the pacific.

Which, by the way, makes this film quite entertaining.

After someone kills a doctor who's botched abortion killed his patient, the film shifts focus to a modelling agency and all the suspects/victims therein. Specifically, we get to focus on Magda (Edwige Fenech), a photographer...and Carlo, who is also a photographer. Carlo takes the biscuit as the most sexist Italian movie hero I've laid eyes on. We first see him sexually harassing a young girl (and succeeding!), then he hooks up with Edwige, seemingly immediately moving in to her apartment, moaning about his coffee, and reading the paper while ignoring her. Edwige, for her part, doesn't seem to mind being called stupid, being shouted at, or even throttled. Ah, the innocence of young love.

Oh, and there's some murders too. Our motorcycle-helmeted killer starts working his way through the cast, and I won't really go into much detail about it as it's a giallo, but if you want to see an extremely fat man trying it on with a model, then this is the film for you. Our chicks are there for eye candy, except for the boss of the agency, so of course that makes her a lesbian.

Weirdly, I expected LESS from the director of The Zombie Dead, but here, at least on a technical level, he seems to do a bit better. There's some nice Argento/Bava style cinematography, and the music is what you'd expect. Violence wise it's touch and go, with some nice gore effects but not much carnage. However, clothes fly off without much prompting so you've not got much to worry about there.

Fun stuff...not a top giallo, but I can't help but be impressed.

And, as usual, the ending is jaw-droppingly stupid, and morally questionable.

Being considered among the sleaziest and least of the gialli – not that surprising given the involvement of director Bianchi, who would later be responsible for MALABIMBA (1979) – had made me forego the opportunity of purchasing this film's Blue Underground DVD (where it was dubbed in English anyway); I've now acquired it in the original language, though with the picture compromised in its case (where the 2.35:1 aspect ratio has been opened up to 1.85:1)! While I can certainly concede it's no hidden gem within this prolific genre (especially since it puts much more emphasis on eroticism than bloodshed), the film proved surprisingly palatable as these things go. As ever, we get a plethora of gorgeous women who are made to fight for their lives against the killer and shed their clothes at every possible opportunity: these include genre stalwarts Edwige Fenech – playing her last such heroine – and Femi Benussi – at her sexiest – as well as Solvi Stubing, later the presenter of a 1980s TV program reviewing then-current films on general release in Italy!; there's also an effective score by Berto Pisano (not one of the major names associated with the giallo style but his work here is nonetheless commendable). The plot is nothing to write home about either, that is to say, overly familiar: a handful of people engaged with a modeling agency are targeted by a manic killer sporting a black leather outfit and with facial features hidden behind a crash helmet; it all seems to be connected with an abortion gone wrong which actually opens the film. Typically, then, we're given the choice of numerous suspects – including Nino Castelnuovo, who makes for a rather unsavory leading man for this type of film (although his foul-mouthed outbursts are highly entertaining) – but the final revelation and accompanying motive aren't exactly thrilling (even if I have to admit of being aware of it beforehand from online reviews). As I said, the level of violence seen here isn't too high (where there's gore, it's usually unconvincing and sometimes unlikely – for instance, a castration) and repetitive besides (the same weapon is used every time); the nudity (ranging from scenes depicting lesbianism, the near-rape of a model by an obese and impotent fellow and the concluding light-hearted[!] suggestion of sodomy to avert the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy) is mainly gratuitous, but certainly not lamentable whenever it involves either Fenech or Benussi (the uneasy reaction of a Police Inspector's assistant at her unabashed appearance during an interrogation scene is priceless).