Rivelazioni di un maniaco sessuale al capo della squadra mobile

It's the 1970s, so everyone is having an affair. It's Italy, so all the women are hot. It's a giallo, so there's a killer on the prowl, and he's targeting all those unfaithful beautiful Italian wives, mutilating their bodies with a knife and leaving behind evidence of their illicit behaviour. Farley Granger plays Capuana, the inspector on the case, whose investigation ultimately leads to a shocking personal discovery.

Roberto Bianchi Montero's So Sweet, So Dead is a textbook giallo, with a plot that offers up several suspects (although it's not too difficult to work out the identity of the killer), a big subplot that goes absolutely nowhere (beautiful Bettina witnessing the murder of her father's mistress), plenty of opportunity to ogle the very attractive actresses in the altogether, a touch of gore, and a killer who shops at Psycho Italiano, the boutique of choice for all serious Euro-maniacs (where they stock a complete range of trench-coats, fedoras, and leather gloves, plus the latest in black stocking masks and switchblades). Hell, there's even a bottle or two of J&B on show, and it don't get more giallo than that!

Even though the story is fairly routine, and the film lacks the visual style of the likes of Argento or Bava, the numerous kills and frequent nudity (babes in the buff include Femi Benussi, Krista Nell and Sylva Koscina) should keep most giallo fans happy for the duration.

6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for hilarious camp queen Cleopatra, for the surprisingly dark ending, and for having one of the longest Italian titles for a giallo that I am aware of (Rivelazioni di un maniaco sessuale al capo della squadra mobile - which is even longer than Il tuo Visio e una Stanza Chiusa e Solo io ne ho la Chiave AKA Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key).

The rap on this giallo is that it is especially moralistic and misogynistic; however,I found the first charge to be untrue and the other greatly exaggerated. A crazed killer is murdering unfaithful wives and leaving photographic evidence of their dalliances next to the bodies. This certainly SEEMS pretty moralistic. But the betrayed husbands don't come off any more sympathetically than the wives. Many knew about their wives' infidelities and/or were playing around themselves (one husband of a murder victim is himself having an affair with another murder victim). Moreover, the killer doesn't turn out to be motivated by vengeance. He is killing these women because he can get away with it, because their high society husbands will thwart the investigation of the beleaguered inspector(Farley Granger) at every turn lest they themselves be publicly exposed as cuckolds! This kind of deep cynicism is typical of later period gialli and Italian poliziani films, but there's nothing especially moralistic about it. Viewed in this way, even the final actions of the detective, which are certainly appalling and take away the only remaining likable and sympathetic character in the movie, are clearly more a final act of despairing cynicism than of righteous anger.

As for the misogyny charge, the raison d'etre of this movie seems to be to show a lot of attractive European actresses (Silva Koscina, Femi Benussi, Annabella Incontrerra, Nieves Navarro, Krista Nell) in various states of undress, and the filmmakers don't seem to care too much whether these women are alive, dead, or dying at the time. The movie lacks the flair, the garish delerium, and the stylized violence of better gialli, but it's not really all that different in it's attitude toward women--they're a decorative canvas for a painting of depravity and brutality. But just because the painting isn't very good doesn't make this film any more or less morally reprehensible than other gialli. In fact, the only really sympathetic character in the whole movie is the college-age daughter (Angela Covello) of one of the murder victims, who hilariously admonishes her boyfriend's "bourgeois politics" while he fumbles with the buttons on her blouse. The incompetent filmmakers, however, inexplicably drop this potential heroine halfway through. An appealing female protagonist would have done a lot to mitigate the lingering misogyny, but here this movie once again suffers from its own incompetence.

I love this movie. The first time that I saw it was when I was a little girl, around 9 or 10 years old. The storyline is great: a killer who targets women who have been unfaithful to their husbands. It is unfair that the killer does not target unfaithful men, but hey, this is a giallo after all. It's funny because I am pretty sure that I only like this movie because I watch it in Italian, and that makes it exotic to me. If it were an American movie, I would probably not like it as much. Farley Granger is quite handsome, even more so than in "Strangers On A Train". There is a red herring that I found predictable, but I've been watching horror films for most of my life, so I often guess correctly what's going on. I knew who the killer really was long before it was revealed. I found the ending quite sad though. It would have been nice to have a different outcome. At least this giallo doesn't have the graphic violence that some of it's contemporaries have.

I'm not sure I've ever seen this and had got a blu-ray of Code Red from the US and was pleased that I got it. It is not brilliant but rather good and the dead girls are very naked for their killings. And rather nasty knifings they are, the killer is certainly in the classic style with black coat, big hat and of course black leather gloves. Roberto Bianchi Montero made many different films but I think this was his only giallo and was 65 at the time. Farley Granger is impressive and the girls lovely especially Sylva Koschina and I always love to see Nieves Navarro (Susan Scott). It was an interesting idea that the naughty girls get it and the end is really good as we get to see Farley looking on!

One of the things I like in the gialli is their mixture of sex and crime - you can have your thrills and watch at the same time beautiful women with scanty or no dress at all being pursued and killed - their eyes bulge in terror, they scream, their beautiful arms try to defend themselves and finally they lie still .... so sweet... so dead! Very politically incorrect, I know! But we can't deny that we all have our darker side - personally, in real life, I don't like violence, but in my imagination many things can happen - I can even fly!

Other attractive thing in the gialli is their sense of improvisation - as they are made mainly on a low budget, many times, friends and relatives are called to act in minor roles, or to work in the crew. This is why "So sweet, so dead" (Rivelazioni di un....) transmits a feeling of spontaneity. Scenes like a party in a house, friends playing volleyball etc. feel natural. There are also some comic touches added here and there and Luciano Rossi gives us his usual dose of weird humor. Women are getting undressed most of the time, and some, as soon as they undress, get killed. I think you already know the plot: A serial killer is murdering all the unfaithful wives in a well-to-do circle.

The final scene is somewhat shocking! It seems to condone the killer's feelings, if not his actions. If you take the film seriously, you won't like it. Take the film as it is, with its fast and active camera work, lots of female flesh and thrills, and you can't go wrong.

Accuse the film of misogynistic or of whatever you want. Explain me just one thing: Why is it that beautiful women from all over the world went to Italy to get barbarically killed in the gialli? Just answer me that. Enjoy!