Un joli corps qu'il faut tuer

Alfonso Brescia's "Your Sweet Body to Kill" tells the story of a husband who wants to kill his unfaithful wife.He has many murderous fantasies in which he murders her.After the disposal of her beautiful dead body our hero looses incriminating suitcase.It's time to get the crime evidence back.There is also a blackmail element hiding in the plot..."Your Sweet Body to Kill" is obviously influenced by French "Diabolique".The film features solid cast and some darkly comical moments.Unfortunately there is no gore and absolutely no nudity.One thing that is important to many giallo fans are stylish and bloody murders and I must say that "Your Sweet Body to Kill" doesn't have a great deal of them.There is no black-gloved killer too.Still if you are into obscure Italian gialli give this one a chance.6 bodies out of 10.

A middle-aged, hen-pecked husband (George Ardisson) repeatedly fantasizes about killing his wife. Then he finally does kill his wife. He manages to dispose of the body and cover up the crime except for a very incriminating suitcase that accidentally ends up in the hands of an innocent young woman (Orchidea de Santis), which he has to get back.

This is a rather odd Italian giallo from director Alfonso Brescia, who is generally regarded as a hack much more famous for getting his female cast naked than for making well-made movies. Brescia also did the descriptively titled giallo "Ragazza Tutta Nuda Assassinata nel Parco" (i.e. "Totally Nude Girl Killed in the Park"), the dumb but entertaining crime thriller "Knell, the Bloody Avenger", the goofball, niece-lust sex comedy "L"adolescente", and the virtually unwatchable "Beast in Space" that attempted to combine the Eurotica classic "The Beast" with "Star Wars" (now there's a great combo!). This movie, however (made before all of those) is reasonably well-filmed, especially the colorful OTT fantasy sequences. I couldn't really tell since it's currently only available in Italian, but the movie also seems to have a lot of (intentional) black humor, kind of like "I Wonder Whose Killing Her Now?", which is generally quite atypical of the giallo genre.

Ardisson is good as a kind of homicidal Walter Mitty turned actual murderer. Francoise Provost is also good in a smaller role as his shrewish wife. Heterosexual men everywhere will no doubt regret that Brescia does not find an excuse to undress the voluptuous Orchidea DeSantis in his typical fashion (and in HER typical fashion),but she is still quite appealing as a naive beauty. The only downside of this really is its unavailabilty in English. It's the only giallo I have (of nearly 200 now) that is still only in Italian with no subtitles. I hope this is soon corrected because this certainly makes for an interesting addition to the giallo genre.

Your Sweet Body to Kill - AKA: Suitcase for a Corpse.

George Ardisson really shines here as the lead! He is the reason to watch this one. He's just so captivating. The camera absolutely loves him. He is so good I found myself rooting for him despite his despicable plot to murder his wife. That's talent! Françoise Prévost is excellent as the nagging wife. Orchidea De Santis is good as the love interest.

The characters and dialogue are well-written by Antonio Fos, but alas, the plot is not. It is an exceptionally strong film until about the last 20 minutes when it takes an unbelievable turn, and I didn't buy the "explanation." But the first 3/4 of the film is so strong that I can't help but recommend this one. Don't expect a traditional giallo or thriller. Expect something a bit more comical and don't take it too seriously.

Tired of living with his domineering wife, a weak-willed husbands' plan to get rid of her goes off quite well and takes off for a business trip only to realize part of his plan has gone awry and sets off to gather the missing evidence needed to get away with the scheme.

This here wasn't all that bad of a giallo. As a part of the genre about the shady characters getting revenge on their equally-callous spouses, this one carries that plot-thread throughout here involving the set- up to the act itself. The scenes of their home-life showing her to be the constant nagging, irritating pain in his life through the scenes of him in bed trying to relax while she's continually harping on him about the money or his obligations, chastising him for his lack of social graces or worrying about his mental prowess always having daydreams at all hours of the day, which makes for quite the enjoyable set-up here with the first half. Though it's all clichéd and expected to be found here going for that particular storyline, there's little about it that doesn't work as it sets about the need for him to engage in the duplicity as well as generate the kind of thriller aesthetic required in the second half where he blackmails the friend into killing and then tries to get away with the crime by fleeing to another country which has some fantastic moments as he tries to escape the hotel with the leaking suitcase without being seen even though he's being stopped by numerous personnel and the thrilling discovery at the smelting plant where he realizes the duplicity. That second half where he's racing around the city trying to discreetly contact the different potential passengers on the flight that could have his package which is a fine series of suspense sequences here as he goes through the different women trying to get it all accomplished, from trying to get past the different authorities in the belly-dancing club which is exceptionally creepy with the idea of being watched the entire time to the wasted time wrongly seducing the older woman and finally the late-building romance of the last person he contacts that finally manages to get his true crime accomplished. That does lead into the final twist as he tries to finally get his way only to have it turned around in a rather surprising manner which gives this a quite shocking finish and injects some nice black comedy into this one which all makes for quite a fun time. The other big plus here is that this one manages to keep itself quite intriguing and interesting with a light, zippy pace throughout here despite not having a ton of action throughout, and it stays quite interesting here which is what makes this one enjoyable. There's still a few flaws with this one, which really comes from the idea that as an example of the giallo it doesn't really have much of anything to do with the lurid tropes found in the genre. The body count here is a total joke which doesn't give this one the chance to offer up any gore or bloodshed, there's nothing to deal with the stalking scenes due to not having any choice targets here and this one has several chances for sleaze or nudity yet moves away from them so it's quite light on that as well. All of these elements really have something to do the lowered quality of the film's giallo stylings so that it's quite lame in that setting. Moving away from that, there's little need for this one to take as long as it does to get the murder done with as it's quite awhile to that pivotal scene and it really could've brought that a little closer to the beginning which is what could've moved this up to the front a little earlier and given more about him thinking he's gotten away with the crime. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot really wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Language, Mild Violence and slight drug use.