Le sadique de la treizième heure

While this is quite a popular giallo – thanks largely to its sensationalistic title and the fact that the film was originally conceived, as CRY NIGHTMARE, by Mario Bava – its reputation is rather mixed and, having watched the thing for myself, with good reason! Not only is there barely any nudity (with the violence being similarly tame!) but the plot itself – despite the much-used girl-college setting (among the picture's myriad alternate titles are SCHOOLGIRL KILLER and THE MINISKIRT MURDERS!) – is fairly weak…references to Alfred Hithcock's PSYCHO [1960] and Bava's own THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH [1963] notwithstanding or, for that matter, its own affinity with another far superior effort from Margheriti himself, SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE [1973], and Dario Argento's PHENOMENA [1984])! Besides, the whole giallo atmosphere is further nipped in the bud with an overwhelming light touch courtesy of a vivacious girl student who fancies herself a sleuth! Of course, the script supplies plenty of red herrings – with at least three characters made out to be the possible killer – but the revelation at the climax brings little surprise (while admittedly effectively handled); the attempted murder at the pool, however, is simply ludicrous. The film is nevertheless good-looking, features a kitschy score by Carlo Savina (shamelessly borrowing the instantly-recognizable riff from Neal Hefti's "Batman" theme!) and a reasonable cast – including ex-Hollywood leading-men Mark Damon and a rapidly-aged Michael Rennie (as the Police Inspector on the case), Luciano Pigozzi (the Italian Peter Lorre as the school's peeping-tom caretaker i.e. the type of role he could play in his sleep) and, it goes without saying, a bevy of attractive females, on both the student and teacher fronts – a lesbian undertone is even implied in the relationship between the middle-aged headmistress and her young assistant and a newly-arrived teacher sports androgynous features! – but especially put-upon heroine Eleonora Brown (who had actually been Sophia Loren's victimized daughter in Vittorio De Sica's award-winning TWO WOMEN [1960]!).

Hum-drum and fairly routine murder mystery set in an all-girls school, with a mysterious killer eradicating them one by one. It is fairly stylish and keeps the gore to a minimum; as a result it works as an interesting mystery, nicely resolved, but with a few exceptions the characters are poorly and dully acted and it's not a very provocative story, and there's a bizarre coda at the end involving a sudden James Bondian character who shows up as one of the girls' dads, which obtrusive and unnecessary). Much of the film's storyline and many of its set-pieces are things we've seen before many times. It's a straightforwardly depicted murder mystery but devoid of almost any elements of the usual giallo trappings (graphic gore and unabashed nudity), as such it's kind of a "giallo light" – enjoyable but without the visceral punch that the cinematic ilk has come to be known for. Perhaps the biggest drawback of the film, like many thrillers, is that the characters constantly perform completely unnaturally, speaking and acting and behaving in a manner which is completely unrealistic, unnatural, and often illogical; what they do moves the plot forward but they never really make the story, its setting, or its characters fully realistic and convincing.Michael Rennie guest stars (dubbed into Italian by somebody else) as the police investigator. English actress Sally Smith is delightful as one of the spunkier students with a knack at investigating herself; she is very energetic and expressive and lots of fun to watch; unfortunately she didn't do much after this. Eleanora Brown is also very memorable as the redhead student who becomes the primary target for the killer; she was in a couple giallos prior to this but appeared in no more films afterward. The rest of the cast, including the vastly overrated Italostar Mark Damon, are pretty much uninteresting. Antonio Margheriti's direction is solid and effective, though, and the film is well shot and nicely edited. A moderately pleasing Carlo Savina score provides an enjoyable musical backdrop, as does the rousing 007-ish main title song, "Nightmare."

Co-written, albeit unaccredited, by Mario Bava (who's the greatest Italian horror genius of all times) and directed by Antonio Margheriti (who's the most underrated Italian horror genius of all time); this simply had to be a terrific Giallo-outing and a downright must-see for all fans of the Italian horror industry. It's a bit unfortunate that the majority of reviews I encountered thus far aren't as enthusiast as they ought to be. Several people seem to complain about the predictability of the plot and the overall lack of rudimentary Giallo trademarks like gory murders and naked chicks. Well, they do make a valid point but also appear to be forgetting that "Naked You Die" is actually one of the earliest entries in this wondrous sub genre of horror, predating Dario Argento's most famous Gialli ("Deep Red", "Bird with the Crystal Plumage") and carefully elaborating on the trend started by the aforementioned deity Mario Bava ("The Girl Who Knew Too Much", "Blood and Black Lace"). "Naked You Die" was made in an era when clichéd plot twists were still considered original and the image of black gloved hands around the neck of a young defenseless co-ed were still found ultimately shocking and disturbing. On the contrary, I bet in 1968 "Naked You Die" was quite controversial and provocative with its themes about lewd boarding schoolgirls secretly meeting up with their hunky teachers at night and pervert janitors peeping at young girls showering. And, if anything, this was undeniably an influential piece of horror film-making being one of the first to use a remote all-girl school as the playground setting for a psychopathic killer. Several films followed this example, including "The House that Screamed", "What Have you done to Solange" and – not in the least – Dario Argento's "Suspira" and more recent Lucky McKee's "The Woods".

The movie opens with the atmospheric and reasonably creepy murder of a young woman in her bathtub. For whatever motivation, the killer literally parcels up the victim in a suitcase and sends her to a secluded boarding school. Here, we meet a handful of playful and very sexy girls and an assembly of staff members (teachers, headmasters and garden personnel) that all appear suspicious in some way. As to be expected, not everything is kosher in this boarding school. The riding teacher meets up with his favorite pupil in the birdhouse, the overly talkative girl aspires to date the new gym teacher and the gardener is a peeping tom. When girls mysteriously start to disappear and turn up brutally murdered, the experienced police detective Durant has a difficult time getting everyone to fully cooperate with the investigation and tell the truth. The first half hour to forty-five minutes (after the promising intro) admittedly pass very tediously and there isn't much excitement to behold, but at the same time you could also claim director Margheriti takes the time and effort to extendedly introduce all his main characters and make them look extra suspicious. The pacing increases quite a bit around the hour, but sadly from then on the film also becomes very predictable and the climax is even downright transparent. Still, avid Giallo buffs will unquestionably find "Naked You Die" a highly pleasing effort, partly also thanks to the stylish photography, adequate acting performances and the stupendously catchy and rhythmic credit song "Nightmare".

This 60's giallo is from the days before the genre truly took form. With the notable exception of Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, gialli produced before Dario Argento's groundbreaking debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage were relatively restrained affairs with very little violence. Despite its exploitative-sounding title, Naked You Die is firmly in this bracket. It has a somewhat playful tone much of the time and the murders are very tame indeed and contrary to what you might reasonably expect from the title, there is no actual nudity either. Instead it's a bloodless but reasonably stylish mystery-thriller that displays some key hallmarks of the genre.

The film starts out typically enough with a woman being murdered by a black-gloved assassin while taking a bath. Although the actual violence here - and throughout the movie - is extremely tame; the killer merely squeezes the victim's necks quite lightly and briefly and they then fall over dead. It's very soft stuff but is indicative of the tone of the film as a whole, as despite the girl-school setting and the topic of a maniac on the loose, the movie adopts an almost comic approach a lot of the time, with quite a lot of playful humour and a lightness of touch that certainly would not go on to be a recognisable feature of the giallo genre in subsequent years. Still the film does have other more typical elements of this sub-genre such as a great Euro soundtrack, some nice photography, a host of eccentric characters, a barrel-load of red herrings and a convoluted conclusion – this said ending is both predictable and senseless, while somehow still being quite effective.

Naked You Die is not a prime example of giallo cinema. It's a minor entry which showcases the type of films from the early days of the genre. It might disappoint those after something sleazy or violent. However, if you are at all a fan of this sub-genre then there is certainly enough here to enjoy. Just be aware that the thrills on offer are of a more breezy kind.

Creepy Italian horror mystery very much like an early Dario Argento film with mad killer stalking a girls posh school. Well photographed and very atmospheric. Killer is a surprise (but follow the clues!) Never released on VHS or DVD. I saw this as a kid in 1968, never saw it again but it vividly stuck in my mind.