Enigma rosso

A young sixteen year old girl is found dead in a river sexually violated with a blunt instrument.Inspector Di Salvo investigate this vicious and senseless crime in St Theresa's boarding school for girls.Unknown black gloved killer called Nemesis begins preying on girls from the school.It seems that there is a vice ring where rich and influential men pay well for teenage favours.The final installment of Massimo Dallamano's schoolgirls-in-peril giallo trilogy offers some delicious sleaze and full-frontal nudity.The pace is brisk and the school shower scene is truly gratuitous.There are some stylish shots for example an underwater shot from the corpse's point-of-view.Riz Ortolani's score is as always fantastic.8 nubile schoolgirls out of 10.

Far from terrible, but also far from terribly exciting, this Giallo should have had much more bite as its predecessors in the "school girl trilogy", Massimo Dallamo's "Cosa Avente Solange" and "La Polizia chiede aiuto". Blame must go to Alberto Negrin's tame direction and Testi's slow-moving "investigation" that severely dulls the sparse suspense. The are fair scenes where Negrin displays some flair in the film, but it is not difficult to spot the Argento influence, particularly "Cat O' Nine Tails." Apparently Negrin mostly helmed television before "Rosso" which might explain his limited palette. Dallamo's painterly hand is severely missed, but a few intriguing ideas such as the slutty trio of girls "the Insperables" and a hilariously improbable killer make "Enigma Rosso" worth watching at least once if you can find it.

Marginally better than average giallo centres on an exclusive girl's school where the studies include mass orgies, gory retributions and murder. Detective (Testi) is called to investigate the brutal murder of a student and begins to suspect there's more going on at the school than just maths & science. A familiar trail is uncovered, highlighting several likely suspects (ubiquitous Euro horror ex-pat American, Jack Taylor primarily) who may or may not be the actual killer. There's also a neat little twist in the film's double-headed climax, although arguably, it could've been more effectively resolved.

Testi is a likable leading man, his portly sidekick Bruno Alessandro also effective as they use unconventional methods in an attempt to solve the politically sensitive case. Jack Taylor is typically sinister as a sleazy fashion guru (the roller-coaster scene memorable), and Ivan Desny prominent as the police chief. Unusually, the dubbing isn't bad and doesn't detract so much from the film like others of the ilk. There's a fair quota of skin on display here, and the occasional ghastly corpse will heighten the senses.

Director Negrin displays a solid appreciation for the sub-genre and while it's probably not strictly giallo for the puritanical fan, it serves the purpose well and maintains the mystery and suspense through to the dual climax.

This rather obscure giallo is relatively tame in terms of gore, but gets its creepiness from certain plot elements, like the young age of some important characters. The plot has too many suspects to keep track of and is difficult to follow at times, but that's not surprising considering that SIX (!) people worked on the script. Add some high-grade nudity from some VERY beautiful schoolgirls, a bizarre method of interrogation (choking the suspect while on a wild roller-coaster ride!), and a perfectly functional Fabio Testi performance in the lead and you have an uneven but creepy giallo. Too bad I only saw a badly cropped version of it, called "Trauma". (**1/2)

I purchased the German DVD released by Eyecatcher Movies. The picture quality is decent (in terms of sharpness, grain, color, etc.) but it is cropped (moreso on 4x3 TVs).

It was released in Germany in 2008 by Eyecatcher Movies and/or New Entertainment as "Orgie des Todes / Enigma Rosso." The disc has German, English and Spanish audio (DD 2.0 - mono/stereo?) and German subtitles. It may be uncut, as the box lists 84 minutes. I don't know many details about PAL/NTSC conversion, but know that PAL running times are slightly longer when played in NTSC.

The case SAYS that it is 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. It is not. It is cropped to 1.85:1 or maybe even 1.66:1. You get better compositions and picture info than the mid-80s Wizard Video release, but when you can't read all of the opening titles, you know it is still cropped. But it sure beats a full-screen transfer of a 2.35:1 film, which is all that I had seen until I got this disc.

*My ratings score (5) was for the DVD transfer/quality rather than the film, which I like more than a "5."

*** I was watching it (when I wrote this) on a "regular" TV. The aspect ratio appears closer to 2.35:1 on a widescreen TV, but there IS some cropping which can be seen in the opening credits (words extending beyond screen).***