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.

'So Sweet So Dead' is an ultra-sleazy giallo flick directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero with a simple yet effective plot, good pacing, a lot of kills and tons of nudity. All the elements that you would expect from a decent giallo movie. But what holds this back from being a great genre entry is the lack of creativity within several elements of the kills and story, but it's still an enjoyable time.

The plot follows Inspector Capuana (Farley Granger) who is assigned to investigate the case of a serial killer who is murdering unfaithful wives and leaves compromising photographs of the women with their lovers at the crime scene.

I have heard good things about this and while I was certainly entertained throughout (mostly), it just feels like its missing that something special that could have really elevated this to classic status. Of the genre. The lead performance by Farley Granger was very uneven which is a shame as he's normally great in classics such as (Rope & Strangers On A Train), but here he just seems embarrassed to be here and feels very much phoned in. Not saying that this was bad or anything in-fact there was a lot to enjoy here such as the decent visuals with some nicely stylish shots, a good amount of tension and an awesome looking killer that will delight any fans of the genre.

Overall 'So Sweet So Dead' is good enough with a solid mystery, but the movie does lose its way in several areas and could have done with a bit more imagination and a stronger lead male performance.

An interesting addition to the Giallo genre. Most commentators have concentrated on the apparent misogyny and gratuitous nudity as well as the unfortunate version with porno inserts (which I haven't seen). I'm not sure about the first criticism and as to the second aspect it's an integral part of Giallo. Why else would most of us sit through badly dubbed plodding dialogue and awful acting except for the occasional glimpse of the unadorned form of Babara Bouchet or Sylvia Koscina? To mind my far more interesting is the political undertone referencing the corruption of the upper classes in 1970s Italy which is in tune with "respectable" movies such as 'Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion' and 'Illustrious Corpses'. I wouldn't want to spoil the movie for those haven't seen it, but there are also definite similarities with later efforts such as 'Dressed to Kill' and 'Seven'.

In the Giallo catalogue, I'd put this up with 'Don't Torture a Duckling'. Not as flashy as Argento, but it has something. My DVD is I think a video transfer. Maybe time for a proper digital version?