O Que Eles Fizeram a Suas Filhas?

From the director of the excellent what have you done to Solange, Massimo Dallamano, here is a strange Italian giallo, more a police procedural (an a really lurid tale, a ring of teens used as prostitutes by people in very high places - that was the time, in Italy, when several directors and scripwriters tried their hands on very hot subjects, like this one) than an Argentian thriller (but it is scary enough in a few places and also very gory). It starts with the false suicide of a very young girl, hanged nude under a roof and then proceeds with a lot of cars and bikes chases (the killer is always covered by a motorcycle helmet until the very end - it is possible that the director of Night School took from here the idea of the killer masked with an helmet), almost always running without pauses. Tense and scary enough, good almost till the end (a lot too Dillenger for my tastes).

A young naked schoolgirl is found hanged in a room locked from the inside, the police suspect suicide, until that is the clues seem to point in the direction of murder. So when the police led by Inspector Silvestri(Claudio Cassinelli) with the assistance of the asst district attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli) realise that they are investigating a teen prostitute ring with some highly influential people involved, they know they are going to have a tough time convicting anyone and sure enough their investigation is dogged with interference and dead ends. Dallamano director of What have they done to Solange? again returns to his schoolgirl in peril themed story and like its predecessor it's a highly controversial topic that is handled professionally and intelligently. Despite its topic, there's very little in the way of visual sleaziness here, the offences against the girls are confined to tape recordings the police have and its from these that they build their case. The film is in fact only half Giallo and plays more like a Poliziotteschi (Italian police procedure film), we only get brief glimpses of the leather clad killer as he tries to cover up his identity by killing those who might be able to give him away. Stelvio Cipriani again provides an excellent score, the film looks good visually, no more than you'd expect from a director who used to ply his trade as a cinematographer, there's also a very memorable chase scene that livens up the film immensely. Claudio Cassinelli and Cortese provide some fine acting in their respective roles, if there is such thing as a high brow Giallo this must surely be it.

After an anonymous phone call, a teenage girl is found hanged in the attic of an old building in Lombardia and the police assume she committed suicide. The efficient Insp. Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli) and the newcomer Asst. DA Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli) assume the case and while checking the location, Insp. Silvestri sees a middle age man, Bruno Paglia (Franco Fabrizi), taking pictures of the place from a nearby building. The man is arrested and soon Insp. Silvestri learns that the 14-year-old victim, Silvia Polvesi (Cheryl Lee Buchanan), was part of a teenage prostitution ring, including the beloved daughter of Insp. Valentini (Mario Adorf). His further investigation with the Asst. DA Stori discover a tape where sexual encounters with important names in the Italian society are recorded. Meanwhile a motorcycle rider wearing black uses a cleaver to get rid of suspects and witnesses.

"La polizia chiede aiuto", a.k.a. "What Have They Done to Your Daughters?", is an excellent police story and one of the best Italian movies of the genre. The plot is surprisingly believable and with no flaws or tricks that are usual in giallos. Claudio Cassinelli and Giovanna Ralli have magnificent performances and the conclusion is realistic. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Que Eles Fizeram a Suas Filhas?" ("What Have They Done to Your Daughters?")

This movie's pretty blunt and straight to the point, so I can keep it brief.

What Have They Done to Your Daughters? Is an Italian crime/horror movie that follows a group of characters trying to catch a serial killer who's targeting teenage girls. It's the kind of premise that's been done to death, but it's the way it's done here that's interesting. It's fast-paced, surprisingly well-shot, memorably bloody, and also features some great music. In fact, it's the music that cancels out the bad dubbing, really, because while most Italian movies from this time don't have very good dubbing, this one kind of goes one step beyond, because it's really bad at points.

I can see these crime/horror/thriller movies from Italy in the 1970s being the next genre I hyper-fixate on, as I've done with kaiju movies, samurai movies, and martial arts movies. There's something really interesting about them (I'd call them Giallo movies, but I'm not entirely sure yet whether this particular movie counts as Giallo).

So overall, What Have They Done to Your Daughters? Isn't anything new when it comes to its story or characters, and it's kind of sleazy in parts, but it's well-made and consistently engaging, making it a pleasant surprise to watch, because I wasn't expecting this to be of a moderately high quality.

While the original Italian title – THE POLICE ASKS FOR HELP – clearly pigeonholes this one in the then-popular (and incredibly prolific) poliziottesco genre, the English title under which it is better known around the world – WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? – implies a giallo in the same vein as Dallamano’s best-known film, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SOLANGE? (1972). In any case, while both elements are effectively present – a hatchet-wielding murderer is the subject of the climactic manhunt – the police procedural themes are more prevalent.

The film deals with a teenage suicide which eventually uncovers a child prostitution ring which, as usual, includes not just the petty sleazy oddballs (here personified by Franco Fabrizi) but also high-profile professionals (a celebrated doctor) and high-ranking government officials (a Minister). The cast is surprisingly good for this type of genre effort: Claudio Cassinelli (as the investigating Police Chief), Giovanna Ralli (unusually cast as a female D.A.), Mario Adorf as the policeman who finds the first body and also discovers that his own teenage daughter was once a “victim” of these perverts, the afore-mentioned Fabrizi and Hollywood veteran Farley Granger in a smallish role as the first victim’s father.

As usual for Italian genre movies, the music score is an asset and here it is provided by Stelvio Cipriani whose motif, while simple and repetitive, is extremely effective given that it involves children singing gibberish (and thus commenting on the main theme of the movie itself even through its performers). Alarmingly, the end titles claim that every year in Italy, 8000 teenagers run away from home but only a small percentage returns to the fold – the majority are never found!