The Washing Machine

In this latter day Giallo, Police Inspector Alexander Stracev is called to the home of three sisters to investigate a crime. One of the sisters claims to have found the mutilated body of a pimp named Yuri in her washing machine. When Inspector Stracev arrives, he finds no body and no sign of there having ever been a body. But the more he investigates, the more enthralled he becomes by each of the three sisters as they take turns trying to seduce him, tempting him with information about what happened to Yuri and accusing each other of responsibility for Yuri's disappearance. Inspector Stracev is not sure what he's on to, but he can't get away from it. The sisters keep drawing him in deeper and deeper.

With a name like The Washing Machine, I had no idea what to expect. What I found was an entertaining Euro-thriller that exceeded my somewhat guarded expectations. Director Ruggero Deodato (better known for his cannibal films) has created a very stylish (as stylish as Budapest, circa 1993, can be), quick moving and entertaining film that kept my interest from the opening scenes. The pacing is nice and I enjoyed the way Deodato allowed the plot to unfold in bits and pieces during several erotically charged moments. The mystery elements kept me guessing until the very end. There were questions I couldn't wait to be answered - Was there really a body in the washing machine? Are the three sisters as completely mad as they seem? Or, are these women using the Inspector as part of some sort of elaborate game? It's all very nicely done.

In multiple reviews I read that the director wasn't too happy with the end result. I only can imagine what he had envisioned but I completely disagree.The Washing Machine is an extremely enjoyable modern giallo that is stylish and offers thrills ranging from sexy to freaky. The viewer will get tricked multiple times.Which is a pleasure since most is done by three beautiful and immensely seductive sisters.One hornier than the other.They way they use their sexuality not only offers very titillating and arousing scenes but at the same time really do have a function in the sordid plot.The plot is filled with so many surprises that it is a joy to see what happens next.Not without flaws though.Some developments are left open and maybe only were present to give details about the main character. What I liked most about The Washing Machine that it keeps you guessing about the characters.Once you think you figured them out they do something completely opposite.One last remark,contrary to what the director thought the relatively unknown actresses accomplish what very few can do which is engage the viewer.Absolutely a rewarding viewing experience!

I recently watched Umberto Lenzi's TV movie House of Lost Souls, in which a boy is decapitated by a a possessed washing machine. Knowing nothing about Ruggero Deodato's The Washing Machine, I half expected a film full of such appliance-based craziness, but was surprised by a distinct lack of killer kitchen equipment. The washing machine in this late giallo from the director of Cannibal Holocaust remains lifeless and doesn't kill anyone; it is merely the receptacle for the dismembered body of a murdered man. Or is it?

Inspector Alexander Stacev (Philippe Caroit) is called to investigate the suspected murder of pimp Yuri Petkov (Yorgo Voyagis), as reported by luscious lush Ludmilla Kolba (Barbara Ricci), who claims that she saw the man's gory remains stashed in the washing machine in the apartment that she shares with her two sisters, buxom call-girl Vida (Katarzyna Figura) and seductive cutie Maria (Ilaria Borrelli). Of course, by the time Stacev arrives at the girls' home, the body has disappeared, leaving the cop to believe that Ludmilla imagined everything, the hallucinations of an alcoholic. Ludmilla continues to press the cop to investigate, and not one to say no to a beautiful woman (or three), he does so, his police procedure involving having sex with all three Kolba sisters (not at the same time - he's not THAT lucky!).

Often, when a giallo goes down the sleazy route, there's some indication of the sordid content in the title: Strip Nude For Your Killer, Naked You Die, Perversion Story, French Sex Murders... you get the idea. Not so here... hidden behind a misleadingly innocuous title lies an endless procession of semi-clothed or naked babes, Deodato filling the screen with as much tempting female flesh as possible: barely a minute goes by without some kind of gratuitous nudity, whether it be from the three sisters, or one of the random strippers that plug the gaps. The film's twisty-turny plot is fairly routine for the genre, and there are no elaborately staged death scenes, so it's a real bonus that there's so much top-notch Italian totty on display, the raunchiness really helping to hold one's interest.

Towards the end of the film, Deodato throws in a wonderfully messy scene in which Vida hacks away at a mutilated corpse, shoving her hand inside to pull out its organs, which will go some way to satisfying gore-hounds, but this film is all about the sexiness, and in that it definitely succeeds.

7/10. Take it for a spin!

....when you can rent movies like "The Washing Machine"? Deodato's erotic thriller has (almost) everything you're looking for in a soft-core film, plus...a story! Of course the story lags at times, to allow for some very sexy moments (all three sisters are scorching hot), and the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. But the film does have two effective (if perhaps incomprehensible) twist endings, and a terrific music score. (**1/2)

Despite an incredibly stupid English language title ("The Washing Machine"), this is a real return to form both for the Italian giallo genre and for infamous Italian director Ruggiero Deodato. Ironically, Deodato never really directed too many giallo back in their 70's heyday. (He was either making nihilistic Third World cannibal films or being put on trial in Italy or other places for making nihilistic Third World cannibal films). In the late 1980's and 1990's, however, he made two fairly decent ones in a row(after "Stagefright" and "Opera" probably the best two of that period), "Off Balance" in the late 80's and this one a few years later.

This movie is about a cop who is trying to find out which of three sexy prostitute-sisters (a very aggressive one, a deceptively shy one, and a mysterious one in between) was responsible for killing their thuggish pimp. This naturally involves him having sex with all three. The end is not entirely unexpected, but enjoyable nevertheless.

Like Fulci's movie "Aenigma" made a few years earlier this was filmed in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, obviously in an attempt by the declining Italian film industry to open up new markets, and more importantly, to save money. Unlike with the Fulci film though, the unknown Eastern European actresses here are not only very sexy, but also pretty good (especially the one playing the middle sister). Mostly though it's Deodato's effective directorial style that really does the job. The movie has enough sex in it that it could be mistaken for one of the multitude of "erotic thrillers" that were big at the time (after the success of the Hollywood thriller "Basic Instinct"), but this movie is actually GOOD,and deserves to be included more as a late entry in the vastly superior giallo genre. Anyway, if you like decent gialli, or are willing to see an "erotic thriller" that DOESN'T mightily suck, be sure to see this one.