7/10
So Sweet..So Dead(The Slasher)
24 May 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Recently appointed Homicide detective, Inspector Capuana(Farley Granger)must uncover the identity of a serial killer who preys upon the adulterous bourgeoisie wives of High Society prominent city figures. The "sex maniac"(..he doesn't sexually molest his victims, but murders them because of their whoring ways)leaves photographs at the scene of the crime containing the victim with her lover in the act of passion. The very intelligent killer wears a stocking over his face, fedora hat, coat, black leather gloves, and uses a knife to stab his victims multiple times in a vicious, cold-blooded manner as they seek help, finding no one. Capuana is put in a corner by his superiors because he is not allowed to question the husbands of those killed, yet comes under scrutiny from the press in his difficulty catching the fiend. Paolo Santangeli(Silvano Tranquilli)is a very successful attorney with many affluent clients whose daughter sees the killer murder his lover(..and next door neighbor whose husband, after attempting suicide, is an impotent cripple).

Solid casting of Granger adds quality to this ultra-sleazy giallo(..if you're looking for a giallo that doesn't skimp on the nudity, SO SWEET..SO DEAD is just right for you)with a really powerful conclusion(..it concerns Capuana himself and a sad, startling discovery really packs an emotional wallop;equally shocking is Capuana's decision not to help a victim in need). What I found truly amusing was how practically all married women were screwing around with a man behind their husband's back(..although, in Paolo's case, he and his wife, Franca, played by Annabelle Incontrera, both have open affairs with other people). Basically this film features bored, beautiful, glamorous women playing hanky panky while their hubbies are away on business. A minor problem that rather nagged me a bit was the inclusion of a sub-plot that is left unattended..Paolo's daughter, Bettina(Angela Covello)and her boyfriend Piero(Fabrizio Moresco)are featured, with her witnessing the murderer at work, seemingly a major development which will have the girl in mortal terror, only for it to be abandoned later altogether. Some of the most curvy, attractive, gorgeous European women you'll see in a giallo, parade(..without shame)around nude, stripping from their elegant wardrobes, without any inhibitions. Particularly tasty is Nieves Navarro as Lilly(Paolo's lover), Sylva Koscina(..as Capuana's wife), and Krista Nell as Renata(..a victim who attempts to escape up a spiral staircase, soon trapped and stabbed).Chris Avram is Professor Casali, a coroner(..and Capuana's confident)working with the police. Luciano Rossi is Casali's assistant, Gastone, a real weirdo who takes nude photographs of his dead ladies once his work is completed.
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