Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975)

Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) - Nude per l'assassino, Sometimes a film is way too on the nose and that is the basic problem with this killer movie. I would call it a Giallo but in that genre there is a mystery around the plot, there is no mystery at all in this one. The opening scene is a woman, Patrizia (Solvi Stubing) who appears to be receiving an abortion on a table with a doctor in attendance. Since he is all alone you get the sense that this is not an official visit but more of the back alley kind of abortion. When things go wrong and the girl dies of heart failure the doctor instead of reporting it calls Carlo and the two move the body to her apartment to be found and rules a home death. This is the incident that sets the killer off. How do you know? Well in the very next scene we watch the doctor as he drives home, when he arrives a killer in a leather motorcycle outfit and helmet runs up to him and stabs him to death. Like I said it is a bit on the nose. So really the story is not going to be about why the people in the film are being offed but more by who. The killer is completely covered head to foot so an identity can not be made. They are slight in build and can possibly be a woman, or is the film trying to mislead the viewer?
As we learn who the players are, models Lucia Cerrazini (Femi Benussi), and Doris (Erna Schurer) as well as those behind the modelling agency, owner Gisella Montani (Amanda) Photographers Magda Cortis (Edwige Fenech), and Carlo Bianchi (Nino Castelnuovo), Stephano (?) and Maurizio Montani (Franco Diogene) Gisella's husband and really sad sack the mystery is which of them is the killer. There are minor character, Gisella has a lover, a woman who is killed, There is a gay man who knows the killer who also is an early victim. From this we know the killer is definitely at the agency and the build of the killer is that of a woman. So ruled out of the equation is Carlo a built man and Maurzio a fat man.
Working through one killing to the next we quickly and without a lot of trying who the killer could be. Since Magda and Carlo are working together they are eliminated so it really leaves models or the shop owner. Like I said, it is a bit on the nose. Sure there are some side stories to try to throw you off. You learn that Gisella has a female lover who she likes to dominate. She smacks her and yells "You Bitch! You love it don't you." and "You're a big whore." There is connected to this a blackmail scheme that she has to be mysterious about.
You would think that misleading the audience would be the way to go but this film really sabotages this. Everytime someone is going to be killed there is a flash image of the girl in the bathtub. It's like the writer Massimo Felisatti and director Andrea Bianchi thought we forgot over and over again why the killing was happening. Instead of just reminding us though they took the tension out of the film by telegraphing when the murders were coming.
What also is on the nose is the product placement. Throughout the film you will see two products prominently place. First the is J&B Whiskey which is all over this film, then the other is Levi Jeans which appear in posters and advertising so much so that there is a poster for the product above a character's bed.
There are some memoriable bits of dialog in the film so here are a few gems, I liked when Magda was talking about coffee, Carlo wants her to put milk in his and she says "What, you can't ruin good coffee like that." ... "Milk in coffee is like water in wine, both are ruined. That's the truth."
Then there is poor old Maurizio who is constantly trying to get with the models. His pervy pursuits finally look like they are going to pay off when he wears one model down. Doris agrees to having sex with him but he can't perform and she leaves after his crying out. "Oh Mama, mama why does it always end this way." he walks into another room and gets a blow up sex doll to blow up. "Your the only one who can make it happen. The only one." So sad.
Later in the film the police chase a guy down a dark alley and I kid you not after a cursory look into the shadows the cop turns to another cop and says "Forget it he's gone. No way we can find him now." and the other cop says No, too dark." Noe that is stellar police work.
What this film does have going for it is some really beautiful women, I know we at Soresport Movies say that about many of the Italian Giallos, but it is true. Our lead Edwige Fenech is lovely and they spare not an opportunity to have her and the other actresses in this film to take their shirts off. It is part of the genre and the italians apparently like the look of a woman's breasts. So hats off to them at least when the movie is crappy there are beautiful women exposing themselves. I am sure this does little for the women in the audience but at least it is a distraction for me since I pretty much figured out this film about 2/3 the way through.
Whether you choose to watch this or not know there are better examples of the genre out there, Tenebre comes to mind. This film did not really do it for me although there are not many movies that end with a couple in bed where the man is joking about wanting to have anal sex.
Rating (4.8) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system I say SKIP IT!