''Nude per l'assassino'' (
English
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Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: ''Strip Nude for Your Killer'') is a 1975 ''
giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
'' film directed by
Andrea Bianchi
Andrea Bianchi (31 March 1925 – 14 November 2013) was an Italian film director and writer.
Filmography
* '' Diabólica malicia'' (1972) (as Andrew White) (uncredited in English version)
* ''Treasure Island'' (1972) (as Andrew White) (uncredit ...
. Written by
Massimo Felisatti
Massimo Felisatti (12 May 1932 – 7 September 2016) was an Italian novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and director.
Biography
Born in Ferrara, Felisatti graduated in Modern Letters, and then he started collaborating with some local newspapers, ...
, the film stars
Nino Castelnuovo
Francesco "Nino" Castelnuovo (28 October 1936 – 6 September 2021) was an Italian actor of film, stage and television, best known for his starring role as Guy Foucher in the French musical film ''The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'' (1964).
Castelnu ...
,
Edwige Fenech
Edwige Fenech (, ; born 24 December 1948) is an Algerian-born Maltese-Sicilian actress and film producer. She is mostly known as the star of a series of ''commedia sexy all'italiana'' and ''giallo'' films released in the 1970s, which turned her ...
and
Solvi Stubing
Solvi Stubing (19 January 1941 – 3 July 2017) was a German actress and TV personality, mainly active in Italy.
Born in Berlin, Stubing obtained wide popularity in Italy with a commercial for Peroni Beer, and starred in many films, often of mode ...
, and features music by
Berto Pisano
Berto Pisano (13 October 1928 – 29 January 2002) was an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and jazz musician.
Born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Pisano started his career as a contrabassist in the jazz groups Quartetto Astor and Asternovas. He i ...
. ''Nude per l'assassino'' has received mixed to negative reviews from critics.
After a model dies while undergoing an illegal abortion, a killer disguised in a motorcycle helmet tracks down and kills the doctor involved. Several models and photographers working at the same agency as the dead girl are also murdered, leading two surviving photographers to fear for their lives as they try to track down the killer.
''Nude per l'assassino'' is one of several collaborations between Bianchi, Felisatti and cinematographer
Franco Delli Colli. The film has been described as a formulaic ''giallo'' thriller, and has been cited as an influence on the development of the American
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
genre.
Plot
After a fashion model dies while undergoing an illegal abortion, the attending doctor moves her body back to her home, staging her death to remove any trace of his involvement. However, he is murdered by a stranger disguised in
racing leathers and a motorcycle helmet. At the Albatross Modelling Agency, womanising photographer Carlo (
Nino Castelnuovo
Francesco "Nino" Castelnuovo (28 October 1936 – 6 September 2021) was an Italian actor of film, stage and television, best known for his starring role as Guy Foucher in the French musical film ''The Umbrellas of Cherbourg'' (1964).
Castelnu ...
) embarks on an affair with fellow photographer Magda (
Edwige Fenech
Edwige Fenech (, ; born 24 December 1948) is an Algerian-born Maltese-Sicilian actress and film producer. She is mostly known as the star of a series of ''commedia sexy all'italiana'' and ''giallo'' films released in the 1970s, which turned her ...
). Meanwhile, a newly hired model, Patrizia (
Solvi Stubing
Solvi Stubing (19 January 1941 – 3 July 2017) was a German actress and TV personality, mainly active in Italy.
Born in Berlin, Stubing obtained wide popularity in Italy with a commercial for Peroni Beer, and starred in many films, often of mode ...
), fends off the unwanted advances of Maurizio (
Franco Diogene
Franco Diogene (20 October 1947 – 27 May 2005) was an Italian actor and comedian.
Life and career
Born Concetto Francesco Diogene in Catania, he was the son of a Sicilian father and a Ligurian mother. At 5 years old, Diogene moved to Genoa ...
), whose wife owns the agency. One evening, Mario (
Claudio Pellegrini
Claudio Pellegrini (born in Rome on May 9, 1935) is an Italian/American physicist known for his pioneering work on X-ray free electron lasers and collective effects in relativistic particle beams.[Lia Amanda
Lia Amanda (born 2 September 1932) is an Italian former film actress.
Life and career
Born in Rome as Lia Molfesi, Amanda was the daughter of the character actor Mario Molfesi.
She debuted at very young age with her real name in Mario Monicel ...]
) and another model, Lucia (
Femi Benussi
Eufemia "Femi" Benussi (born 4 March 1945) is a Yugoslav-Italian film actress. She appeared in 82 films between 1965 and 1983.
Benussi was born in Rovigno, Italy (now Rovinj, Croatia). She debuted on stage at the ''Teatro del Popolo'' of Rijeka ...
) about the killing, but learn very little. Gisella makes Lucia exchange in sex with her to keep her job; one night when Gisella leaves after a fight, Lucia is attacked and killed.
Maurizio propositions another model, Doris (
Erna Schürer
Erna Schürer (born August 18, 1942) is an Italian actress, model and television hostess, sometimes credited as Erna Scheurer or Erna Schuler.
Life and career
Born in Naples as Emma Costantino, Schürer moved to Milan where began a career as gl ...
), but when she refuses to sleep with him for money, he attempts to rape her. However, he suffers from impotence and Doris leaves unharmed. Shortly afterwards, Maurizio is stabbed by the killer. Carlo later witnesses Gisella being murdered, and is able to photograph the attack; however, he runs off and is injured in a hit and run accident. While he is in hospital, Magda recovers his camera and attempts to develop the film, but the killer breaks in and destroys the negatives. Carlo hurries home, but the killer has gone—going instead to kill Doris and her abusive boyfriend Stefano. Carlo finds Magda alive, but the killer returns to attack them both. During the struggle, the killer is knocked down a flight of stairs. The killer is unmasked and revealed to be Patrizia, who accuses Carlo of causing the death of her sister—the girl who died in the botched abortion, and whose death it is revealed Carlo helped to conceal. However, Patrizia dies of her injuries, leaving no trace of Carlo's involvement.
Production
Writer
Massimo Felisatti
Massimo Felisatti (12 May 1932 – 7 September 2016) was an Italian novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and director.
Biography
Born in Ferrara, Felisatti graduated in Modern Letters, and then he started collaborating with some local newspapers, ...
did not wish to be seen as having solely written the film, and gave director
Andrea Bianchi
Andrea Bianchi (31 March 1925 – 14 November 2013) was an Italian film director and writer.
Filmography
* '' Diabólica malicia'' (1972) (as Andrew White) (uncredited in English version)
* ''Treasure Island'' (1972) (as Andrew White) (uncredit ...
credit for the story in order to "deflect his role and not have to bear full responsibility" for the script. Bianchi, Felisatti and cinematographer
Franco Delli Colli would collaborate again the following year in ''
La moglie di mio padre''. ''Nude per l'assassino'' score was written by
Berto Pisano
Berto Pisano (13 October 1928 – 29 January 2002) was an Italian composer, conductor, arranger and jazz musician.
Born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Pisano started his career as a contrabassist in the jazz groups Quartetto Astor and Asternovas. He i ...
, who would also go on to write the score for Bianchi's 1979 film ''
Malabimba – The Malicious Whore''.
Bianchi would later cast Femi Benussi, who portrayed one of the slain models, in two other films—''La moglie di mio padre'' and .
''Nude per l'assassino'' has been described as following "the ''
giallo
In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...
'' formula almost to the letter", demonstrating that "the ''giallo'' conventions established by
Bava and
Argento and elaborated upon by a number of directors in the early 1970s had become well codified" by the time the film was produced. The film has also been cited as being "the perfect bridge to the American
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
", with its emphasis on "violence and sex" and a plot "dumbed down to the barest minimum".
Release
''Nude per l'assassino'' was released on 26 August 1975.
Upon release in the United Kingdom on October 4, 1979, it was rated
X by the
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
, following the removal of five minutes of material from the film. It has subsequently received home media releases in English by
Blue Underground
Blue Underground is an American company specializing in releasing authoritative editions of cult and exploitation movies on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.
It was originally formed as a shell company to oversee 'making of' documentaries during founder ...
as ''Strip Nude for Your Killer'', first on DVD on October 25, 2005, and on
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
on March 27, 2012. Shameless Screen Entertainment also released a DVD version under the title ''Strip Nude for Your Killer'' on October 27, 2008. The film has also been distributed under the titles ''Tenebre braccia della morte'' and ''Strip Naked for Your Killer''.
Reception
''Nude per l'assassino'' has been met with mixed to negative reviews. Martyn Auty of the ''
Monthly Film Bulletin
''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'', stated that "For all its clichéd direction (voyeuristic threateningly subjective camerawork) and perfunctory sexual diversions, this routine sex-ploiter is at least tolerably shot and unfussily plotted." Writing for
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
, Jason Buchanan rated the film two stars out of five, calling it "unabashedly sadistic".
Budd Wilkins, writing for ''
Slant
Slant can refer to:
Bias
*Bias or other non-objectivity in journalism, politics, academia or other fields
Technical
* Slant range, in telecommunications, the line-of-sight distance between two points which are not at the same level
* Slant d ...
'' magazine, rated the film three stars out of five, calling it "one of the more sordid examples" of the ''giallo'' genre. Wilkins noted that the film's violence "isn't necessarily stronger than in contemporary ''giallo'' films like Argento's ''
Deep Red
''Deep Red'' ( it, Profondo rosso), also known as ''The Hatchet Murders'', is a 1975 Italian Thriller film, thriller- giallo film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Bernardino Zapponi. It stars David Hemmings as a musician wh ...
''", but that it is "more resolutely tied to aberrant sexuality than almost anywhere else in the genre". Wilkins also compared the film's central premise—that of revenge for a failed abortion—to that of
Massimo Dallamano
Massimo Dallamano (17 April 1917 – 4 November 1976), sometimes credited as Max Dillman, Max Dillmann or Jack Dalmas, was an Italian director and director of photography.
Life and career
Born in Milan, Dallamano began in the 1940s as camera ...
's 1972 film ''
What Have You Done to Solange?
''What Have You Done to Solange?'' ( it, Cosa avete fatto a Solange?) is a 1972 '' giallo'' film directed by Massimo Dallamano and starring Fabio Testi, Karin Baal, Joachim Fuchsberger, Cristina Galbó, and Camille Keaton. The plot follows a ser ...
''.
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman.
History
Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
's Adam Tyner also gave the film two stars out of five, summarising it as "not much of a movie". Tyner noted that ''Nude per l'assassino'' "doesn't set out to be revered as an artistic triumph", and described it as "worth at least a rental" for fans of the genre.
Writing for ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'', Noel Murray compared the film to
Sergio Martino
Sergio Martino (born 19 July 1938) is an Italian film director and producer, notable for his contributions to the giallo genre.
Martino is the brother of the late producer Luciano Martino (who died in 2013). They collaborated frequently in their ...
's 1972 film ''
Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
''Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key'' ( it, Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave) is a 1972 ''giallo'' film directed by Sergio Martino. The picture stars Edwige Fenech, Luigi Pistilli, and Anita Strindberg. ...
'' (''Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave''), noting that "both take place among the idle European aristocracy, with vapid models, rugged motocross drivers, bigoted executives, and debauched artists wandering through a world of soft fabrics and bloody, gashed skin".
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
's Mike Pereira rated ''Nude per l'assassino'' 0.5 out of 5, writing that it "reeks of amateur hour". Pereira felt that the film featured "dead-on-arrival pacing" and "terrible filmmaking and acting
A staff review for the Italian magazine ''
Nocturno'' rated the film four out of five, describing it as "one of the most daring" ''giallo'' films of the 1970s.
Previewing the film's Blu-ray release,
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
's David McCutcheon described ''Nude per l'assassino'' as an "infamous shocker that packs more grisly violence and sexual depravity into each frame than just about any other film".
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
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{{Andrea Bianchi
Giallo films
1975 films
1975 horror films
1970s thriller films
Italian thriller films
1970s Italian-language films
Italian serial killer films
Films directed by Andrea Bianchi
Films scored by Berto Pisano
Films about modeling
1970s Italian films