Color, 1971, 107m. / Directed by Massimo Dallamano / Starring Fabio Testi, Christine Galbo / Shriek Show (US R1 NTSC) / WS (2.35:1) (16:9), EC Entertainment (Holland R0 NTSC) / WS (1.85:1)
Color, 1972, 85m. / Directed by Massimo Dallamano / Starring Giovanna Ralli, Claudio Cassinelli / Redemption (UK R0 PAL) / WS (2.35:1)
Following the discovery of a nude fifteen-year-old girl hanged in an attic, the local police quickly uncover clues indicating she may have been murdered elsewhere and been framed as a suicide. The local Assistant D.A. (Giovanna Ralli, a great example of creative casting) teams up with the officer in charge (Claudio Cassinelli) for a grimy trip into the underbelly of the Italian urban scene, including a covert prostitute ring of underage girls. Meanwhile a cleaver-wielding killer stalks the investigating parties in his chic black leather motorcycle gear, forcing the police to unravel the corruption surrounding them before it's too late.
Displaying the same unmistakable fixation with young schoolgirls in (and out of) their uniforms as What Have They Done to Solange?, Dallamano lowers the sleaze content somewhat while delivering more standard gory thrills. In between some nonsensical rounds of suspect hunting and interrogations, the high speed killer himself provides all of the highlights. Whether tearing at frightening speed down a corridor or veering through the city streets on his bike, this is one of the more memorable '70s psychos (even if his identity isn't really all that important). One sequence involving his cleaver and a light switch will have Argento-jaded gorehounds squealing with glee, while other sordid goodies include multiple stabbings and a nasty morgue inspection of a corpse ("cut up like a side of beef," as the ETC quote on the box exclaims). The occasionally slack pacing aside, Dallamano really knows how to arrange a set piece, such as Ralli's nocturnal pursuit through a parking deck and into an elevator. Daughters may not be the best place for Italo-sleaze neophytes to begin, but seasoned mystery vets will be grateful to have this obscure treat available in English at last. And be sure to look fast for Hitchcock vet Farley Granger (circa The Slasher Is a Sex Maniac) as a grieving father.
The British DVD from Salvation presents the film at an extremely wide aspect ratio, listed as 2.35:1 on the box but more like 2.50:1. The film was shot in a deliberately flat, Kojak-inspired style with overlit rooms and drab colors; however, the transfer is as good as could be expected and displays only a few fleeting signs of wear and tear. The rousing score by Stelvio Cipriani, one of his very best, sounds just fine here in mono and should have anyone begging for a soundtrack release. Extras include the very long European, English language trailer and an assortment of still, video, and poster art.
An assured outing from the golden age of the giallo, this twisty murder mystery was the first of two Italian adaptations commissioned from the novels of Edgar Wallace, whose krimi had inspired a line of successful German mysteries. Naturally the Italians jazzed up the brew with heady helpings of sex, perversion, and mean-spirited violence, but somehow it all still seems like a first class affair in this expertly rendered whodunit.
While enjoying the lakeside carnal company of her gym teacher Enrico (Fabio Testi), young student Elizabeth (Christine Galbo) spies a flashing knife in the woods, much to the disbelief of her lover. The next day a girl's body is discovered nearby, and the married Rossini finds himself in hot water when he's suspected of murder and simultaneously may have his dalliances with his students exposed to the public. Soon the boorish hero must put aside his own self-interest and work with the police to expose the criminal, whose vicious activities begin to cut very close to home.
From the ethereal Ennio Morricone theme drifting over slow motion, sepia-tinted opening credits depicting young girls on bicycles, Massimo Dallamano and his cinematographer, Aristide Massachessi (a.k.a. the infamous Joe D'Amato), prove they know how to satisfy their audience while delivering some unexpected subtext and artistry in the mix. Best known at the time for his sexy potboilers like Dorian Gray and Venus in Furs, Dallamano switched gears here to inaugurate his "schoolgirl trilogy" of shockers which continued with the police procedural, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, and concluded with the disturbing Red Rings of Fear (Trauma). Already established as a western actor, Testi finally proved his acting chops here and became a genre regular throughout the 1970s as he branched further out to become one of the country's most accomplished thespian/matinee idols. Much of the film's success also lies in its rock solid storyline, which craftily twists Wallace's The Curse of the Green Pin (named for a tangential clue) into an early '70s manifesto complete with showering schoolgirls and a depraved climactic resolution, featuring a near-catatonic appearance by Camille Keaton, several years prior to I Spit on Your Grave. Props also to the underused but always enjoyable Galbo, one of Eurocult's most striking and engaging actresses, who went on to glory in Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. Though comparatively low on sex and splatter when held up to its successors like, say, Torso, this remains one of the high points of the giallo genre. (Incidentally, the other Italian Edgar Wallace film was the less successful Seven Bloodstained Orchids.)
For a film still relatively obscure compared to the likes of Dario Argento, Solange has enjoyed a wide number of incarnations under a dizzying array of titles like The School that Couldn't Scream, Who's Next, and Terror in the Woods, all of which not surprisingly correspond as well to substandard video releases over the years. The first DVD release from EC, transferred from the same master used for Redemption's VHS edition, is a lackluster affair with weak contrasts. Even worse, the nicely utilized scope framing is hacked down to 1.85:1, lopping characters' faces from the sides of the screen. The anamorphically enhanced Shriek Show disc is a great improvement, with beautifully saturated colors, stable black levels, and admirable detail which manages to sustain a film-like appearance throughout, resulting in what can easily qualify as one of their best efforts.
A textbook '70s Italian thriller, What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (originally La polizia chiede aiuto, or The Police Cry for Help) operates primarily as a police investigation study crossed with a black-gloved giallo film. While this combination is hardly unique (e.g., the awful Five Women for a Murderer), Dallamano's film succeeds thanks to the sheer nastiness and forcefulness of its vision.
