‘Well, that’s two dead now, always assuming this isn’t chicken blood.’
A young girl is found dead in an attic flat, an apparent suicide. However, the police inspector in charge of the case believes it’s murder. His investigation reveals the existence of a teenage prostitution ring with a range of influential clients…
Police procedural with elements of the Giallo from co-writer and director Massimo Dallamano. An excellent cast is headed up by Giovanna Ralli, Claudio Cassinelli and Hollywood exile Farley Granger.
It’s a bad day at work for Inspector Valentini (Mario Adorf) when he’s called to an attic flat in the middle of the city. Hanging from the rafters is 15-year-old schoolgirl Silvia Polvesi (Sherry Buchanan), who attended the same school as his daughter, Patrizia (Roberta Paladini). At first glance, it’s a suicide, but evidence from a peeping tom photographer tags it as a murder. The case is handed over to the homicide squad and hotshot investigator Inspector Silvestri (Cassinelli). He’s a little dismayed to discover that he’s reporting to new Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Ralli), but the two soon bond over their determination to find the killer.
It’s not long before it comes to light that Buchanan was part of a teenage prostitution ring assembled by classmate Giuliana (Adriana Falco), who is taking her orders via telephone from the mysterious Bruno Paglia (Franco Fabrizi). As the investigation progresses, more girls turn up dead, loose ends tied up by an unknown assassin in leathers and a motorcycle helmet. Ralli and Cassinelli soon realise that the girls’ clientele includes some of the city’s most prominent and influential men, but this only makes them more determined to uncover the truth.
Italian popular cinema of the mid to late 20th Century was nothing if not chained to commercial considerations. Productions were usually mounted with an eye on ticket receipts. By 1974, the Giallo craze had passed its peak, but a steady number of such films were still released over subsequent years. However, the crime films known as Poliziotteschi had stolen a lot of their thunder. Typically, these movies were action-heavy thrillers containing violence, car chases, political corruption and villains with links to organised crime.
After the success of his excellent Giallo ‘What Have You Done To Solange?/Cosa avete fatto a Solange?’ (1972), it’s perhaps hardly surprising that director Dallamano would hedge his bets with this crime drama and sprinkle in some Giallo elements. These principally take the form of the villain’s strong-arm man, a lethal enforcer on a motorbike with a helmet and leathers to match. Crucially, however, the revelation of the assassin’s true identity is not the focus of the drama. It might actually seem a little tangential if not for a superb sequence where Ralli is stalked through the underground car park of her apartment block. What killing her will achieve when the investigation is well underway is debatable. Still, the audience is likely to grant a little dramatic licence given the high quality of the filmmaking involved.
Instead of the usual Giallo tropes, Dallamano serves up a mixture of police procedural and social commentary. It’s a far cry from how more exploitative filmmakers might have handled this kind of material. There is a grisly scene where a coroner reassembles a corpse for identification from chopped-up body parts, but it’s presented without frills or ostentation, almost as if it’s a routine part of the man’s working day. This grounded approach is the key to why the story works so well, but there’s still room for some creative and imaginative touches. Particularly satisfying is the way that the killer is eventually fingered to the police. The tipsters? Two pre-pubescent girls who recognise him on the street. Dallamano also excels in the brief action scenes, particularly the chase through hospital corridors and subsequent motorbike pursuit. It’s never too extravagant, but his use of handheld camera provides the sequence both with realism and a tremendous kinetic energy.
Ralli and Cassinelli also give very well-judged performances. Neither are given any significant backstory, quirky habits, or forced affectations to inform character. Initially, they are almost entirely defined by their investigative roles; the only nod to personality is that Cassinelli is mildly surprised and slightly concerned about working for a female Assistant DA. However, as the investigation progresses, their emotions and characters emerge, imbuing the drama with a human centre that makes it more impactful. There’s no obligatory romantic angle either; these are two professionals doing an unpleasant job, sharing a growing respect for each other’s moral code and professional abilities.
However, given the clear determination to ground the story in reality, a few missteps betray a surprisingly careless attitude to details. Ralli receives a threatening note pushed under the door of her flat. She interrogates her building’s supervisor, who confirms that he let a man in to make the delivery but didn’t recognise him. End of discussion. Given that this man is probably the killer everyone is looking for, it seems a slight oversight not to invite the Super to come down to headquarters and meet with a sketch artist and look through some mug books. Similarly, Ralli just tears up the note and throws it away rather than submit it for fingerprint or forensic analysis. Of course, these are minor gripes, but it would have taken so little effort to resolve them with a couple of lines of dialogue that it is frustrating.
As the crimes revolve around a teenage prostitution ring, there’s plenty of opportunity to abandon social commentary in favour of exploitation, of course, but that’s never Dallamano’s intention. Instead, the sexual activity is confined to an audio recording of one of the girls meeting an elderly client played on a machine placed close to the camera. The director holds the shot as the tape unwinds, and the investigators appear only as blurred shapes in the background. This set-up forces the audience to assume the role of active listeners, and the sheer length of the shot makes for an increasingly uncomfortable experience. It’s a highly effective piece of filmmaking.
Dallamano was born in Milan in 1917 and began his career as a cameraman, shooting documentaries and commercials. After the war, he graduated to the movies as a cinematographer, gaining international notice with his work on Sergio Leone’s classics ‘A Fistful of Dollars/Per un pugno di dollari’ (1964) and ‘For A Few Dollars More/Per qualche dollaro in più’ (1965). When he stepped into the director’s seat, it was perhaps inevitably on a Spaghetti Western, ‘Bandidos’ (1967). However, he followed that with the outstanding Giallo ‘A Black Veil For Lisa/La Morte Non Ha Sesso’ (1968) and the pop art excesses of ‘Dorian Gray/Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray’ (1970). He returned to the Giallo with the excellent ‘What Have You Done To Solange?/Cosa avete fatto a Solange?’ (1972), and later projects included the horror film ‘Perché?!’ (1974) with Richard Johnson and a young Joanna Cassidy. Sadly, his career was cut short by a fatal car accident in November 1976.
A highly slick and superior thriller whose message doesn’t get in the way of its entertainment value.