Near
the campus grounds of St. Mary’s Catholic College is a serial murderer whose
calling card involves leaving sharp butcher knives in the nether regions of his
victims. One day as college professor
Enrico Rosseni (Fabio Testi) fools around with student Elizabeth Seccles (Christina
Galbo), the young woman witnesses the culprit in the act of killing with their
proximity to the murder throwing their mutual credibility into question. Soon Elizabeth and Enrico find themselves on
the mysterious killer’s hitlist as the proceeding police investigation turns up
dead ends as more women are picked off one by one. The film quickly becomes a race against time
as the killer closes in on his next victim while amateur detectives Elizabeth
and Enrico try to figure out why he is choosing these particular girls. Moreover, how does any of this bloodshed
relate to a young woman named Solange (Camille Keaton)?
A
German-Italian co-production loosely based on Edgar Wallace’s The Clue of the New Pin with Dallamano’s
own brand of sexploitation and sadistic extreme violence, What Have You Done to Solange? functions as both a police
procedural and an old-fashioned women-in-peril thriller. Sporting a variety of tense chase sequences,
startling outbursts of bloodshed and a grisly form of murder which nearly tops
the infamous sadism of Nikkatsu Violent Pink shock fest Assault! Jack the Ripper, Dallamano’s quintessential entry into the
giallo subgenre is simultaneously a bumpy ride not for the faint hearted and an
impeccably crafted thriller not to be missed by staunch cinephiles eager to
check out one of Italian cinema’s high watermarks.
Photographed
handsomely by future schlock/porno peddler Joe D’Amato (credited here as
Aristide Massaccesi) and prominently featuring a tense and moody Jazzy score by
legendary composer Ennio Morricone, this still wickedly savage and
uncompromising giallo shocker represents an essential starting point for
newcomers to the genre eager to find out just what the whole scene was all
about. Amid the proceedings are, of
course, ample amounts of sex and nudity thrown in to tilt the piece towards a
tightrope walk between classy genre thriller and unabashed grindhouse sleaze.
Despite
wearing its tawdriness with pride from the moment the opening credits play over
a slow-motion montage of schoolgirls bicycling about, What Have You Done to Solange? is among the sharpest and most
polished gialli out there and newcomers to the genre will not emerge
disappointed. Word has it in recent
years, Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn has been mounting a remake of this
genre classic. While novel in theory and
despite having affinity for Refn’s work as it is, my friendly advice would be
for moviegoers to seek out and stick with the original which in the years since
its inception and release has only grown in stature as one of the finest 1970s
thrillers Italy has ever known.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki