a review of 躯干

HOOPTOBER XII NIGHT TWENTY-ONE: Starts off as kind of a horny whodunnit proto-slasher with a masked killer stalking free-loving coeds in '70s Rome, where at first it seems that the title refers to the somewhat higher-than-usual amount of toplessness among the female cast. In the last half hour it shifts gears into a full-on giallo suspense picture, with a couple of well-executed red-herring switcheroos and a nice long set piece in a luxurious Italian villa with star Suzy Kendall playing a tense game of hide-and-seek with the revealed killer. I watched this one to satisfy the Ernesto Gastaldi screenwriter requirement for this year's challenge, and in looking at his filmography I was pleased to see that he also wrote one of my favorite spaghetti westerns, MY NAME IS NOBODY. Although this particular film runs mostly on visual appeal, I appreciated the philosophical and political touches that Martino and Gastaldi brought to the script, which come into play far more than one might expect from the giallo genre.