Review #101: 'Strip Nude for Your Killer' (1975)

When a model unexpectedly dies during an abortion procedure, the doctor carrying the operation out phones for help and sets it up to look like the girl died of natural causes. Shortly after this, the doctor is brutally murdered outside of his home. And so begins a string of brutal killings, all connected by a modelling agency named Albatross. One of the main suspects is Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo - who had previously starred in The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (1964) and Rocco And His Brothers (1960)), and slightly sleezy and ambitious young photographer who we first meet hiring a model and then trying to sleep with her in a steam room. He begins to date photographer Magda (Edwige Fenech), but can he protect her from the vicious killer who seems to be bringing down Albatross single handedly?

For all the perverts out there, this is possibly the greatest film ever made. For an apparently up-market modelling agency, the models seem to get their private parts out a hell of a lot. Well I suppose they had to get the audiences in somehow, as the film has very little else going for it. Even for a giallo, the dubbing is atrociously bad. The best they could come with for the killer is to dress him/her up in a motorcycle costume and helmet. And for all the usual style of the giallo genre, the scenes of violence and gore are disappointingly tame and bloodless (and when there is blood, it's clearly just paint!). No suspense is built by the quite boring set-pieces, and the director seems to think the longer the set-piece, the more tense it will be. Another case of great title, crap film.


Directed by: Andrea Bianchi
Starring: Edwige Fenech, Nino Castelnuovo, Femi Benussi
Country: Italy

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie