It was Edwige Fenech’s name that got my attention but I was dying of curiosity to see what director Andrea Bianchi’s version of a giallo would look like. Bianchi has directed some pretty entertaining but absurd and unintelligible films. Much to my surprise Bianchi who wrote and directed, puts together a decent little film with a plot that is actually coherent. Of course, it is also sleazy, cheesy and violent! Even if you despised the film you certainly couldn’t say Strip Nude For Your Killer doesn’t live up to its titular promise!
The film opens with model Evelyn dying of a massive coronary while having a back-alley abortion. The horrific event initiates a chain of deaths starting with the man who performed the abortion. Soon Evelyn’s former co-workers at the Albatross Modeling Agency begin turning up dead.
Strip Nude For Your Killer is a whodunit with plenty of red herrings to throw you off the scent. Among the players is photographer Carlo, an aggressive, overly confident ladies man who sometimes gets a little rougher than necessary. The seemingly sweet Magda, Carlo’s assistant, shows her catty side when introduced to his newest model discovery, the shapely Lucia. Lucia clearly has her own agenda and is even willing to get into bed with the boss to further her career. The boss Giselle is a hard, unsmiling, manipulative woman who has a preference for the ladies but is married to the sweaty obese Maurizio. Maurizio can’t keep his eyes off the merchandise especially model Doris. Everyone in the entire film is a suspect but with every corpse the list of possibilities gets slimmer.
Strip Nude For Your Killer may have shades of Bava’s Blood And Black Lace but it definitely has the Bianchi signature. You get nudity in the first scene and there is plenty more where that came from! Everyone gets naked, even the portly Maurizio strips down to his giant undies. There is a significant body count and the violence is plentiful. It is not as gory as Bianchi’s later films, but it is considerably bloodier than other giallo from the period. It does however lack the stylistic visuals of its peers. But what it lacks in style it makes up with substance. Not substance where it relates to the story however. Hell no! While it may be more coherent than the directors other films it isn’t exactly original. But Bianchi gets big points for giving the viewer an all you can eat buffet of exactly what they came for; nudity and death!
There are all sorts of displays of 70’s machoism throughout the film. In one particularly ugly display Carlo loses his patience and grabs Magda by the throat. He controls himself and let’s go before choking her to death. It isn’t so much the act I found odd, it is actually Magda’s reaction to it. She looks mildly disturbed for a second and goes back to reading the newspaper like nothing happen. The acting is decent but the insanely adorable Edwige Fenech is definitely the highlight. She’s like a delightfully uninhibited Nancy Drew getting naked and sleuthing her way through the film.
Strip Nude For Your Killer is an entertaining 70’s giallo that might be thin on story and not all that original but its thick with what its subtle title promises. It’s lively, fun and there is death, nudity and Edwige Fenech. Recommended.
Dungeon Rating: 3.5/5
Directed By: Andrea Bianchi
Starring: Edwige Fenech, Nino Castelnuovo, Femi Benussi, Solvi Stubing, Amanda, Franco Diogene, Lucio Como, Erna Schürer
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