So Sweet, So Dead (1972)
"Rivelazioni di un maniaco sessuale al capo della squadra mobile" (original title)

A serial killer is on the loose. His victims are unfaithful wives and he always leaves compromising photographs at the crime scene.

Director:

Roberto Bianchi Montero

Writers:

Luigi Angelo (screenplay), Luigi Angelo (story),

Stars:

Farley Granger, Sylva Koscina, Silvano Tranquilli

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Farley Granger	...	Inspector Capuana
Sylva Koscina	...	Barbara Capuana
Silvano Tranquilli	...	Paolo Santangeli
Annabella Incontrera	...	Franca Santangeli
Chris Avram	...	Professor Casali
Femi Benussi	...	Serena
Krista Nell	...	Renata
Angela Covello	...	Bettina Santangeli
Fabrizio Moresco	...	Piero
Andrea Scotti
Irene Pollmer	...	Giannina
Luciano Rossi	...	Gastone
Ivano Staccioli	...	The Liar
Nino Foti
Jessica Dublin	...	Rossella

Storyline

Inspector Capuana investigates serial murders where the victims of unfaithful wives were get killed as they were having sex with their husbands. A naked woman is found murdered and mutilated in a prosperous small province town in Southern Italy. But who is murdering her? After a while, the killer who wears black fedora, gloves, and trench coat starts photographing unfaithful wives as they start having sex with their lovers and also killing them.

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | crime scene | murder | photograph | burglary | 

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Taglines:

One day you'll get closer to the violence of death... but THIS IS AS FAR AS WE DARE TAKE YOU... with any hope of bringing you back!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

X

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian English

Release Date:

July 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bad Girls

Filming Locations:

Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Produzioni Cinematografiche Romane (P.C.R.)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A re-edited version released in the U.S. was called "Penetration", and featured hardcore porno footage with adult-film stars Harry Reems and Tina Russell. It was advertised as a porno featuring actor Farley Granger, who was in the original film but had nothing to do with the re-edited version. Granger threatened the distributors with a major lawsuit for the unauthorized use of his name in the new version, and they subsequently withdrew the film from US distribution, but not from Europe.

User Reviews

SO SWEET, SO DEAD (Roberto Bianchi Montero, 1972) **1/2

This is yet another giallo helmed by a little-known director; the suggestive but actually deceptive original title, which translates to REVELATIONS OF A SEX MANIAC TO THE CHIEF OF THE MOBILE SQUAD, would lead one to believe that this is very low-brow stuff indeed – however, the end result (propelled by a pounding Giorgio Gaslini score) is not bad at all. Besides, there is a good cast on hand: the obligatory American 'star' is once again Farley Granger (looking remarkably more mature than in SOMETHING IS CREEPING IN THE DARK [1971]), but then we have what can best be described as cameos by "Euro-Cult" regular Silvano Tranquilli and three of its luscious starlets – Sylva Koscina (playing Granger's wife), Femi Benussi and Susan Scott; all the females are made to shed their clothes, with the latter two even involved in surprisingly explicit sex scenes! Incidenatlly, along with STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER (1975; also with Benussi), this was the most erotically-oriented genre effort I have watched so far; in fact, the movie under review was subsequently re-assembled and distributed as outright hard-core material under the moniker PENETRATIONS (but Granger understandably – and successfully – sued the producers over it)! The plot sees the traditional black-gloved killer targeting a small town's apparently unending population of cheating wives (leaving as calling-card photos of them caught in flagrante, albeit with their respective partners' face clinically erased); in this respect, it also emerges as one of the more moralistic giallo entries (at least, this time around one is spared the usual pursuit of the proceeds of either an inheritance or an insurance policy!). By the way, the film even foregoes the last-minute explanation of the killer's motives which concludes (unsatisfactorily) many a giallo – though, in view of just this unexpected striving for satirical relevance (which proves rather vapid nevertheless, given the sheerly exploitative elements by which it is surrounded), here was perhaps a case where one would have liked to know what made this particular person tick (a gratuitously deranged morgue attendant had been made to fit the bill all along, but the real culprit was not too far off the mark anyway)!!