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

Director:

Roberto Bianchi Montero

Writers:

Luigi Angelo (screenplay)
Luigi Angelo (story)
(more)

Release Date:

July 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

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!

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Crime Scene | Murder | Photograph | Burglary

Cast

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
Paul Oxon
Philippe Hersent	...	The Questor
Nieves Navarro	...	Lilly (as Susan Scott)
Sandro Pizzorro
Bruno Boschetti	...	Policeman (segment "incipit")
Benito Stefanelli	...	Lilly's Husband
Luigi Ciavarro
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kim Pope	...	(voice: English version)
Harry Reems	...	(in edited American version)
Tina Russell	...	(edited American version)
Marc Stevens	...	(voice: English version)

Directed by
Roberto Bianchi Montero

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Luigi Angelo		screenplay
Luigi Angelo		story
Roberto Bianchi Montero		screenplay (as Roberto Montero)
Italo Fasan		screenplay
Italo Fasan		story

Produced by
Angelo Faccenna	....	executive producer
Eugenio Florimonte	....	producer
Mario Pellegrino	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Giorgio Gaslini

Cinematography by
Fausto Rossi

Film Editing by
Rolando Salvatori

Art Direction by
Massimo Bolongaro

Costume Design by
Oscar Capponi

Makeup Department
Liliana Dulac	....	hair stylist
Liliana Dulac	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Francesco Vitulano	....	production manager

Sound Department
Roberto Alberghini	....	sound

Special Effects by
Vitantonio Ricci	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Maurizio Gennaro	....	camera operator
Gianfranco Turino	....	assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Lidia Maniero	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Bruno Sarandrea	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Marisa Agostini	....	script supervisor
Maria Luisa Della Camera	....	secretary

Production Companies

• Produzioni Cinematografiche Romane (P.C.R.)

Distributors

• William Mishkin Motion Pictures (1974) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Frontier Amusements (1974) (Canada) (theatrical) (as "Slasher...is the Sex Maniac") (dubbed)
• William Mishkin Motion Pictures (1976) (USA) (theatrical) (re-edited hardcore version) (retitled re-release) (dubbed)
• Overseas Film Company (1972) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Camera Obscura (2010) (Germany) (DVD)
• CineHollywood (CH) (Greece) (VHS)
• Cinefear (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Gaumont-Columbia-RCA (GCR) (1985) (France) (VHS) (as GCR Distribution)
• Monterey Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Mya Communication (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Schmalz-Schneider (2010) (Austria) (DVD) (as Illusions Unltd. Films)
• Svenska Walthers Video (SW)
• Toho Video
• Videoteca Studio (1981) (Greece) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Imprecom  sound recording and editing

Also Known As:

"Rivelazioni di un maniaco sessuale al capo della squadra mobile" - Italy (original title)
"Bad Girls" - USA (reissue title)
"Penetration" - USA (X-rated version)
"Revelations of a Sex Maniac to the Head of the Criminal Investigation Division" - Europe (English title)
"The Slasher ...is the Sex Maniac!" - USA (dubbed version)

Runtime:

95 min | Australia:90 min | USA:88 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | USA:R | Iceland:16 | USA:X (original rating) | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Produzioni Cinematografiche Romane (P.C.R.)

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.

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)!!