What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)

A teacher who is having an affair with one of his students takes her out on a boat. They see a knife killing on shore. Other gruesome murders start occurring shortly thereafter, and the teacher suspects that he may be the cause of them.

Director:

Massimo Dallamano

Writers:

Bruno Di Geronimo (story), Massimo Dallamano (story)

Stars:

Fabio Testi, Karin Baal, Cristina Galbó

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Fabio Testi	...	Enrico Rosseni
Karin Baal	...	Herta Rosseni
Cristina Galbó	...	Elizabeth Seccles (as Christine Galbo)
Joachim Fuchsberger	...	Inspector Barth
Günther Stoll	...	Professor Bascombe
Claudia Butenuth	...	Brenda Pilchard
Camille Keaton	...	Solange Beauregard
Maria Monti	...	Mrs. Erickson
Giancarlo Badessi	...	Mr. Erickson
Pilar Castel	...	Janet Bryant
Giovanna Di Bernardo	...	Helen Edmonds
Vittorio Fanfoni	...	Enrico's Landlord
Marco Mariani	...	Father Webber
Antonio Casale	...	Mr. Newton (as Antony Vernon)
Emilia Wolkowicz	...	Ruth Holden (as Emilia Wolkowich)

Storyline

In London, the Italian gym teacher Enrico 'Henry' Rosseni is having a love affair with his eighteen year-old student Elizabeth, who is the niece of the owner of the Catholic school where he works and she studies. His estranged wife, Herta is the Music and German teacher. One day when Enrico and Elizabeth are in a boat in a grove, she sees a man hunting down a woman. Enrico believes she's making it up, but the next morning, he learns a teenager was murdered in the river bank in the grove. Inspector Barth goes to the school since the victim Hilda studied there and soon, Enrico is the prime suspect, though Elizabeth could give an him an alibi. When a second student's murdered, and then so is Elizabeth, Enrico decides to investigate, and teams up with Herta to find the of the mysterious Solange, but what might have happened to Solange?

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | psycho killer | giallo | object in vagina | stabbed in vagina | 

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Taglines:

A true story

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mindful of the American aversion to dubbed foreign films, the production team decided that the shooting would be exclusively made in English language despite the accent of the actors. Consequently the English looping coincided so well with the lip movements of the actors that no one in the U.S. noticed the film was dubbed.

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Goofs

Second victim can be seen moving her eyes while being dead.

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Quotes

Solange Beauregard: You're not going to hurt me now, are you, Tata?
Ruth Holden: If you do suffer a little, you'll deserve it. You others, hold her tight, understand? Keep the legs apart, huh? Now you just think about screwing and grit your teeth.

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Alternate Versions

The "uncut" DVD has some scenes in the still and artwork gallery that are not shown in that 2002 video release. These include: more nude shots of Elizabeth's body (Cristina Galbó); a scene of a topless Solange (Camille Keatton) being visited by the unidentified killer which is very crucial to the plot; the shower scenes are cropped so that the schoolgirls are only shown topless.

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Connections

Featured in What Have You Done to Decency? (2015)

User Reviews

One of the Best Gialli

An innocent teacher is suspected of a really sick series of murders (after this film, the verb "to solange" should have been added to the dictionary) and must clear himself, ala Hitchcock. Supposedly based on one of Edgar Wallace's books (there _is_ a hidden room), they still must have taken an awful lot of creative license. Joe D'Amato uses the 2.35 frame as only a style-uber-content DP can, though Dallamano deserves a lot of credit for making the story so engrossing. Morricone's score is truly haunting (available on CD with his score for Lenzi's "Spasmo"), adding a note of sadness to the gruesome proceedings. As with the best horror, there's nothing explicit in the murder scenes, wisely leaving the details of the truly hideous murders to the viewers' imaginations. ("Giallo in Venice" also featured a murderer solanging a victim but ruined it by showing the whole thing.) This one's definitely worth checking out, though widescreen is a must.

Details

Country:

Italy West Germany UK

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

May 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Secret of the Green Pins

Filming Locations:

8 Evelyn Gardens, Kensington, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Italian International Film, Clodio Cinematografica, Rialto Film Preben-Philipsen

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1