What Have They Done to Your Daughters?

What Have They Done To Your Daughters?

"What makes a young girl like that commit suicide? That's what I'd like to know."

The body of teenager Sylvia Polvesi (Sherry Buchanan) is found hanging in an attic apartment and when it's discovered that her death was a murder and not a suicide, Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Casinelli) is assigned to the case. With the help of Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli) and Inspector Valentini (Mario Adorf), Silvestri uncovers a sordid conspiracy of prostitution and drugs. But as they dig deeper, a leather-clad biker wielding a meat cleaver is eliminating witnesses. Could Bruno Paglia (Franco Fabrizi), the peeping Tom who photographed the crime scene, know more than he's letting on? The police need help – but everyone has something to hide.

If you're a fan of Law and Order, you'll likely enjoy What Have They Done To Your Daughters? (not to be confused with What Have You Done With Solange?). Like that TV show, this movie shows how the police and DA's office work together while sometimes being at odds with each other. And like on Law And Order, justice sometimes means compromise in the end. Massimo Dallamano seems to enjoy working these intriguing moral complexities into his movies and they're certainly welcome in a genre that too often features shallow stock characters.

• The leather-clad killer with a motorcycle helmet is reminiscent of the murderer from Strip Nude For Your Killer. In both cases, it's a cool modern take on the traditional look of the giallo killer.
• The score, by Stelvio Cipriano, is fantastic and I especially enjoy the brassy, sinister main theme.
• You may recognize Farley Granger, who plays Sylvia's father, for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and Strangers On a Train.
• There's a fantastic chase scene in the middle of the movie where the motorcycle-riding killer runs from the police, who take turns pursuing in police cars. They tear through the city and into the country side, up gravel roads, and through tunnels and tight turns. There's a great shot where a car skids out and its back fender stops within inches of the camera lens.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

The police uncover an audio recording of the teenage prostitutes' encounters with their clients. While we never see what's going on, it's more than clear. The tape unspools for quite some time and gets progressively more violent and disturbing as it goes.

While evading the police, the killer sets up an ambush and one poor cop gets a surprise amputation as he reaches for a light switch.

Fashion Moment

As a District Attorney, Vittoria needs to present herself as a strong, decisive woman, and her business attire is very dark, formal, and masculine. But in the one scene where we catch her at home with her guard down, we get to see her in something comfortable, colorful and feminine. This red floral maxi dress is a peek into her character's inner life.

Also, notice how the colors in her clothes tie her into her surroundings. It's clear that this is her safe place, where she's most comfortable.

The Suspicious Death of a Minor

The Suspicious Death of a Minor

"Someone should stop these maniacs."

After dancing with a young woman named Marisa (Patrizia Castaldi) at a party, Paolo Germi (Claudio Cassinelli) finds that she has been murdered and he decides to investigate. With help from teenage thief Gianni (Adolfo Caruso), Paolo uncovers a human trafficking ring and takes justice into his own hands. But is the pimp really the mastermind of the operation? Is there a connection to the kidnap of a local businessman's son? How high up does this organization go? And why does Paolo have such a keen interest in this case? As a hit man with mirrored sunglasses (Roberto Posse) eliminates witnesses, Paolo and Gianni follow the clues to find the real motive behind the killings.

The Suspicious Death of a Minor is a fantastic movie that deserves a wider audience. The story by superstar giallo writer Ernesto Gastaldi walks the line between giallo and poliziotteschi - a genre characterized by a loner cop who plays by his own rules, taking down a crime syndicate. This movie features a constantly-evolving plot, a quick pace, light humor, snappy dialogue, and some top-notch action sequences. Claudio Cassinelli's Paolo is a charming rogue who looks like a bookish nerd but isn't afraid to cross some moral lines. In fact, his methods are so destructive that he could be the prototype for such loose-cannon action heros as Axel Foley and Martin Riggs.

• In a great little meta-joke, Paolo and Gianni question a witness at a movie theater that's showing Sergio Martino's own 1972 giallo Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. 
• If Claudio Cassinelli  looks familiar, you might remember him from Murder Rock, where he played jealous, estranged husband Dick Gibson.
• The score, by Luciano Michelini, could easily be mistaken for the work of Claudio Simonetti. It has the same funky electric rock feel as the music to Deep Red.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

One of the action sequences is a raucous car chase through the streets of Milan, as Paolo and Gianni are being chased by the police. Gianni literally rips the doors off Paolo's junky old car and throws them at the police car. In fact, the whole scene is full of wacky stunts and sight gags.

Another epic action scene begins with a shootout between two cars on a roller coaster, continues down the street, and concludes in the subway.

Paolo poses as a client to question a prostitute and, after getting the answers he needed, he goes ahead and gets what he paid for.

Fashion Moment

I love The Killer's plaid jacket. He could easily fit in at either a murder scene or a mid-1990's ska concert.

 

Mirrored sunglasses seem to be a thing among murderers. They could have been borrowed from the killer in  Death Walks at Midnight.

Murder Rock

Murder Rock

"She's dead. It's no big deal. But we can't stop dancing."

The competition is fierce among the graduate students at a prestigious New York dance academy, but when only three parts open up on an upcoming Broadway show, someone turns to murder to narrow the field, stabbing the dancers through the heart with jeweled hat pins. Meanwhile, dance teacher Candice Norman (Olga Karlatos) is having nightmares of being murdered by a man – a man she has never seen before. When she finds him in real life, he turns out to be George Webb (Ray Lovelock), a sad, under-employed actor with a shady past. Could he be the killer? Or maybe it's Candice's estranged, jealous husband, Dick (Claudio Cassinelli) or frustrated choreographer Margie (Geretta Geretta). Corps du ballet? More like Corpse du ballet!

I can just imagine Lucio Fulci watching Flashdance and saying to himself "You know what this could use? About five or six murder scenes."  The result is Murder Rock, which brazenly copies not only Flashdance, but also Fame and When a Stranger Calls, among other movies. Who can blame him for wanting to capitalize on a phenomenon? The result is a crazy mishmash that could only have come from Lucio Fulci. The man was never known for restraint, after all.  But just because the movie is a derivative mess and doesn't make any sense doesn't mean that it isn't wildly entertaining.

• Keith Emerson (of Emerson Lake & Palmer) composed the songs and the synth-based score.
• Janice (Carla Buzzanca) must be a steel town girl on a Saturday night, because she performs a solo spotlight dance at a nightclub that copies directly from Flashdance. They spray her down with water. She does the trademark running-in-place move. She does the whipping-her-hair-back-and-forth move. I just wish the music were half as good as "Maniac."
• Candice's nightmare sequence, where she is being chased in slow motion down the wide hallway of a modern building by a hat pin-wielding George is clearly an homage to the dream sequence from The Red Queen Kills Seven Times.
• To rally the dancers after the first murder, Candice gives them a variation on Debbie Allen's famous "This is where you start paying" speech from Fame.
• If you're a horror fan, you may recognize Olga Karlatos from Lucio Fulci's Zombie. Or if you're a child of the 80's you may recognize her as Prince's mother in Purple Rain, which was released the same year as Murder Rock.
• Fulci appears in a cameo as Candice's agent.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

Where to start? How about at the opening credits, when we see shots of the New York skyline inter-cut with some kids doing rhythmless disco-breakdance pop-and-lock moves. Enjoy it because we never see those kids again.

The choreography is simply awful and consists almost entirely of high kicks, squats, pelvic thrusts, and jazz hands. But everyone treats it like it's a work of genius. Rule number one: you gotta sell it.

Does anyone else think it's weird that Candice, an American who lives in New York, carries her American passport around with her wherever she goes?

What kind of Chinese restaurant fortune teller flat out calls someone a murderer to his face? And where did he get those fortune telling chopsticks that even have that as an option?

Newsflash: the human heart is not located in the left bewb. Aim that needle a little higher, murderer.

In my favorite scene, Margie tries to kill Candice in the same manner as the murderer, but doesn't have the guts to follow through. Dick stops her just in time... and then nothing happens. I mean, Margie had chloroformed Candice and was discovered by a credible witness, kneeling over her unconscious body with a needle to the chest. Margie clearly had intent to kill. That's attempted murder right there and she just gets to walk free.

Fashion Moment

Let's have a look at those dance costumes. Pure 1980's.

Also, let me just throw this out there...

What? Doesn't everyone wear a bulky ankle-length fur coat when they're bicycling down the streets of New York?