Naked Girl Murdered in the Park

I won't argue that it's a lot more appealing to mention a naked dead girl in the title of a horror movie but, in all honesty, a far more accurate description would be: "Fully Dressed Guy Killed in an Amusement Park Ride"… The plot of this ultra-obscure Italian giallo merely revolves on this rich bloke who's found murdered on a theme ride, only moments after he completed a million dollar life-insurance deal! Instead of paying the amount right away, the company puts one of their best investigators on the case and he infiltrates in the victim's family by seducing the youngest daughter. There naturally is a naked girl found killed in the park, only that comes after a whole lot of family-intrigues and character introductions. The discovery of the naked girl in the park (anyone notice how I LOVE repeat the title all the time?) does herald the beginning of a series of inventive murders, insane plot twists and effective red herrings, so it isn't such a misleading title after all. The story of this film is more or less textbook giallo-material, but it's rather slow-paced and the visual style isn't all that impressive. The murders sequences are pretty tame (no original modus operandi here) and the movie doesn't feature any truly memorable suspense sequences. All this probably clarifies why "Naked Girl Killed in the Park" is still very unknown and incredibly hard to find out there in DVD-land. Also, the cast doesn't contain any famous names and director Alfonso Brescia isn't such a prominent giallo-deity as, say, Sergio Martino or Dario Argento. Still, there's plenty of stuff to recommend to well-trained giallo fans, like a fair amount of sleaze, good music and quite a demented climax…. And a downright fantastic title, of course.

An elderly gentleman with a life insurance for a million dollars is found shot dead in the amusement park - on the same day he signed the document. The insurance company doesn't think this is a coincidence and puts their best man, Chris Bayer, on the case, competing with the police inspector as to who'll solve the case first. The smart insurance agent seduces both (!) daughters of the deceased, but despite his, um, "efforts", soon there are more deaths in the family...

Suspenseful, even if unnecessarily confused thriller by frequent filmmaker Alfonso Brescia, who had an excellent cast at his disposal, including Bond villain Adolfo Celi, Robert Hoffmann, Irena Demick ("The Sicilian Clan"), character actor Philippe Leroy and the stunning Pilar Velasquez. The versatile Leroy is rather wasted here, though.

There is a bunch of Gialli that tell a story about an inheritance. Most of them tend to be rather crime movies than Gialli in the classic sense.

This film by Alfonso Brescia also tells a story about an inheritance that spreads murder, and in the first half of the film, only one killing happens (in the opening scene), and then the film goes on rather as a family drama than a Giallo. But in the middle of the film, the title happens (a member of the family is indeed found nude and killed in a park), and from now on, it's a typical Giallo. The bodies are piling up (the murder scenes are not very graphic, but there are some stylish moments), and towards the climax, there is the usual surprise as the identity of the killer is revealed. The revelation is as implausible as often with Gialli, but it works better than in other similarly mediocre ones.

Brescia's direction is nothing special, the lead actors are only average, but there is some fine supporting cast lead by Adolfo Celi as the investigating Police inspector. So, the first half is a bit dreary, but the second half is surely capable of satisfying Giallo afficionados.

Lurid (and inaccurate - it's an old man fully dressed who is killed in a park; a naked woman IS killed much later, but nowhere near a park) title for a tepid thriller, though it does have three exceptionally good-looking women (including a "mother" who is about the same age as her daughters!), a couple of original / outrageous twists, and some dizzying camerawork at the end. **1/2 out of 4.

The best thing I can say about this minor giallo is that there really IS a naked girl killed in a park. In fact, as per the Italian title there is a COMPLETELY naked girl killed in a park. (There's a couple other naked girls too, but only one of them is killed in a park). That's pretty much the highlight of the movie though.

It starts off in a pretty interesting way with the first-person POV of a funhouse ride which turns out to be from the POV of a dead man!The dead man had just bought a million dollar life insurance, so an intrepid insurance investigator (Robert Hoffman) is called in. He dodges the police investigator on the case (former Bond villain Adolf Celli)and becomes involved with the man's two sexy but neurotic daughters as well as his sexy but neurotic widow (who judging by the looks of her must have given birth to her two daughters when she was about ten). More people die before the final revelation which, unfortunately, is pretty stupid and involves the guilty party delivering a ridiculous soliloquy to a giant portrait of the dead man. It ends back in the amusement park with yet another pretty dumb turn of events.

The lead Hoffman is awful, but Celli is pretty good if underused. The women are pretty, but they're definitely not at the acting level of an Edwige Fenech, Rosalba Neri, or Erica Blanc, or even lesser lights of the gialli like Nieves Navarro or Femi Benussi. Pretty forgettable overall--except for the naked girl killed in park.