I was blown away when I saw Cesare Canevari's UNA IENA IN CASSAFORTE (Hyena In The Safe 1968) a couple of years ago, thinking if Radley Metzger had made a giallo this would have been it, so I was very much looking forward to the director's second stab at the Italian horror sub- genre and boy what a letdown it turned out to be. I've seen this film compared to sleazy gialli like GIALLO A VENEZIA, PLAY MOTEL, and THE SISTER OF URSULA but that would be a disservice to those venerable video nasties since there's no plot, mystery, violence, or gore to speak of when a posse of pretty people gather at a hotel to await the funeral of an uncle and pass the time having sex even after a couple of bodies turn up. So do the police to ensure they all stay right where they are so everyone's more than happy to keep on coupling and the killer, when revealed, is even more ridiculous if such a thing is possible. That said, the talented director knows how to compose a shot and the soft lens does give the film a dreamlike quality but wow, what a wasted opportunity. The epitome of "there's less to this than meets the eye", CRIMES OF THE FLESH is a plot less soft-core sex film that's not very explicit and a little too whitebread (except for some lesbianism) so even voyeurs get shortchanged. Future XXX star Moana Pozzi's in this but I don't know who she was since there's no character names next to the actors on the film's IMDb page.
