Nothing Underneath

Okay, I admit: the eighties is a guilty pleasure for me and most of of the horror movies I watch are from those years.

I´m very fond of giallos from the eightes and this is one of my guilty pleasures. Not as good and stylish as You´ll die at midnight, but good entertainment and quite a good story.

Someone is killing models in Milano and the brother to one of them comes to town to find out what happened to his sister. He get´s help from the soon-to-retired police Donald Pleasence. Because he and his sister are twins, he can sense things that happened to her and that helps him a lot during the investigation.

Carlo Vanzinas direction is simple and very effective and he makes the movie work. I enjoyed his work before, the strange espionage-giallo Mystère (with Janet Ågren, Carol Bouchet and John Steiner).

Blood? Yes, a small amount is shed with happiness and those scenes look really good. But most of the stuff is off screen or just not-so-graphic.

The ending is fabulous, I love the use of slowmo there.

Recommended for the die hard giallo-fans :)

"Sotto il vestito niente" (Nothing underneath) is what one could call a "standard " giallo. The film tells a straightforward story and is directed to the general audience, as it becomes clear by a more "conventional" soundtrack, but all the same – "Nothing underneath" is still a stylish and inventive film.

The plot , derivative as it may seem, is also interesting. A model in Milan is about to be killed. Her twin brother in Wyoming, Bob Crane (Tom Schanley) feels that something is about to happen. He tries to warn her. Too late. He flies in a hurry to Milan but his sister is missing. What happened to her? He warns the detective inspector, Comissioner Danesi (Donald Pleasance), that his sister may have been killed. But, as they say, "no body, no crime". Another model is murdered and this is just the beginning. Now Comissioner Danesi and Bob Crane join forces to investigate the murders...

As I said before, "Nothing underneath" is, like many other gialli, stylishly filmed, with good murder scenes, beautiful actresses etc., in other words, it has all the ingredients that make gialli so attractive. One can feel in "Nothing underneath" the love of Vanzina for the giallo genre, and for Hitchcock too.

"Nothing underneath" may not be a groundbreaking film, but it's quite an enjoyable one.

When it comes to horror cinema, I love the Italian Giallo and I love the 80's, but a combination of both usually isn't worth the effort. The Giallo is irreversibly linked to the 70's and unfortunately only a handful of gratifying titles came out during the 80's, mostly either directed by Dario Argento ("Tenebre", "Opera") or Lamberto Bava ("Midnight Ripper", "Delirium"). Therefore it was an extra pleasant surprise to discover that "Nothing Underneath", directed by the relatively unknown Carlo Vanzina, is an overlooked gem in the sub genre. The scenario often doesn't make a lick of sense and the plot twists are implausible and absurd, but that doesn't matter and actually even makes it cooler in terms of Giallo-cinema. The setting, premise and character drawings are as rudimentary as it gets in this type of film. In the glossy and competitive fashion business of Milan, there's a crazed psychopath killing models with a gigantic pair of shiny scissors. The fatigue old police commissioner, who's only two weeks away from his retirement, doesn't have a clue where to begin his investigation, but luckily he receives the help of a young Wyoming park ranger. For you see, the kid witnessed the attack against his twin sister through a telepathic connection between them, and now he traveled to Milan to look for her. Whilst he's messing around with gorgeous models, the killer cheerfully continues to cut up more beauty queens.

Although entirely irrelevant to the plot, this film at least has a title that actually makes sense. Gialli often have lovely sounding but nonsensical titles, but this one is totally accurate as several of these models are wearing nothing underneath their dresses and mini-skirts. In spite of the nudity and a remarkably stylish presentation, the first half hour is rather slow-paced and on the verge of boring. "Nothing Underneath" is then luckily rescued by a few highly inventive and delightfully far-fetched plot twists; making the rest of the film satisfyingly exciting and even suspenseful. The last ten minutes are downright fantastic and almost on par with the quality level of the 80's films by the aforementioned directors Argento and Bava. As said already, director Carlo Vanzina even manages to demonstrate style and flair, like through the use slow-motion images and colorful fashion show glimpses. The murders, on the other hand, are a bit disappointing, as there should have been more of them and especially bloodier. There's one impressively nasty kill involving a backstabbing, but the concept offered so much more opportunities to depict gore and bloodshed. The screenplay greedily processes all the typical Italian fashion industry clichés and stereotypes into the film, including the voyeuristic hotel clerks, the wild drug parties and the harsh competition between the women. The soundtrack contains some wondrous 80's tunes like "One Night in Bangkok", which always puts a smile on my face. Donald Pleasance stars as the aging commissioner who desperately – but in vain - tries to look and sound Italian. Pleasance's role isn't that important, but he definitely brings some name fame to the overlooked production.

The sequel, entitled "Too Beautiful To Die" is a pretty worthwhile film as well. The stories of both films have no plot aspects or characters in common but are nevertheless considered sequels because they were both released in the second half of the 80's and take place in the Italian fashion universe.

After slogging through various 80s Italian films this one comes as a pleasant surprise. My expectations were low going in as I didn't know most of the cast and this was Donald Pleasance's phoning it in for a paycheck Era, but it was enjoyable. The performances are fine, the soundtrack is good, the filmmaking is competent. Does the story get a tad predictable? Sure, but it's fun so I give it a 7.6/10.

Yellowstone Park ranger Bob Crane (Tom Schanley) shares a psychic connection with his sister Jessica (Nicola Perring), a top model working in Milan. After he 'sees' Jessica being attacked in a vision, Bob flies to Italy where he discovers that she has mysteriously vanished. Local police commissioner Danesi (Donald Pleasence) is unconvinced by Bob's bizarre story, at least until another model is murdered in the same hotel from which Jessica disappeared.

'A little bit of make-up, a beautiful dress, and nothing underneath'—so says a fashion photographer about the models he photographs in this glossy but unexceptional giallo from director Carlo Vanzina. Although the lens-man is talking figuratively, he might as well be speaking literally, for the girls in this film seem to have little call for underwear, revealing their hot bods in several sexy scenes (including one particularly gratuitous moment in which a model walks over a street grate to reveal her bare ass to the camera below!).

If only the violence had been as unrestrained as the nudity...

Although the hilarious 80s fashion and music, and the regular display of female flesh guarantee a reasonable time, Nothing Underneath is crying out for a few Argento-style moments of bloody excess; however, despite the film's killer brandishing a wickedly sharp pair of scissors, this is a frustratingly 'dry' giallo, a fact that will most likely disappoint the majority of the genre's fans (for whom a few really juicy kills are usually considered a must).

5.5 out of 10, happily rounded up to 6 for the use of a power drill in the fun finale and the hilarious scene in which Bob spies a woman in the building opposite indulging in a spot of masturbation, but rather than stand there gawping like most blokes would, he pulls the curtains and proceeds to fondle a pair of his dead sister's skimpy knickers!