What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)

Captivating movie !

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Very twisty giallo that routinely subverted my expectations. The main strengths of the film are its knotty but well-constructed plot, serene locales, and great camerawork. Lots of nice music by Ennio Morricone as well. The film has a stronger focus on the mystery and plot rather than the murders themselves, and is largely populated by dialogue-driven intrigue scenes. I may have liked it a bit more if there had been a greater emphasis on style and atmosphere rather than plot, but that's more a matter of taste than a criticism of the film itself.Strong 3.5/5

Maybe it was inevitable that the German Edgar Wallace movie series found its end in the sleazy folds of the Italian giallo. Both of these whodunit/thriller subgenres share similar trademarks, such as rampant triviality, exploitative and sexist world views, voyeuristic touches, senseless plots and barely adequate acting. The German variant wasn't nearly as explicit and rather amusingly childish, but also lacked the gialli's stylistic flourishes.Here we've got good old reliable Blacky Fuchsberger and the Italian stud Fabio Testi to find out who the brutal girls' killer is and the comparatively tame proceedings are quite entertaining in their stupid fashion. The plot's not as ridiculous as other examples of the genre, but no great shakes either.The direction is rather boring.3 out of 10 peeping school teachers

It could be that the time this movie came out that the subject was pretty shocking and disturbing. And I must admit that there are scenes that are still shocking today. The movie itself however didn't manage to thrill me all the way. Since not once did I feel dread from the killer. Although the movie offers enough suspects it is hardly surprising who the killer is especially since the movie itself rules out several of these suspects. The motivation for these killings is far more interesting anyway. The explanation that is given however to me wasn't satisfying or compelling enough. One of the reasons for this is that the title character Solange isn't long enough in the movie to express what she has been through. It would have been far more effective if scenes were shown how Solange was treated. Some of the plot points leading to the killer come out of nowhere and were far too convenient to convince me. Does this make a bad movie,not at all. But compare it to Deep Red and you will see what a true masterpiece should be like.

While reading up on the Gialli genre of Italian exploitation films, one title gets constantly mentioned as the best of the lot and that's "What Have You Done to Solange?". With staple elements such as violence, gore, horror, gratuitous nudity, dubious dubbing (yes this got to me as I was trying to figure out the actual languages used) and an excellent, suspenseful score (thanks to the legendary Ennio Morricone), if anyone were to ask me whether this is worth the watch, the answer is a firm yes.It's not just because of the shock elements as described, but essentially this film had a better than expected storyline. Loosely based on Edgar Wallace's The Clue of the New Pin, there's a superior murder mystery thriller contained which keeps you guessing throughout. For its age (some 37 years old!), it certainly had enough legs to keep you engaged, and paced itself with enough twists and turns, that kept my interest piqued in trying to figure out the red herrings, and the tangential nature of its narrative.Starting off with an illicit affair between a married Italian language and gymnastics teacher Enrico (Fabio Testi) and beautiful student Elizabeth (another Gialli legend Cristina Galbo), their pleasure of the flesh session aboard a boat in an English river got interrupted when Elizabeth catches a glimpse of a murder in progress, witnessing a knife being plunged into the pubic regions of a semi-nude female (well, it's exploitation after all)While both are trying hard to keep their affair a secret, and no thanks to a couple of missteps, they had to come clean with fellow peers in the school, made worst when Enrico's wife Herta (Karin Baal) happens to be a colleague as well, and the murdered victim a student of their institution. For Inspector Barth (Joachim Fuchsberger), it's the usual tying up of loose ends in a series of murders which turn up, all involving young girls and falling prey to the same modus operandi. This is where the audience will probably get the most fun out of, trying to apply contemporary sensibilities to try and solve the mystery ahead of time, but failing to do so because of Massimo Dallamano's tight direction and constant keeping of an ace up his sleeve.The titular Solange doesn't appear until late in the movie, and from there you would have been rewarded with some clarity and semblance of the plot, which has so far been spread eagled with affairs of the heart and a whodunnit, where everything seems remotely related, and the connecting the dots is half the fun. Morricone's score is not as memorable as his works on the Sergio Leone films, but it did maintain that sense of moody, mysterious atmosphere befitting of the genre.What Have You Done to Solange? had enlightened me that some of the frequent narrative styles used in contemporary mysteries are nothing new, given that a film four decades old have already employed. If anything, this film had my interest raised, though being one of the best out there already, I will keep in mind that others in the same era and genre might not be able to replicate the brilliance shown here.