What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1977)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I don't like to add much to the comment of my predecessor. This movie is interesting because it features a very well made and elaborated cinematography which contributes much to overcome the script and acting shortages. The colors are well picked, the night exterior and interior scenes are unusually subtle lit for this time. The camera always gives room to the actors and dives into the action if necessary. The wheelchair camera in the hospital is something new for that time alongside the short lens action when the killer advances at the hospital stairs. Very contrasty and very colorful pictures that don't look like the usual big lamp lighting that was usual for the 70ies in Italy. The framing in the car-motorcycle-chasing scene is also far above what was state-of-the-art. Long lenses, big contrast variations and focus shifting give it the edge. Another HURRAY for the soundtrack: Stelvio Cipriani varies only one theme (schoolgirl variation, police/chasing variation) with great effect to it. This soundtrack is very typical for Cipriani and almost as masterful as the one for "Mark Il Poliziotto".

The lifeless body of an attractive teen girl is found in a dusty attic. She's hung and everything points in the direction of a suicide. Closer investigations, however, points out that the girl has been murdered elsewhere before dragged into the attic. The discovery of the corpse slowly unravels a network of teen-prostitution in which several eminent civilians are involved. This hardens the police investigation while the killer (on a motorcycle and carrying an authentic butcher knife) is still on the loose. `What Have They Done to Our Daughters' is kind of like a sequel to `Solange' (or fully entitled: What have you done to Solange'). The stories don't follow each other but they handle about similar events: young schoolgirls caught in a web of unsettling and sleazy affairs. Both films are above average gialli, with an incredibly high tension-level and killer musical scores. Even though `Solange' upholds the mystery longer and more efficiently, this film contains a little more action. Best example to state this is the extended police car versus motorcycle chase through the beautiful streets of Italy. The budgets, however, are low so don't expect blood-soaked murders like the ones featuring in Dario Argento gialli.

Now, what this movie is about, other reviews will tell you. I want to tell you about something I've never seen before in a DVD-release, this one from Salvation.In order not to show pubic hair, Japanese films used (on later issues with the help of computers) blurring. European films have been spared this or simular methods - until now!There is only one scene is this movie where there was supposed to be a shot showing something and that was not in a sexual situation but in the bathroom where mother and daughter have a conversation about why the daughter had bought contraceptive pills.The daughter is thrown back after you have seen her taking off her clothes and there they are: pitch-black panties showing no alteration whatsoever in the blackness, just as if they had been painted on, which, in a sence, they were - by a computer.These Italian film, regardless of their other qualities, were famous for their content of gratuitous nudity or, should we say, their 'display of naturalistic content'. In this film there seems to have been only one such display and that was painted over by Salvation or some other artist.Since I've never seen this done before, I guess it could be of interest for others to see as well, if they don't get mad because they've been cheated.

Second in Dallamano's schoolgirls-getting-killed trilogy, it's not as good as Who's Next? (Solange) but not bad in its own right. The killer is someone who rides a motorino (hey, it is Italy!) and never takes off his/her riding helmet, ala Magnum Force, the 2nd Dirty Harry film. This one's more exciting than scary, as the police hunt down this maniac. He's one of the cooler villains in film history though, because unlike the traditional drag-ass killer, this guy never speaks and just RUNS at you with a machete. He really SPRINTS at top speed, which is actually very scary, especially to a jaded horror buff used to the Michael Myers/Jason/zombie method of ambling on over to their victims, who usually have to trip in order to be caught. And there's one scene involving a light switch that will make you jump out of your undies. Stelvio Cipriani's score is again top-notch (he later reused part of it for Tentacles), the dubbing tolerable.