The Young, The Evil And The Savage

SETTE VERGINI PER IL DIAVOLO aka NUDE...SI MUORE

THE YOUNG, THE EVIL AND THE SAVAGE

US Video Title:SCHOOL GIRL KILLER

Italy 1968

D: Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti)

P: Virgilio De Blasi & Lawrence Woolner for Super International Pictures & B.G.A//St & Sc: Antonio Margheriti, Franco Bottari, Giovanni Simonelli//DP: Fausto Zuccoli//E: Otello Colangeli// M: Carlo Savina//Art D: Antonio Visone//Costumes: Annamode//Makeup: Perry Mecacci

Cast: Michael Rennie, Mark Damon, Eleonor Brown, Alan Collins (Luciano Pigozzi), Selly Smith, Patrizia Valturri, Lorenza Guerrieri, Malisa Longo, Franco De Rosa, Ester Masing, Gianni Di Benedetto, Valentino Macchi.

Students are being killed off at St. Hilda's, a finishing school for young girls. There are the usual suspects: a voyeuristic gardener (Alan Collins), fencing instructor De Brazzi, and young stud Richard (Mark Damon). Inspector Duran (Michael Rennie, in a performance that defines the term, wooden) finds out that Lucille (Eleonor Brown) is about to inherit a fortune and uncovers the fact that her cousin, a man, had killed the school's newly appointed teacher Miss Brown, and impersonated her so as to get close enough to Lucille to put her out of the picture.

With opening theme music that sounds like the Batman TV show, the tone of the film is set for what at times seems like a tongue-in-cheek parody of the genre. The film is entirely too cutesy and the fact that Mark Damon goes right along with it, hurts the film's chances for establishing any type of mood. As usual, Alan Collins is used as the ultimate red herring, handling a scythe suspiciously, spying on the girls as they take their showers, etc. Eleanor Brown as Lucille is the only actress who doesn't get on one's nerves. The tiresome cliche of a corpse being discovered, only to disappear whenever someone, besides the original discoverer comes to look, is endlessly repeated. The murder sequences are pedestrian and staged without imagination. The fact that the killer is a strangler means gore is non-existant. Michael Rennie's performance is poor as usual, but at least it retains some dignity as he dubs his own voice. The gender bending killing is one of the best I've seen as the male actor posing as a female really sells the part. That old Giallo standby, the lime pit, makes a cameo appearance here. Overall, the film is just too tame an exercise in terror and you're left with spending 90 minutes with a bunch of characters  you'd just as soon not be around.