Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I love this movie. The first time that I saw it was when I was a little girl, around 9 or 10 years old. The storyline is great: a killer who targets women who have been unfaithful to their husbands. It is unfair that the killer does not target unfaithful men, but hey, this is a giallo after all. It's funny because I am pretty sure that I only like this movie because I watch it in Italian, and that makes it exotic to me. If it were an American movie, I would probably not like it as much. Farley Granger is quite handsome, even more so than in "Strangers On A Train". There is a red herring that I found predictable, but I've been watching horror films for most of my life, so I often guess correctly what's going on. I knew who the killer really was long before it was revealed. I found the ending quite sad though. It would have been nice to have a different outcome. At least this giallo doesn't have the graphic violence that some of it's contemporaries have.

"Rivelazioni Di Un Maniaco Sessuale Al Capo Della Squadra Mobile" aka. "So Sweet, So Dead" from the golden Giallo-year 1972 is a film that many seem to regard as particularly nasty, sleazy and misogynistic. It is definitely sleazy, but I cannot say I agree with the 'misogynistic' part. Sure, the insane killer in the only Giallo by director Roberto Bianchi Montero (the father of sleaze-director Mario Bianchi) targets (hot and exhibitionist) unfaithful wives only, while he leaves the unfaithful husbands alone; however, this may just as well be seen as a comment on the hypocrisy of misogyny as it may be seen as misogyny as such. Anyway, whoever is too squeamish when it comes to sleaze and slight sexism should probably stay away from the wonderful Giallo-genre in general. What I can say is that "Rivelazioni Di Un Maniaco Sessuale Al Capo Della Squadra Mobile" is a textbook example for the golden age of Italian Gialli, a film that is elegant, sleazy, brutal, beautiful and irresistibly stylish, fantastically photographed on beautiful locations, full of gorgeous naked women and sadistic murders, and accompanied by a brilliant score by Giorgio Gaslini that is on a par with the works of greats like Morricone, Ortolani and Bacalov.A sadistic serial killer is on the loose, and his prey are unfaithful wives, all of them gorgeous and belonging to the high society. While Inspector Capuana (Farley Granger) is nagged at by his superior not to annoy the victims' influential acquaintances too much, the bodies of more prominent unfaithful wives pile up...As typical for a Giallo, the victims are primarily hot women (the easiest to be scared for and the sleaziest to kill). The female cast includes well-known Italian genre-beauties such as Femi Benussi, Sylvia Koschina, Krista Nell (who sadly died of Leukemia at age 29 in 1975), and, most prominently, the drop-dead-gorgeous redhead cult-siren Nieves Navarro. Needless to say that all these women are more than willing to take their clothes off at any given opportunity. Farley Granger fits very well in the lead, the male supporting cast includes cult actors such as Benito Stefanelli and the ugly and always-sinister Luciano Rossi in a typically demented role. The murders are quite sadistic, some of them also pretty gory. As mentioned above, the cinematography is (genre-typically) elegant and stylish, the locations are beautiful and the score is fantastic (genre-typically including a text-less but eerie female singing voice).The most controversial aspect about "So Sweet, So Dead" is arguably the (in my opinion great) climax, which, of course, I will not discuss in order not to spoil anything. The only reason why this film does not rank among the very greatest of Gialli is the lack of a truly likable protagonist to be scared for. Even so, the mystery, sadistic murders, demented characters and beautiful victims make it incredibly suspenseful, creepy and atmospheric. "So Sweet, So Dead" is the prefect combination of Horror and Mystery, Sleaze and Elegance that one may expect in a good Giallo. Criminally underrated, and a must for every Giallo/Eurohorror/Cult-Cinema fan.

Released at the height of the Giallo's popularity, So Sweet, So Dead manages to take in most of the common Giallo trademarks and craft a good example of the sub-genre out of it; although it has to be said that the Giallo has been done to far better effect on numerous occasions. It would seem that director Roberto Bianchi Montero was hoping he could implement a style similar to what Dario Argento is famous for, and indeed he has somewhat as the film features a black gloved killer committing some well worked, bloody and stylish murders, although the film unfortunately seems content to revel in it's sleazy atmosphere too much and this can sometimes have a negative effect on the plot. The storyline centres on a vicious killer who enjoys slashing women who are currently engaging in an extra marital affair. Naturally, Inspector Capuana expects the murderer to be among the city's underbelly; but as the murders continue, he starts to get the idea that he may have to look to higher society; and things get worse for him when the killer sets his wife as the next target! There's a fair amount of sex on display, although it's never overly erotic, and since the film doesn't put too much focus on red herrings and the identity of the murderer, it's sometimes unclear as to exactly what the point of the film is. It's quite possible that So Sweet, So Dead was only ever meant to be a cash-in on other, more successful Giallo's, although the attention to detail with regards tributes to other genre films makes it seem that the director has a genuine interest in this style of film-making. Indeed, the film is rather incomprehensible at times; but even when the plot does start to become tiresome, it's good to know that there's an undercurrent of sleaze to fall back on, and while this isn't exactly up there with heavyweight nasty Giallo's the likes of Giallo a Venezia and The New York Ripper, it's more nasty than a lot of it's counterparts. The film benefits from a good cast, which includes experienced Giallo actor Farley Granger and a small role for the popular Susan Scott. Overall, I can't say this is a heavyweight of the genre; but it's certainly worth seeing for the Giallo fan, despite a number of imperfections.

Most movie buffs will have seen the captioned Hitchcock film from 1950 and perhaps the earlier "Rope" (1948) but here is a chance to see another Farley Granger performance 22 years down the line - I was impressed how little he had aged.He plays Inspector Capuana in this very average Italian horror film from 1972.In fact I found him unwittingly distracting because I kept thinking of the above films and how he now looked a bit like Rock Hudson in his mature years, wearing a moustache.Put simply, it is the story of a psychotic maniac who murders unfaithful wives by stabbing them after first taking the necessary photographic evidence which he then liberally sprinkles at the murder scene to "justify" his act.I was amazed how he knew who all these faithless wives were and where he found the time for his "hobby".The victims all seemed to know each other so the film seemed to be set in a hot bed of adultery.All the usual horror film cliches were present - the murderer who always seems to magically appear in the house by apparantly walking through solid doors and windows,(doesn't anyone ever lock their houses in horror films?).The chase scene where despite the girl running away, the slower moving maniac is always closer behind, the car door which is always locked preventing escape, the closed doors and windows etc.My! how all these women loved to smoke!!None of them seemed happy unless puffing away continually - its amazing they hadn't all died earlier from lung cancer!.I only bought the video to see Krista Nell but she only had one decent scene and then gets "bumped off" for her trouble before her boyfriend arrives at her house for "a bit of nooky".My video arrived with rather irritating Japanese subtitles.What was rather comical was that Farley Granger was obviously originally speaking his lines in English (the other actors in Italian) but his voice had then been overdubbed by another English speaking actor so we could understand.Instead, I kept hearing in my head his real voice from "Strangers oon a Train"..."Bruno you're crazy"!I won't provide spoilers in the extremely unlikely event anyone would want to buy this title after reading this review.The plot becomes rather repetitve after a while and the characters of the femaile adulterous victims become very one dimensional and there is a lot of bare bosom around from virtually all these lady victims.Another "comical" character was the blond mortuary attendant, he really seemed to be in his element as a rabid necrophilliac!Overall poor and I rated it 3/10.