Nothing Underneath

Nothing Underneath

Genre: Giallo, Thriller, Mystery

Original title: Sotto il vestito niente

Director: Carlo Vanzina

Year: 1985

Set in Milan, a serial killer uses scissors to assassinate top-models. A park ranger, from Usa, arrives in the city to protect his sister, but she has vanished. The guy will meet a lot of people and will know the (sometimes dangerous) world of international jet-set. But soon the killer will search for him too...

Nothing Underneath is a Giallo I've seen almost only poor reviews of, though after seeing it I think I have to disagree with the majority. It has all the ingredients of a good Giallo even if like most of the films from this period it's heavily Americanised. 

The late 60's to early 70's Gialli now feel like classic affair, they are what we immediately think of when the genre comes to mind. This being slap being in the middle of the 80's does make it feel incredibly incredibly dated, but the film does sum up the excesses of the era really well with the fashion, the catwalks & the cocaine. 

There are some fun characters such as the perverted hotel receptionist who looks through key-holes & sniffs knickers & then there's the legendary Donald Pleasence, playing a detective with a poor European accent & a moustache. Pleasence was never one to turn down a pay-packet & this is another of his 'comes-&-goes' in five minutes bit parts.

It's far off being an essential addition to the Gialli cannon but if you are looking for one of the genre's later efforts that's well shot, well paced, has nicely staged kills & most of all, i fun, then you can't go too wrong with Nothing Underneath.

★★★½

Time for Donald Pleasence to lose the Moustache