NAKED GIRL MURDERED IN THE PARK (1972)
A.K.A. Ragazza tutta nuda assassinata nel parco
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 with Burned-In English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Alfonso Brescia
Cast: Robert Hoffman, Irina Demick, Adolfo Celi, Pilar Velázquez, Patrizia Adiutori, Franco Ressel, María Vico, Howard Ross
Naked Girl Murdered in the Park (1972) comes to us from Italian exploitation director Alfonso Brescia who might be best known for the cheapie sci-fi films he made in the late 70s and early 80s; stuff like The War of the Robots, Battle of the Stars, and War of the Planets, but who also dipped his toe into the whodunit waters of the Italian giallo with Naked Girl Murdered in the Park, a rarely seen 1972 entry that has been hard to come by till now, available on Blu-ray from Full Moon Features, thanks to their licensing agreement with legendary euro-cult distributor Eurocine.
Naked Girl Murdered in the Park (1972) comes to us from Italian exploitation director Alfonso Brescia who might be best known for the cheapie sci-fi films he made in the late 70s and early 80s; stuff like The War of the Robots, Battle of the Stars, and War of the Planets, but who also dipped his toe into the whodunit waters of the Italian giallo with Naked Girl Murdered in the Park, a rarely seen 1972 entry that has been hard to come by till now, available on Blu-ray from Full Moon Features, thanks to their licensing agreement with legendary euro-cult distributor Eurocine.
In Madrid, Spain a wealthy financier named Wallenberger is found dead on a rickety House of Horrors amusement park ride, with a bullet in his skull. Not coincidentally the murdered man had just bought a million dollar life insurance policy the very day of his death. The insurance company on the hook for the payout know the smell of a rat when they get a whiff of one, and quickly assign their best agent, Chris Buyer (Robert Hoffman, Spasmo), to investigate the claim before they pay it out. Posing as a journalist Buyer easily ingratiates himself with Wallenberger’s beautiful daughter Catherine (Pilar Velázquez, Ace of Hearts) and soon enough finds himself invited to the family mansion, where there is no shortage of guilty looking folks. We have the alcoholic demented matriarch Magda (Irina Demick, The Longest Day), Catherine's flirty sister Barbara (Patrizia Adiutori, Torso), housekeepers Bruno (Franco Ressel, Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye) and Sybil (María Vico, 99 Women), mute caretaker Günther (Howard Ross, The New York Ripper). A bit later Inspector Huber (Adolfo Celi, Who Saw Her Die) shows up and throws his own wrench into the works, accusing the deceased of possibly having been a Nazi war criminal!
There's some fun whodunit elements, like a stranger stalking Catherine; she having a heart condition and receiving a series of phone calls from a stranger accusing her of being the murderer, which keeps her bed-ridden a lot of the time, I mean when she's not sleeping with Buyer. Then we have the sultry Barbara who is a gorgeous young woman who gets around, bedding both the hired help Günther and Buyer. Then there's the still quite attractive matriarch of the family, who is losing her mind at the bottom of a bottle, and then we have the caretaker, a dude who looks like George Eastman-lite. I love the title of the film, it's a classic giallo-sounding title, but interestingly, the inciting murder is not inspiration for the title. We do not see a naked girl murdered in the park for about an hour, I guess The Old Man Murdered at The House of Horrors didn't pass the smell test. One of the scenes early on that had me laughing was when Buyer takes Catherine on a fate to not just to the amusement park where her father was just murdered, but on the same damn ride!
This is a slow-burn murder mystery that has all the elements of solid giallo but the way to comes together is a bit lackluster, in that it smolders with some nice moments of sleaze' like a horse stable rape turned consensual, and Buyer bedding both the sisters, but the kills for the most art happen off screen, so it never truly starts cooking until the final reel when things start being revealed. The shocker ending almost made up for how straightforward this whodunit was, as the killer reveals how they did it in a way that keeps their hands clean.
The flick benefits from a rather pleasant score by Carlo Savina (Mario Bava's Lisa and the Devil) and some attractive but not overly stylish cinematography, but it's not that well put together. However, like I said previously, the dizzying monologue filled finale does offer a bonkers end cap to it with a nutty Nazi impetus for the killer that kind of won me over; this is a not great but still entertaining giallo entry. .
Audio/Video: Naked Girl Murdered in the Park (1972) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Full Moon Features in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. Advertised as being "remastered from the original 35mm camera negative" you can see that the elements were in pretty good shape but this scan has been put through the digital noise reduction wringer! The grain is smeared away along with ant trace of fine detail, leaving behind smooth plasticine textures and facial details, which is a shame, this could have been a very filmic looking transfer but instead it's overly digitized and waxy looking.
Audio comes by way of lossy 2.0 and 5.1 Dolby Digital with burned-in English subtitles. The track is clean and sounds fine, no issues, and the score from Carlo Savina (Comin' At Ya!) is a highlight. Extras include a pair of Theatrical Trailers for the film, including a rare Italian trailer and a nine minutes of Eurocine Trailers.
Special Features:
- Rare Italian Trailer for Naked Girl Murdered in the Park (3 min)
- Eurocine Trailers: Naked Girl Murdered in the Park (2 min), Barbed Wire Dolls (1 min), Love Letters To A Portuguese Nun (3 min), Satanic Sisters (1 min), Voodoo Passion (1 min), Women In Cell Block 9 (1 min)
Naked Girl Murdered In The Park (1972) is a slow burning giallo that doesn't rise to the level of a top tier whodunit but I would put it alongside fun stuff like The Red Queen Kills Seven Times and Seven Deaths In The Cat's Eyes, plus it has a whopper of a finale. It's great to see this rarer Eurocine titles getting disc releases from Full Moon, though I wish we had more substantial extras like an audio commentary from someone knowledgeable like Troy Howarth and a better looking scan of the film.
Screenshots from the Full Moon Blu-ray:
EXTRAS:
