What have You Done To Solange?

This week I knocked a Giallo I've been meaning to watch from the old watch-list:

What have You Done To Solange? (1972).

We open on a couple, Rosseni (Fabio Testi) and Elizabeth (Cristina Galbo) floating in a rowboat while making out. She sees a glimpse of a knife and what could be a murder and is too freaked out to keep having fun. This is when we learn that she is in the final year of Catholic school, and he is her gym teacher. Yeah... Then we find out that he is married to another teacher at the same school, Herta (Karin Baal). The next day Rosseni learns that there was a murder and the victim was not only a student at his school but also his girlfriends classmate. Rosseni becomes a suspect and in typical Giallo fashion investigates the killings himself even though he has neither the authority or the training to do so. I'm not going to spoil anything further, but there are a lot more murders and other grisly scenes.

What have You Done To Solange? is usually listed with the seedier Gialli, and is often paired up with What Have They Done to You Daughters? (1974) which I have seen before. The main reason I wanted to watch Solange is so I can stop mixing up which of the similar sounding movies I had seen. There is also a third movie in this “series”, Rings of Fear (1978), but I know nothing about it.

What have You Done To Solange is directed by Massimo Dallamano, who apart from his directing career also worked as cinematographer on A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. His own cinematographer for Solange was again Joe D'Amato, tying neatly if unintentionally into last week's movie.

Solange is a well made Giallo, the music is by Morricone, the cinematography is solid and functional and the actors are competent. The star of the show though is the plot. Naturally I can't go into detail, but I was kept guessing throughout, and I still failed to figure it out even though I was on the right track.

The aforementioned seediness is absolutely there, not just because a married man in his thirties (I'm guessing) is dating an 18 year old, but because someone is repeatedly spying on the girls in the shower, which means that Solange has a lot of nudity. The gore factor is middle of the road with quite a lot of the red stuff, but the camera doesn't linger on it.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, to Giallo fans but no to most others. What Have You Done To Solange? is a fairly average Giallo in many ways, but there is a darkness here that left me feeling a bit weird afterwards. This is not a mark against the movie, rather I wasn't ready for it. Hardcore thriller fans should still be able to enjoy it. I might be overselling a bit here, but without being able to go into details, this is the best I can do.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!