What Have You Done to Solange? – original title: Cosa avete fatto a Solange? – is a 1972 Italian-West German giallo-krimi thriller film directed by Massimo Dallamano (Dorian Gray; What Have They Done to Our Daughters?; The Cursed Medallion) from a screenplay co-written with Bruno Di Geronimo. The film is very loosely based on the Edgar Wallace mystery novel The Clue of the New Pin. It features a score by Ennio Morricone (A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin).
Main cast:
Fabio Testi (Rings of Fear), Karin Baal (Dead Eyes of London; The Monster of Blackwood Castle), Joachim Fuchsberger (The College Girl Murders; The Hand of Power; The Fan/Trance), Cristina Galbó (The House That Screamed; Let Sleeping Corpses Lie), Camille Keaton (I Spit on Your Grave), Günther M. Stoll (The Hunchback of Soho; The Bloodstained Butterfly).
Plot:
A sadistic killer is preying on the girls of St. Mary’s Catholic school. Student Elizabeth witnessed one of the murders, but her hazy recollections of a knife-wielding figure in black do nothing to further the police’s investigations. Why is the killer choosing these young women? And what does it have to do with a girl named Solange?
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On 14th (UK) and 15th (US) of December 2015, Arrow Video release the film on Blu-ray + DVD with the following features:
- Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Original Italian and English soundtracks in mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Newly translated subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
- Brand new audio commentary with critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman
- Newly filmed cast interviews
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Malleus – http://www.malleusdelic.com (to be revealed)
- Booklet featuring brand new writing on the film, illustrated with original stills
Reviews:
“The film offers some truly oddball red herrings, sumptuous ‘scope cinematography (courtesy of Aristide Massaccesi aka Joe D’Amato), cheesy subjective camera shots from the killer’s point of view, Morricone’s classy score (alternating between a sanguine main theme and some atonal jazz pieces), authentic London locations and a truly sordid plot … Solange is a great giallo.” Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia
“What Have You Done to Solange? is a fairly accomplished film that should keep even the most hardened of giallo fanatics guessing until the very end and is worth watching. Indeed, the contrast between rural scenery and violent murder creates interesting images of life and death, and the film is not a simple compilation of murders, a trap that some of the more simplistic gialli fall into.” Flickering Myth
” … director/co-writer Massimo Dallamano opted to tell a coherent story and flesh out his characters, so as a result he doesn’t spend much time on nonsense or drawn out kill scenes. It’s got the random misogyny and gratuitous nudity you’d expect (including a hilarious bit where the cop says “The girls are under surveillance” and then Dallamano cuts to a peeping tom watching the girls shower), but if you go in expecting Argento-y kill scenes you might leave disappointed.” Horror Movie a Day
“In the first half of the film themes of innocence and purity are woven into the fabric of the narrative, and are then subverted in an ironic counterpoint at the conclusion. The film is full of little ironies, and it is able to alight on moments that seem inconsequential because of an incredibly patient and careful method of storytelling.” Shaun Anderson, The Celluloid Highway
“The murder scenes are sometimes beautiful and very stylized in their execution, usually from the point of view of the killer and never really shows much of their body, so it could be either male or female. The film is bloodless in a beautiful way, able to show the brutality of each act without getting overly graphic. The female nudity – and there’s quite a bit – also does not feel that graphic, but rather natural and normal for each situation that it shows up in.” The Girl Who Loves Horror
” … one of the few films of this type that deftly combines sleaze, murders with disturbing sexual components, a whodunit plot, gorgeous cinematography, and characters that actually have depth. And unlike some giallo flicks, it actually makes sense in the end. As icing on the cake, the soundtrack to Solange is among Ennio Morricone’s best work for this style of movie.” Horror Fan Zine
Cast and Characters:
Fabio Testi … Enrico ‘Henry’ Rosseni
Karin Baal … Herta Rosseni
Joachim Fuchsberger … Inspector Barth
Cristina Galbó … Elizabeth Seccles (as Christine Galbo)
Camille Keaton … Solange Beauregard
Günther M. Stoll … Professor Bascombe
Claudia Butenuth … Brenda Pilchard
Maria Monti … Mrs. Erickson
Giancarlo Badessi … Mr. Erickson
Pilar Castel … Janet Bryant
Giovanna Di Bernardo … Helen Edmonds
Vittorio Fanfoni … Enrico’s friend
Antonio Casale … Mr. Newton (as Antony Vernon)
Emilia Wolkowicz … Ruth Holden (as Emilia Wolkowich)
Daniele Micheletti … Mr. Bryant
Rainer Penkert … Mr. Leach, the headmaster
Carla Mancini … Susan, girl in Enrico’s class
Antonio Anelli … Father Herbert
Joe D’Amato … CID officer w / The Daily Telegraph (uncredited)
Filming locations:
Shot in London, England, over the course of six weeks in the autumn of 1971.
Trailer:
Previous releases:
When submitted for a UK cinema release as Solange by Meteor Films it was rejected by the BBFC. It was eventually released in the UK on the Redemption video label in 1996 after 2 minutes 15 secs of cuts to edit the bath murder, and heavily reduce shots of nudity and knives between victim’s legs and knees.
The 2002 “uncut” DVD has some scenes in the still and artwork gallery that are not shown in that 2002 video release. These include: more nude shots of Elizabeth’s body (Cristina Galbó); a scene of a topless Solange (Camille Keaton) being visited by the unidentified killer which is very crucial to the plot; the shower scenes are cropped so that the schoolgirls are only shown topless. This does not necessarily mean that those scenes were actually included in the original theatrical release print, so the DVD could be “uncut”.
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Alternate titles:
- Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel (Germany)
- Solange (UK)
- Terror in the Woods (USA)
- The School That Couldn’t Scream (USA)
- The Secret of the Green Pins (USA)
- What Have They Done to Solange? (USA)
- What Have You Done to Solange? (UK)
- Who Killed Solange?
- Who’s Next? (UK)
- ¿Qué habéis hecho con Solange? (Spain)
- Que Fizeram a Solange? (Portugal)
- O Que Fizeram a Solange? (Brazil)
- ¿Qué hicieron con Solange? (Argentina)
- ¿Qué le han hecho a Solange? (Peru, Venezuela, Colombia)
Wikipedia | IMDb
