 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1972 Italian giallo film What have you done to Solange and in the end of this film you find out who Solange is and What's been done to Solange and how that plays into all the events of this film and the killer and why the killer's doing What the killer's doing but you have to wait quite a while to find out who Solange is in the first place But I'll talk about that a little bit more as we go on Just a little disclaimer here if you hear some noise in the background It's because I'm recording this while it's raining So you might hear a little bit of the rain because I'm in the basement and under the deck all that stuff The other thing to say is if you are big into giallo and you want more giallo horror movie reviews I have a whole playlist on my channel of 20 some giallo films at this point when I'm recording this Because I love I love giallo. So check it out So the film is directed by Massimo Dalamano who did such films as a black veil for Lisa Devil in the flesh and Dorian Gray. That's just some written by Dalamano as well as a Bruno di Geronimo who also wrote scripts for a quiet place to kill the weapon the hour and the motive Puzzle and the man to kill sound interesting It's based on a novel by Edgar Wallace. That's called the clue of the new pin Which if you've seen the film first of all if you have not seen this film I'm reviewing right now. Just know spoilers So you might want to stop watch it cuz it's on shutter at the moment and then come back But if you know the film The the name of the the book the clue of the new pin fits in very well for what you end up learning about it It's 229 IMDB writing credits for that author by the way So a lot of his works have been taken and used now There aren't any screenplay credits. So it's all just based off of books People taking his books and and making films out of them. So this is interesting Nicholas Winding refin Has a nap well did announce four years ago now So I don't know if this is happening anymore or not that he was going to work on a remake of this film I would be interested to see what a remake of this film would be like especially because it is a little bit long It's like an hour and 46 minutes, and I really do think it could be tightened up I think it could be updated very well for nowadays. So I really would like to see someone do something with it now Winding refin I'm half-and-half on his stuff some of his stuff I think is really awesome some of his pure crap, and I don't like him as a person I think he's is very very very full of himself if you've watched any interviews with him He thinks he's like, you know God's gift to film and everyone But he he could do a good job with it is what I'm trying to get at half-and-half Anyway, let's get into the actual film the beginning is all peace and tranquility with the nice light music people riding bikes Which you find out is tied into the flashback memory that will play at the end of the film So it's it's a cool kind of callback when that happens as well as the couple of Elizabeth and Enrico Just lazily floating in a boat on the river now as we know then Tragedy strikes because the killer strikes for the first time killing Who's the first one to get it Hilda Hilda's the first one to die and it's just an interesting kind of change from this really nice lazy Peaceful beginning with the music and in nature and it it's just so Relaxing and then all of a sudden someone's getting killed and not only is someone getting killed But a knife is getting shoved into their vagina, which They don't show it obviously as it's happening But the insinuation that is there because you see the way they shoot it You just kind of see the legs that are open and then you see the knife go up that direction It makes you cringe when you see that for the first time at least maybe even times after that And then there are moments obviously with the dead bodies where you see it inserted, you know still sticking out mainly with Ruth Holden that's that's the big one, but Yeah, it's cringe inducing cuz you're just like man that would that would hurt terribly Enrico's an ass that that's the thing I wrote down. He's kind of the main character trying to figure all this stuff out He's an ass. I think that's very very intentional though I don't really think you're supposed to like him because of one of the main points of this film thematically And I'll talk about that at the very end of my review, but I like the fact that he's not actually a good dude Elizabeth even comments very early on after she's been with him that he's cruel that he can be cruel He also talks about he's very open about the fact that he's going after his female students He's a gymnastics teacher at this school and he's going after his minor He is his students who are minors to have sexual relationships with them And he's fine talking to some people about this like he knows that people know about it And he's just fine being a scumbag basically He also is trying to pressure Elizabeth into actually having sex Which there's a moment where it's kind of revealed where it is revealed that she was still a virgin when she got killed And that's supposed to be this moment of like relief for his wife But also relief for the audience to be like, oh, you know, maybe he's not that bad of a guy But it wasn't for lack of trying if you pay attention because there's a comment that he even makes when he's first being talked to by the police About things that Elizabeth would say and do were just meant to distract him Basically saying that he was trying to have sex with her, but she would find ways to thwart him So he's not a good dude at no point. Is he a good dude? But like I said, I'm gonna talk about that at the end because of a main theme And obviously it becomes very clear early on that the audience is supposed to think that because of him being such a scumbag He should be the prime suspect Obviously early on the inspectors believe that maybe even his wife and some of the other people in the film Elizabeth Elizabeth states that what she saw was just a silhouette, but she sure it was a man The inspector also tells Herta who was Enrico's wife That she was at the meeting that they had with the professors just as a formality now I put that in there because I thought there was a possibility that it could have been Herta being the killer And I I thought that you know putting those things in there about You know Elizabeth saying it was definitely a silhouette of a man And then the inspector saying oh well you're only here for a formality was kind of a way to explain a way A potential suspect being theirs because that happens quite a bit with these films But then it ended up not coming your fruition, which is a good thing I love when these giallo films throw out good red herrings where you actually feel like you should go down This path and in the end none of your guesses are right because with this film I feel like How many people would actually guess the ending of it? I didn't And I've actually guessed the endings to a bunch of the giallo films. I've watched I'm not bragging or anything I'm just saying that some of them. They're not that hard to figure out This one. I think they did a pretty good job of keeping the whole thing obfuscated Until the very very ends and I really do appreciate that When Hilda's father ask if she asks if she was raped Uh to the inspector I don't know if other audience members had the same reaction. Mine was kind of a cringe and Well And then I didn't expect that the inspector would then show him The x-ray that shows What happened it literally he literally shows the father an x-ray of a knife sticking out of his dead daughter's vagina. It's I did not think they were gonna go there. I certainly thought the inspector would have more Cooth than that you could say Wow Yeah, slick move by the inspector with the the little pen trick when he was trying to figure out early on if He thought Enrico was the guy or not, which probably about halfway through the film He starts to say he doesn't really think it was Enrico and he even makes an interesting comment To someone I forget exactly what it was in the context of but someone made some sort of comment about thinking it was Enrico Because he's kind of you know trying to get with these young women And he makes some sort of comment saying like he may not be a great guy, but like that doesn't mean he's He's a murderer basically which I think plays till part of you know part of what I'm gonna talk about a little bit more later But the the pen trick where he kind of brought the pen that looked like the pen that was in the evidence Uh Walker wherever they keep it and kind of placed it on the table in his house and it was just like oh I forgot my pen and and uh her it's just like oh, that's your his pen. You can use it Smart smart it ended up not mattering but smart There are a bunch of shots that start on one subject and then they end up jumping to another subject to follow I really like these types of camera movements It actually reminds me a lot of how mario babba would do things in his films. He would he would start in one Uh start with one subject and then go across the room and focus on another subject I think that's cool because for at least for the audience members It kind of like opens up the scene a little bit more And it also kind of feels you feels like you're more immersed in the film because it gives you more Uh more vision basically it gives you more sight in the film as if you're kind of there instead of just always looking forward It's kind of like you're able to look from one side to the other and I like that. It's more immersive Uh, I like how they keep getting a glint of light on the knife whenever they show the knife That's cool. Uh, it's kind of like this, you know fun flash of the horror, you know Notice in the scene where elizabeth comes clean about being at the lake with enrico It's showing it from her point of view And how they're doing it is it's showing it from a lower angle and it's showing it so that Everyone there all the professors look so large in comparison to her And it's just like like this nightmarish point of view shot that I think is done to kind of Emulate her what how she mentally is feeling at that time Which is severely intimidated kind of scared to bring this type of information forward Which obviously in the end ended up being you know She ends up getting killed partially because of that Um, but yeah, so I thought um, I thought that was really well done There are a few other moments and I'm gonna comment on one later where they do this type of thing And I really appreciate that where they kind of take the camera work and incorporate it into the emotions and the You know thoughts of the characters involved in the scene The drowning of elizabeth was shot in an appropriately frantic manner. It makes it very violent It makes it chaotic like something like that actually would be so I think it plays as more realistic for that reason That's why I like that choice The coroner says that elizabeth had dead hair under her fingernails But when that came up my question was isn't all hair dead hair? like I don't it's weird like I don't get that because Hair is dead cells like all hair is dead hair basically I guess maybe it was like insinuated was like from a corpse or something But that doesn't even end up coming into play So it was a really odd thing to be in the film and they reference it like two or three times So it's like I don't I don't get that if i'm wrong about that and it does factor in somehow Just let me know but I don't know The guy with the beard really freaks out about priests It's over the top But ends up being kind of like a quirky thing for that character which you know if you've watched enough giallo films You know there are plenty of these films that intentionally have quirky characters to keep things interesting To also throw people off and make them think oh well that person's weird. They're quirky. They could be capable of murder So, um, it's nothing new. I think it was a little bit over the top How much he freaked out over priests, especially when he had to be at the lineup and he starts yelling at the policemen I was like, uh, okay. It's a little much Uh when the inspector tells herta that elizabeth was a virgin when she died It's supposed to soften everyone on enrico like I was saying but remember he commented about trying to bone her But she always had some sort of way to distract him keep that in mind Shooting on a boat. This is a very small note shooting on a boat makes for a weird viewers experience I will say because that part where he goes to the photo shoot to ask about salange Um to the first person the first time you hear about salange, which is like an hour and 15 minutes into the film And it's just like thank goodness. We're finally hearing what's who salange is Uh, it's um, but but like they're shooting on a boat. So like you see the background just like moving like this It didn't make me slightly motion sick. So I didn't really like that choice It didn't have to be on a boat. It really didn't Uh enrico Thanks for finally asking the question. I've been waiting here asked for an hour and 15 minutes. Who is salange? Uh, I I had paused the movie at one point to help my wife out with something and I said I'm watching this movie called. What have you done to salange? I'm very far into it And I have no idea who salange is there's no character with the name salange There there better be a point to this title. Now, thankfully, there very much is a point to the title and it works It works quite well in my opinion The reveal of the student's secret society adds a good a bit of intrigue to the story I like that bit of a twist that was thrown in there where enrico and her to find that out They're like, oh, they had a secret society now That was the society that in the end gets revealed as you know, they were you know being being bad You know, they were having sex. They were having orgies. They were, you know, experimenting with each other the girls. So Interesting When enrico goes to talk to ruth holden and she's found dead Notice the camera angle change that happens there. It's a very cool shot So he finds her dead body and you see just like her legs down just laying there and then it switches to Basically like her pov and it's straight up like the shot straight on of enrico standing over the body And then it goes to the side it like goes it falls a skew Which kind of could be seen as as two things one it could be seen as She was still alive when he found her and then her head slumps down and that was her pov shot Or it could also be seen as kind of his inner feelings his inner emotions where he's there He's just looking for this woman and then the shock and how everything changes and goes sideways for him when he finds her dead So two ways to kind of look at it there, but I liked it. It looked great. It really did Groupings of thoughts about morality are weird things. This isn't a general type thing tied into the film Enrico talks about the girls being involved in sex orgies and quote Lesbian games which that term made me laugh. I thought it was funny Then he says he wouldn't be surprised if they were involved in drugs Now this is one of those things and I think it gets to a part of the point of the film Which is when you start to see someone as being Immoral or amoral or a little scumbaggy or however you want to put it People just tend to throw extra stuff on that person and say well if they'll do this Then I wouldn't be surprised if they do this and that happens with the girls obviously with what I just cited Enrico saying but it also happens with Enrico himself like I was saying in the beginning They set him up as not being a very good guy like Elizabeth says he can be cruel at times. He's cheating on his wife He's trying to have sex with his students who are minors. That's a lot of bad stuff So the audience is then supposed to be like, oh, well, then he could easily be a murderer because he's already immoral That's part of the theme in this thing is just because someone Does something bad or does something's bad doesn't mean they go to a to the next level basically you never know They foreshadow how the one undercover policemen would end up messing up the trap that they were trying to set to find out about Solange and the girls in their society Um, and this kind of is foreshadowed when he salutes the inspector when he's supposed to be undercover It's like inspector and what is it the inspector literally says like you fucking idiot Don't salute me like you're supposed to be undercover. So that's that foreshadowing that this guy's not that bright He's gonna mess this up and certainly he messes it up because he loses track of Brenda and Solange And that's what ends up putting Brenda in peril Which initially the audience members at least I did thought that that was going to put Solange in peril Until you find out that the killer is actually Solange's father So he would never kill Solange so I actually like how they draw out the explanation of the events in the end I put that down and I did like it. I think they draw it out Maybe a little bit too much, but they do They do a good amount up to a certain point. It's fine to draw it out and make people kind of wait for it I think it really builds tension. It helps with that, but it also keeps you engaged at the end Until it goes a little bit too long like I think it does So Bascom who ended up being the killer Solange's father who has a different last name than Solange Which I think was another good way to kind of keep people off the track of the killer within this so he was seeking Revenge against the girls who forced his daughter Solange to get an abortion Which is what ended up traumatizing her and basically changing her personality Making her not the person who she was initially now. There's a I wasn't a hundred percent on it, but it seemed like maybe she was also kind of Pressured too much to be involved in their secret society Which is what led to her pregnancy in the first place So it was kind of that against her will and then the abortion against her will But you did see in the flashback portion that there was actually some debate going on amongst the the girls that I think was elizabeth and Janet or no elizabeth and hilda Were who ended up getting killed were actually against the idea of the abortion happening They they had kind of said, you know, just let nature take its course I think is what was said that they they had said so I don't know if it's a situation where Bascom knows that and decided to kill them anyway because they were involved in the society Or they just were there when the abortion happened or if he didn't know that so I don't know Bascom masquerading as a priest to get confessions out of the girls And identify them to be his next victims is a very good way to keep the killer hidden Yet again another one of these things that they employ to keep you off the trail So you can't guess what is really happening here, which I appreciate The music overall on this is pretty overwhelming. It's over the top But you know, you have to consider the time A lot of music was over the top in films at the time. So I realized that it's just It's how it was, but it's worth noting for sure There are some points in this where the shake the camera work is Too shaky in my opinion Um, I'm sure you've also picked up on it if you're watching this and you've seen the film It's just like not steady enough because there are a lot of scenes where it is very steady And you can tell they're using, you know a tripod, but That makes it so that when you have these moments of them doing it kind of freehand You definitely notice because that movement So that's kind of bothersome with the film The film makes a point that just because someone is a questionable character Doesn't mean they're a killer. This is seen with the suspicion over Enrico And the ultimate reveal of bascom who is killing because of acts of immorality And that is another thing that's important to note is that bascom ends up going and murdering people Which is the ultimate act of immorality because he thought that he was Getting revenge for people who were immoral Literally immorality is what set him off Being the ultimate immoral person So he let it corrupt him As he saw that his daughter had been corrupted and had been traumatized and changed forever He himself leads himself down that path. So it's pretty ironic Anyway, uh, that is all I have to say about what have you done the salange pretty good film pretty good Not the greatest it it's not towards the top of of my giallo films that I've seen but It's it's towards the middle. Maybe a little bit higher than the then, you know dead center. So Out of five stars with half stars in play I'm gonna give it a very solid three and a half star rating I was between three and a half and four But I think it feels more at the three and a half because it is definitely too long It definitely should have been edited down some it does feel like there's a good amount of wasted time in this So just saying but anyway, let's get nerdy. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about this film Let's talk about giallo in general if you want to let's get nerdy Do me a quick favor though Hit that subscribe button if you can for me and you can and it literally only takes a second because that is how You repay me. There is no monetary transaction here. I don't make money doing this. I'm not asking you for money I'm simply asking for that subscribe Totally quick totally painless also hit that notification bell if you're gonna do that Because then you know whenever I'm putting up new review videos or unboxing videos or anything else because I do other stuff too here and there But regardless, I do appreciate your time checking this out and until next time keep it brutal