Alberto Negrin's "Enigma Rosso" (aka. "Rings Of Fear"/"Virgin Killer") of 1978 is a sleazy and entertaining, but overall not too memorable Giallo effort that was co-written by the great Massimo Dallamano. And the film does indeed bear Dallamano's handwriting as the theme is quite similar to Dallamano's directorial works, "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange" and "La Polizia Chiede Aiuto", only that this film can not nearly reach the brilliance of the aforementioned films. "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange" (aka. "What Have You Done To Solange") of 1972 is a masterpiece that easily ranks among the greatest Gialli ever made, and while "La Polizia Chiede Aiuto" (aka. What Have They Done To Our Daughters" of 1974 is not quite as brilliant a film it is nonetheless a great mixture of Giallo and Poliziottesco that no fan of Italian genre cinema could afford to miss. "Enigma Rosso" also follows the 'crazy ripper targets naughty schoolgirls' premise, but with a lot less style and imagination this time. Nonehteless, "Enigma Rosso" is an entertaining film which is recommendable to Giallo-buffs exclusively for its sleaziness.
When the mutilated body of a teenage schoolgirl is found, homicide detective Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) begins to investigate in the girl's posh boarding school, and finds out there are lots of sleazy things going on... Fabio Testi is well cast as the rough and tough, but overall kind-hearted copper. Testi always delivers solid performances (his doubtlessly greatest film being "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange") and he fits very well in his role here. Apart from Testi, the cast also includes Christine Kaufmann ("The Last Days Of Pompeii") and Jack Taylor, who is probably best known among my fellow Exploitation buffs as a regular in the films of Jess Franco. Some of the female cast members are very beautiful, and they all tend to get naked on every possible occasion. This, and a range of perversions make the film recommendable to all the lovers of the sleazier Gialli out there. The murders are not as nasty as I thought, they'd be, but not too tame either. There is also a 'funny' (and somewhat silly) subplot about the inspector and his sexy girlfriend (played by beautiful Christine Kaufmann) who happens to be a kleptomaniac. The score by Riz Ortolani is more than decent, but not one of his best, and neither highly memorable for Giallo standards. The photography is very good. Overall, "Enigma Rosso" is recommendable enough to my fellow Giallo-fans, but it is by no means a must-see. The film definitely entertains, but I strongly recommend to see "La Polizia Chiede Aiuto" and especially "Cosa Avete Fatto A Solange" before this one. One more aspect that deserves to be mentioned about this one: "Enigma Rosso" includes the arguably coolest jeans advertisement poster ever seen on film.
