I've recently seen Dario Piana's TOO BEAUTIFUL TO DIE, a sequel to Carlo Vanzina's NOTHING UNDERNEATH (the Italian title is SOTTO IL VESTITO NIENTE 2). It was produced by Achille Manzotti who also produced the first film and he seems to have gone all out on this one, leading me to ask if it was because NOTHING UNDERNEATH was so successful or because he gave over the creative control to music video director Dario Piana (with whom he co-wrote the story)?

I have wanted to see this film ever since I read a none-too-favorable review of it in Video Watchdog which made it sound more like PATHOS than NOTHING UNDERNEATH which said it "comes along like MTV on celluloid: lavish, stuffed with steadycam fireworks, crane shots, ultra-fast editing, and rock music..."

Having finally seen it, I think Piana's visual excess can be forgiven in light of Al Festa's bombastic FATAL FRAMES. In fact, the film has dated better than the more recent FATAL FRAMES. It's look, from the camerwork to the editing are even more ambitious than other Italian thrillers of the time. In fact, it looks more like an American film influenced by Italian thrillers - like THE COLOR OF NIGHT (which I hated) shot in Rome. Thus, it's not really a giallo even in spite of its plot similarities with NOTHING UNDERNEATH.

The review also said that Roberto Cacciapaglia's score "tries hard to copy Pino Donaggio's score for the Vanzina film..." but I think the orchestral stuff sounds more like a steal from Bernard Hermann than Pino Donaggio's work which is also very Hermann influenced (there's even an annoying play on the PSYCHO shower theme that pretty much clues viewers into the ensuing false scare). The main title theme sounds less like Donaggio and more like an instrumental of Brian Ferry's "Slave to Love."

The songs used in the film are a mixed bag. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Warriors of the Wasteland" is used to good effect for the music video despite the fact that the video is titled "Blades." Kissing the Pink's "Certain Things Are Likely" is used to particularly good effect in the sequence that introduces Florence Guerin's character (a scene similar to Guerin's nightclub appearance in Jess Franco's FACELESS) in which her dancing at the club is intercut with her dancing audition for the music video the next day (even though the music video's cheesy choreography requires nothing so energetic as either of her dances). Toto's "I Won't Hold Back" is listed in the credits but I don't remember hearing it (in fact, I've never heard it). "Perfect World" by Huey Lewis and the News is the most ill-chosen of the songs. The photo shoot that the song underscored really could've used something better and its use is particularly ridiculous under the ending credits.

While the killer's identify does come as a surprise (though people who have seen NOTHING UNDERNEATH will have an edge in guessing), the film gets off to a slow start. I think it would've been better had the rape of the model (Gioia Maria Scola) been seen in flashback later on in the film as part of the killer's revalation rather than at the start of the film.

The characters are not particularly likeable; a given in films about models it seems, though I was surprised that there was no stereotypical illicit drug use in the film. Guerin's central character is too passive to be either heroine or killer. The dubbing is downright awful for some of the performances - notably the agent. Despite much flashing of the bizarre blade in the hand of the killer, the gore consists of a couple slashes. There's a little too much slow motion, and in the strangest places (such as the montage establishing Guerin's friendship with one of the marked models).

On the whole - as a way to sum up my rambling - I did not particularly like the film except for a couple of sequences on aesthetic grounds. I would probably buy it if it showed up on DVD (it would probably make a better double bill with PATHOS than NOTHING UNDERNEATH).

According to my research there have been four tape releases of the film (all out of print). There is a Japanese tape (letterboxed with Japanese subtitles and English audio; no need for digital censoring) from Columbia Video; a Dutch release (letterboxed with Dutch subtitles) from Concorde Film; a German tape from New Vision (this is the one reviewed in VW; is it letterboxed?); and a UK tape from Colourbox (cut by BBFC; is this one letterboxed?). Does anyone know of any others?

Also, any other opinions on the film?

Hmmm, I have both the UK tape and the japanese tape, I vividly remember the song I WONT HOLD BACK by Toto being heard twice in the film, will check when I can.