Physical Scandal (1990)

 

A guy stands to do quite well for himself in his father-in-law's business; but there's that pesky girl he's been having an affair with that might get in the way of his promotion - so he arranges to have her killed.

Sante (Frank Angelini) thinks he's the shit working in this electronics business

But the only reason he has this job is because of his father-in-law (Geoffrey Copleston)

Sante has a cold and distant relationship with his wife Anna (Linda Carol) - partly due to her knowledge of his philandering. 

Sante has a girlfriend on the side - Greta  (Cristina Garavaglia) but she's always calling him.

Sante's friend and business associate Achilles (Antonio Zequila) makes it clear that he could fuck everything up if he's caught with Greta.  He needs to ditch her.

It's pretty clear that Greta won't go away easily.  He breaks it off with her - she spills the beans.

While Greta sleeps, Sante shaves in the bathroom...

He fantasizes about Greta cutting her own throat

He knows what must be done.

But first, Sante needs to get it out of his system.  He has wild sex with Greta on the beach.

Then in the car

Then on the bannister

Meanwhile, Anna walks alone and lonely

Sante tries to have sex with Anna, but it's a miserable depressing experience

So, Sante fantasizes that Greta is in the bedroom with him

But in fact, Greta is at home getting into the bath

A man in a ski mask tries to drown her, but she escapes by splashing her drink in his face.  We can see the killer is Achilles.

Okay let's pause for a moment.  Let me tell you that Achilles wrestles and fights with Greta for - what has to be twenty minutes.  This would be one of the longest nude scenes in history; however, it is mostly in the dark.  I presume a lot the problem is the copy - and perhaps a restored version would bring this to life.  As is, it's a helluva long nude scene, but mostly in the shadows.

Greta does a surprisingly good job of fending him off; at one point hitting him with a fire poker

Finally, Achilles smashes Greta's head repeatedly on the ground and presumes she's dead.

This whole time Sante is having dinner with Anna (the perfect alibi).

But Greta is not dead.  She's hiding in the closet.  When Sante returns home, she stabs him in the stomach killing him (presuming him to be the murderer).

Greta runs from the house (still naked), but is pursued by Achilles.

She's finally shot dead as she scrambles up a sand dune, and rolls down lifeless.

Plot twist: Anna and Achilles were in on this all along.  It was all part of their plan to be rid of Sante and have all the money for themselves

Plot twist 2: An inspector presents Achilles with photographs of himself wearing a ski mask breaking into the house to kill Greta.  The photos were taken when Greta accidentally knocked over the camera in the dark.

Plot twist 3: The kid has discovered his gloves and gun and is about to blow Achilles' head off before the film ends. 

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This film goes up many notches upon a restored version.  If it helps rid us of the contant darkness, we're dealing with a different movie.  Bravo to Cristina Garavaglia who is pretty much naked every minute she's on screen. 

★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆5/10