The French Sex Murders (1972)

Original Title: Casa d'appuntamento; featuring a Bogart lookalike, the jungle girl from The Mighty Peking Man, the fakest looking decapitation ever, and tons of whores in trouble.

Oddly enough, the main detective in this film is a Humphrey Bogart lookalike, Inspector Fontaine (Robert Sacchi).

Everybody at Madame Colette's whorehouse is boogieing and having a good time.

One of the prostitutes is just chilling on a chair with floral upholstery.  It's all good.  No one's judging, and everyone's here to do their own thing. 

But then comes this customer - Antoine Gottvalles (Pietro Martellanza).  He's a real asshole.  After he sleeps with one of the prostitutes, Francine (Barbara Bouchet), he smacks her around and calls her a whore.

There's a commotion, but the door is locked.  When the police arrive, they find Francine dead.

 Naturally, Inspector Fontaine suspects Antoine Gottvalles.

 Madame Colette (Anita Ekberg) is brought to the station for questioning.  

 Also brought in for questioning - Marianne (Rosalba Neri), a local lounge singer, and her boyfriend Pepi (Rolf Eden).  They were friends with Antoine.

Antoine escapes custody on his motorcycle.  But he collides with a truck and is decapitated.

 I always love street scenes.  Here is the club where Marianne performs.

 I presume this really is Rosalba Neri's voice; sorry, but she is a really bad singer.

Now we meet Professor Waldemar (Howard Vernon).  He is doing some cutting edge experiments, and wants to use Antoine's decapitated head.

 One of Madame Colette's sex workers, Florence (Eva Astor).  She was an Austrian actress who appeared in a bunch of German exploitation films in the seventies.  If a title like Laß jucken Kumpel (1972) doesn't ring a bell, you probably don't know her.  I point her out because she's basically the only girl in this movie to provide quality T&A.

Madame Colette settles down for the night and reads the paper... then is killed with a lamp by a mysterious figure.

Meet Professor Waldemar's daughter Eleonora (Evelyne Kraft).  You may recognize her from The Mighty Peking Man (1977).  She was dynamite in that film, wearing only the tiniest animal skins as a jungle girl.  Unfortunately, she doesn't provide any eye candy in this film whatsoever.

Marianne asks Tina (Piera Viotti) where Pepi is. I think the movie is trying to do the usual Giallo trick of throwing a million suspects at you.  Who could it be? The trouble is, Giallos give you precious little to work with.  It's not like an Agatha Christie novel where you might be able to deduce the culprit; Giallos never arrive at conclusion that could be logically derived.

Pepi is with Florence (called Alice in the dubbed version).  I dig that shag bedspread.

 

 Eleonora talks to her over-protective father about seeing someone. 

Marianne speaks with Tina - apologizing for accusing her of being with Pepi.

Actress Piera Viotti as Tina shows some boob here.  She was only in a few movies. She's credited as being in Isabella Duchess of the Devils (1969), but it must have been a bit part.  Her last movie of only five was called Put Your Devil Into My Hell (1973); I'm going to have to check that one out.

 Tina's lover is killed, and she runs downstairs, finding Marianne decapitated.

 Tina is then, herself, killed - having her eyes gouged out.  This is easily the most disturbing and memorable moments of the film.  It was actually used on a lobby card.

The police find the real murderer - It's Professor Waldemar.

It was he who came into Francine's room after Antoine left and murdered her. 

Inspector Fontaine explains that Waldemar was committing all these murders because he was so overprotective, envisioning each prostitute to be Eleonora. THE END

This is just a stupid ending.  With a title like The French Sex Murders, I was expecting sex and blood to the extreme.  Instead, it was rather pitiful - a couple brief nude scenes, and barely any blood. It was full of pretty ladies, with nothing much of interest happening.  The climax featuring Tina's death was powerful, but the film was lackluster otherwise. I've seen many a Giallo deliver much, much more.  This was weak.

Imagine having Barbara Bouchet, Rosalba Neri and Evelyne Kraft in your movie, and not one of them deliver a hint of nudity.  In fact, Neri and Kraft provide exactly zero sex appeal, and Bouchet is only in a short scene.Anita Ekberg is past her prime, but still wasted in this role.  It's simply not deserving of its title; should've been called The Pointless French No-Sex Lame Whodunit instead.

★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆