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Nothing Underneath + Too Beautiful to Die
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Vinegar Syndrome Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (29th January 2022). |
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The Film
 Nothing Underneath: When Yellowstone forest ranger Bob Crane (Fever Pitch's Tom Schanley) senses the mortal peril of his model twin sister Jessica (Nicola Perring) all the way across the globe due to their psychic link, he travels to Milan to find her. She is not in her room at the models boarding house Hotel Scala and she has missed four consecutive shoots, but there is no evidence to suggest that she has met with foul play. Police commissioner Danesi (Halloween's Donald Pleasance) is, however, willing to concede that something is amiss when model Carrie (Catherine Noyes) is stabbed to death with a pair of dress shears that Bob saw in his psychic vision. With models and photographers hiding their own secrets and vices, Bob constantly hits brick walls in his investigation, with only Danish model Barbara (Renée Simonsen) the only friendly face. Eventually, Bob and Danesi discover the tragic event linking the murder victims; however, while Bob still believes his sister was the first victim, Danesi suspects that she may be the killer. Very loosely based on the scandalous novel "Sotto il Vestito Niente" – the film's Italian title which translates as "Nothing Under the Dress" although "Nothing Underneath" is also quoted in the film's dialogue – Nothing Underneath is a thriller by comedy director Carlo Vanzina, the son of famed Italian comedy director Stefano Vanzina aka Steno (Uncle Was a Vampire); as such, while its fashion milieu harkens back to Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, its stylistic visual debt to Dario Argento and his giallo films is filtered through the Hollywood aesthetics of Brian De Palma with even Pino Donaggio's hybrid orchestral/electronic score seeming to riff on both Blow Out and Body Double (the scene in which a character is menaced by a power drill seems far more likely derived from the De Palma film than from Umberto Lenzi's Seven Blood-Stained Orchids). Scripted by Vanzina, his brother Enrico Vanzina, and Argento-collaborator Franco Ferrini (Phenomena), Nothing Underneath is actually quite well-plotted apart from the psychic element and a few other leaps in logic; however, there are some interesting if understated themes like the lack of interest in anything but the surface existence of models, their seeming disposability juxtaposed against the landmarks of Milan (including the major set-piece of a Moschino fashion show staged in front of Milan's Central Railways Station to the strains of Evelyn "Champagne" King's "I Am What I Am" and Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok"). American actor Schanley returned to episodic television and has since become a character actor, while Danish model Simonsen also appeared in Vanzina's drama Via Montenapoleone and eventually left modeling to become a novelist with her series of "Karla" novels adapted to the screen. Paolo Tomei, who plays sleazy playboy jeweler Giorgio Zanoni, was a modeling agent who also provided fashions for the sequel Too Beautiful to Die. Vanzina also helmed the thrillers Mystere and Call Girl but his only other film exported to America have been the period romance The Gamble starring Matthew Modine, Faye Dunaway, and Jennifer Beals, and the soapy drama Millions starring Billy Zane, Lauren Hutton, Carol Alt, and Alexandra Paul (with a supporting role from her Christine co-star John Stockwell). Vanzina helmed over sixty films until his death in 2017, including a supposed sequel to Nothing Underneath in 2011 titled The Last Fashion Show which has not seen release in any English-speaking territories despite a cast of English-speaking actors. Producer/distributor Achille Manzotti had such a hit with Nothing Underneath that he and Vanzina mounted a sequel; however, Vanzina eventually exited the project and it was taken over by multi-award-winning commercial and music video director Dario Piana. Although the Italian title was "Sotto il Vestito Niente II" it is better known as Too Beautiful to Die.  Too Beautiful to Die: Although the protagonists are still models, the film's milieu is that of Milan's advertising industry, with commercial director David (François-Eric Gendron, later one of the star of France's entry into the Law & Order franchise) just about to mount a highly artistic and ambitious music video title "Blades" and he wants model Sylvia (Obsession: A Taste for Fear's Gioia Scola) to be the star. When Sylvia fails to show up the next day for the shoot and police inspector Brandam (Black Venus' François Marthouret) reveals that her car went off the road and exploded earlier that morning, her agent Alex (Spectres' Giovanni Tamberi) and model friends Lauren (Deadly Rivals' Randi Ingerman), Michelle (Helena Jesus), and Leslie (Norhana Ariffin) all testify that Sylvia was drunk when she ran out on a working dinner at Alex's villa and took his car. Questions crop up about what Sylvia did in the three hours between leaving the villa and the crash, especially when a reconstruction of her charred skull reveals a bullet hole. David finds discovers a replacement for his music video in newly-arrived American model Melanie Roberts (Bizarre's Florence Guérin). Replacing Sylvia as Leslie's roommate, Melanie cannot help but notice Leslie's skittish behavior whenever Sylvia is mentioned. When Leslie is killed during the music video shoot in a manner that could not have been accidental, Brandam, Melanie, and David all separately take notice of the increasingly suspicious actions of her friends and agent. As the killer stalks and kills the others who were at the party the night of Sylvia's death, the survivors must either suspect each other or the possibility that it was not Sylvia in the burning car. Although this viewer once was particularly enamored of Too Beautiful to Die as a lesser-seen eighties giallo undistributed in America and certainly a damn sight better than its unofficial successor Fatal Frames, seeing the film again hammers home just how much better Nothing Underneath was in spite of some hokey elements. More of a retread than a sequel, Too Beautiful to Die does utilize some of its borrowings in diverting manners for those familiar with the original; but it is all for naught. The script is as wafer thin as the characterization – David and Melanie fall into bed simply because of a Toto song, neither actually do much investigation in spite of being shown noticing suspicious behavior early on, and Brandam spends much time sitting at his desk – and the once striking backlit visuals and energetic editing are the epitome of style over substance. The visuals of one stabbing murder involving shattered glass walls and the finale set in a derelict warehouse strongly suggest that Richard Rush or someone on the production of The Color of Night saw the film. The main theme of composer Roberto Cacciapaglia sounds like a riff on Bryan Ferry's "Slave to Love" while the more suspenseful passages seem more like late eighties/nineties Donaggio than his more classic work for De Palma or even for the earlier film. The stalk and kill scenes are meticulously storyboarded and edited but actually far less visually and aurally compelling than the non-murder set-pieces: the sequences set around the "Blades" music video (actually a "video clip" since there no singers and the song used is Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Warriors of the Wasteland" – the nightclub scene where Melanie makes a spectacle of herself to Kissing the Pink's "Certain Things are Likely" – in a manner reminiscent of Guérin's cameo in Jess Franco's Faceless – and a fashion shoot on the water set to Huey Lewis and the News' "Perfect World" which is also heard under the end credits. Director Piana returned to the advertising world, only subsequently helming the 2007 film The Deaths of Ian Stone and Lost Boys: The Thirst, one of two sequels to the 1987 hit shot in tax break-friendly South Africa. 
Video
Released direct to video in the United States by Sony three years after its Italian premiere, Nothing Underneath took a long time to reach DVD, with an Italian-only edition circa 2008 followed by an English-friendly Danish import using the same master. Too Beautiful to Die was never released in America, but those who looked hard enough could find dupes of a Japanese widescreen VHS. The film also arrived on DVD in Italy without English options. When the films arrived in a limited edition double feature set on Blu-ray in Germany – followed by individual releases of the film and the sequel – the drawbacks became apparent in the lack of English audio or subtitles for either film, and the use of a mono source for the first film (the sequel's audio options were in stereo).  Transferred from 4K scans of the original camera negatives, Nothing Underneath's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen presentation is bursting with saturated color that pop against the rain-slicked Milan settings, and the framing is more considered than evident in Sony's cropped cassette. Grain is coarser during the credits opticals and the slow motion final shots – the final regular motion shot jitters before the cut to the slow motion material – but that is a result of the shooting and processing rather than any preservation issues. Too Beautiful to Die's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray reveals a bump up in terms of detail in skin, hair, clothing, décor, and settings, but the film has always looked pretty good on video and DVD. Saturated colors now pop without bleeding, with the red lips of the opening credits now revealing textures that establish it as upholstery even before the reveal that it is a sofa, the skin of the models during the opening TV commercial reveals more variegations of shades that now distinguish them where it was once hard to tell the difference between tans and skin tones (and it is indeed a deliberate casting choice that the four models are different ethnicities). The abandoned warehouse of the climax also now reveal real textures and grit where once it seemed as much a music video set as that of the "Blades" video clip. 
Audio
Thankfully, the Dolby Stereo mix has been restored to the English track of Nothing Underneath which has been given a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 encoding along with SDH subtitles and an subtitle track for text (a lossy Dolby Digital option is also included). The Italian track has been given a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 encode and there is no subtitle track to translate it. In this case, however, not only was English spoken on set, it was also recorded and used in the final mix rather than as a guide track for post-dubbing (even the Italian actors speaking phonetic English are heard here). The occasionally sibilance issues are indicative of the original recording and, perhaps, the inexperience of Italian technicians with sync-sound even into the mid-eighties. The stereo imaging is evident from the start with Donaggio's score and some instrumentation that tended to get buried in the mono tracks on earlier releases. The SDH subtitles could have used some proofing as some transcription gaffes turn up occasionally.  While English was spoken on the set of Too Beautiful to Die, and the English track has been given the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 encode while the Italian track is in lossy Dolby Digital, everyone here is post-dubbed in the former – even, it seems, American actress Ingerman – and only SDH subtitles are included for the English track and a second text-only subtitle track. 
Extras
Nothing Underneath is accompanied by two separate audio commentaries. On the audio commentary by podcasters The Hysteria Continues!, they discuss the film in the context of the increasing scarcity of giallo in the mid-to-late eighties, the history of the models and murder subgenre, the film's satirizing of the swinging 80s "Milan da Bere" culture, what they could find on some of the lesser-known cast members including the models (Noyes is apparently in Florida real estate now), clues that provide hints to the solution that are only evident upon rewatching, and how the film's supernatural aspect repeatedly defies its own internal logic. The second audio commentary by film historian and critic Rachael Nisbet covers some of the same ground but also provides more background on the pseudonymous source novel which was started with a murdered model, exposed the seedy underbelly of Milan's fashion world, focused on a rivalry between Armani and Versace stand-ins, and was so controversial among the Milanese fashionistas that all but upstart Moschino shunned the production. She also reveals that Manzotti originally wanted Michelangelo Antonioni to direct the film and it was to star Charlotte Rampling and Terence Stamp which goes to show just how much the final film differs from the source. In "Murders a la Mode" (28:34), screenwriter Enrico Vanzina reveals that Antonioni hired him and his brother to adapt the novel and Antonioni left because Manzotti wanted something more commercial. He also notes that he and his brother were better known for comedies but the success of them allowed them to work in other genres to which they aspired including the giallo. He cites not only De Palma but also Klute and the true crime scandal of model Terry Broome, an American model in Milan who murdered a playboy who was allegedly stalking her, as well as their decision to recruit "giallo connoisseur" Ferrini for collaboration. In "Murder, He Wrote" (28:56), Ferrini covers a lot of the same ground, but also provides detals of his contributions, noting the original subplot involving diamonds and his explanation that a thriller is only scary if the killer is psychopathic (the choice of dress shears was inspired by his tailor aunts). He is also forthcoming about the behind the scenes, noting that Argento regarded the film as an "invasion of his field" and noting the derivativeness not only of Donaggio's score while also claiming not to have known about the Body Double drill scene.  In "High Fashion Music" (12:36), composer Donaggio discusses the transition from orchestra to electronics and the use of both in film, as well as emphasizing the important differences between the Body Double theme and the cue heard in the film. Finally, in "Models, Murders and Italy" (19:20), actor Schanley discusses his dramatic education, his early TV work, and Nothing Underneath as his first lead and the opportunity to go to Italy and act with models. He recalls his experiences with Pleasance, Simonsen, and Perring, as well as the film's depiction of Americanisms like the Wendy's scene and his embarrassing attempts to smoke a cigarette on camera because the tobacco company offered both the production and himself five grand to feature the product onscreen. Unfortunately, no trailer is included. Too Beautiful to Die is also accompanied by an audio commentary by film historian and critic Rachael Nisbet who notes that the lips sofa in the opening credits is a recreation of one of Salvador Dali's sculpture dedicated to Mae West, visual nods to the music video work of Robert Palmer, the film as a retread rather than a sequel, and how the film transformed from the original sequel concept which included characters from the original film and a climax set in the Florida Everglades, and the Vanzinas departure from the project which was spearheaded by Manzotti. In "Nothing True But the Eyes" (42:13), director Piana reveals that Carlo Vanzina recommended him to direct the film and admits that, in spite of his writing credit, he left the script to Manzotti and production manager Claudio Mancini (Legend); indeed, he seems not to have cared at all about the plot. He cites Ridley Scott as his primary inspiration as far as commercial directors transitioning to cinema – citing Someone to Watch Over Me rather than Blade Runner or Alien – and gives an indication of just how under construction the script still was when he came onto the project, coming up with the music video idea and the idea that the murder weapon should be a prop from it. He also recalls how some other scenes and elements were discovered during pre-production and production, such as the sound stage murder while they were shooting interiors in Rome at the former Dino De Laurentiis studios which at the time belonged to Charles Band and Empire Pictures or the warehouse setting. Also included is a selection of alternate ending storyboards (1:59) that are hard to understand without the script, so one is not certain whether the killer murders the final victim simply for the sake of revenge or to save the life of the character the victim thinks is the killer. The deleted scenes storyboards (12:21) appear to be from an earlier draft of the script since they are indeed set in the Florida Everglades and have a character related to the first film's killer. 
Packaging
The cover is reversible while the first 5,000 copies ordered from Vinegar Syndrome come with a special limited edition embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kessler Jr.
Overall
Vinegar Syndrome's double feature set of Nothing Underneath and Too Beautiful to Die not only looks at the seedy world behind high fashion but also exemplifies the state of the Italian giallo genre in the eighties.
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