Starting a new job is often a stressful experience for the best of us, but spare a thought for Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli from the awful Cold Eyes of Fear), the heroine of this ultra-stylish giallo/police thriller, who's first few days as a new Assistant D.A. involve an investigation into the apparent suicide of a naked teenage girl, the uncovering of a sleazy vice-ring of underage schoolgirls, and looks very much like ending with an appointment in an underground carpark with a leather clad, meat cleaver wielding motorcyclist!

A naked fifteen year old school girl is found hanging from a beam in a grotty rented room. Inspector Valentini (Mario Adorf) believes it to be suicide, but when the newly appointed female D.A. Vittoria, studies some film footage of a recent street riot, she recognises the girl as the girlfriend of one of the rioters they have under surveillance. It soon becomes apparent, after a bit of investigation, that the girl, Sylvia (Sherry Buchanan) was murdered. A whole bunch of suspicious characters may or may not have something to do with it, including a peeping tom, a housekeeper, and a private detective hired by the girl's parents to keep tabs on her rather precocious sex life. A hard nosed police inspector, Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli), is assigned to the case and naturally, bodies begin mounting up as a vicious killer is out to get anyone who looks like getting near to uncovering the truth.

This was director Massimo Dallamano's follow-up to his now acclaimed giallo, 'What have they done to Solange?' (1971). That film was a classy piece of unashamed giallo sleaze that, thanks to it's unusually strong characterisation, rose far above the pack of similar Italian thrillers that appeared on the back of the huge success of Argento's 'The Bird With The Crystal Plumage' (1969). WHTDTYD takes the same potent cocktail of underage sex, secret societies and murderous maniacs, and adds a more conventional ''action'' element to the proceedings. In that respect we get the aforementioned motorcycle killer, who as well as being a dab hand with a meat cleaver, also gets to show off his 'Evil Kinevil' skills in a high speed chase through the streets of Rome.

Although it has it's faults, I found this film equally as appealing as it's predecessor; it sacrifices allot of the classy atmospherics and the patiently developed story line of Solange for straightforward thrills and spills, and the resolution of the mystery seems rushed and incomplete; but it does contain some fantastic set-pieces — including the previously mentioned hunt through the underground carpark — and a fair bit of delightful sleaze and gore! The delicate subject matter of young girls being abused by an organised vice ring is treated with absolutely no subtlety whatsoever — and this leads to some amusingly brutal dialogue (''This 'thing' that scares you so much is gonna give you allot of pleasure — now spread your legs!''). Along the way we're treated to the sight of pieces of a chopped up body arranged on a mortuary slab, someone getting whacked in the back of the head with a meat cleaver, and someone reaching for a light switch in a darkened room getting their hand hacked of! The music score from Stelvio Cipriani is great, and keeps things rolling along nicely during the car and bike chases, as well as the tense stalking scenes. The only thing that stops the film getting five skulls is the rather weak ending. We find out too quickly who the motorcycle killer is — it's just a matter of the police finding him; but we never learn why he is so keen to do all of the dirty work to protect the vice ring. Also the leader of the vice ring commits suicide before he can be brought to justice and the rest of them, we are told, are too powerful to be arrested. This feels rather feeble — it means we have loads of loose ends left over, and after struggling to follow the convoluted plot I did feel like they owed it to the viewer to make more of an effort to make all the pieces fit together more satisfactorily. Other than that, I was thoroughly entertained, and I think any gialli fan will be too.

You're really not gaining much more in buying Salvation's DVD (PAL,R0) of this film, than you would be if you bought their VHS version instead. The non-anamorphic print is not in great shape — the colours are faded and the image appears almost bleached out in places, but then too dark in other places. The soundtrack is clear for the most part but suffers from some loud popping and crackling here and there. The extras are not going to get anyone excited: One or two production stills, a trailer and a selection of video art is all you get.

With the current craze for releasing gialli on DVD there is every possibility that someone will give this film a decent treatment eventually — but for now, this DVD or the VHS is definitely worth getting, just to get to see this enormously entertaining little gem!