Prior to Torso, director Sergio Martino had worked on three giallos, including Blade of the Ripper (1970), Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) and They're Coming to Get You (1972).

Hoping to sell his latest work I Corpi Presentano Tracce di Violenza Carnale (The Bodies Show Traces of Carnal Violence) to American audiences, distributor Joseph Brenner imported the film under the simple title Torso.

Often compared to Dario Argento, Martino's work is generally underrated. Less an "auter" and more commercial than his contemporaries, he knew just was his audience wanted to see.

Suzy Kendall, who was familiar to audiences through her roles in To Sir With Love and Dario Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, starred in this nail-biting thriller.

As the credits roll, we see a man and two women engaged in a three-way, and we hear an Art Professor at a university in Rome giving a lesson to his class.

When the class is over, Jane (Suzy Kendall), an American studying abroad, and her friend Dani (Tina Aumont) have a few questions for Professor Franz (John Richardson). They express their disagreement over some of his teachings.

Stefano (Roberto Bisacco) offers to take Dani home, but she would rather hitch a ride with Jane. "He's hounded me for years. I can't shake him off," she tells her friend.

They meet their other girlfriends Carol (Cristina Airoldi), Katia (Angella Covello) and Ursula (Carla Brait) and walk over towards Jane's car. Carol sees her friend Flo (Patrizia Adiutori) and ask her if she's coming over that night. Flo says she's busy and hooks up with her boyfriend John.

Apparently, Stefano has other interests besides Dani and he follows Flo and John. The couple parks the car under a bridge and make out, unaware that someone is watching them. John looks up and sees a masked figure. Furious that they were being spied on, he takes off after him, leaving Flo behind.

When he doesn't return, Flo turns the headlights on and gets out of the car. She walks several feet away and someone turns the lights off. As she goes back towards the vehicle, the masked stranger grabs her and strangles her with a scarf, killing her. He then pulls out a knife and mutilates her body.

John's body is found not too far from hers and the police question a vagrant who discovered it.

The next day, near the university, Carol notices a good-looking guy buying a scarf from a vendor named Gianni. Gianni tries to come on to her, but she's only interested in the stranger standing next to him.

Carol finds out about Flo's murder when Dani shows her the headline in the newspaper. She's badly shaken by the news and runs away. Stefano tells Dani and the girls that classes have been cancelled.

Jane bumps into Professor Franz in a church and they go for a walk around the city. Franz tells her he'll try and get tickets to an Academy concert for the two of them and his student is clearly smitten with him. After they go their separate ways, Jane sees Carol having an argument with someone and overhears him telling her he can't see her anymore.

Stefano picks up a beautiful hooker and take her back to his place. But he seems disinterested when she tries to have sex with him. She tells him "honey, even if you're queer or impotent, you're paying the price I charge just the same." Furious, Stefano smacks the prostitute and threatens to kill her. She runs out of his apartment with barely any clothes on.

Carol sees the handsome man she admired earlier. Dani bumps into her and asks where she's been. Carol is acting strange and cuts the conversation short, saying she has to be somewhere. Her friends Peter and George pressure her to go off with them on their motorbikes.

She ends up in a warehouse, surrounded by hippie types smoking pot, scantily clad women dancing and other engaging in "free love." When one of her male companions tries to get into Carol's pants, she tells him to take his clothes off first. As he starts to do just that, she burns his chest with a joint. The girl is not having a good time.

She leaves the get-together and walks into a nearby field. She then happens to overhear the guy say, "I'll strangle the bitch" as he and his buddy ride off in their motorcycles. His bike crashes in the mud and they lose sight of her.

Carol continues walking and ends up in the woods. She stops for a second when she notices someone staring at her. The man disappears and as Carol attempts get away, he turns up again. He strangles her with his scarf and drowns her. The sadistic killer also gouges her eyes with his fingers and cuts her body with a knife.

The police show up at the university to talk about the murders. Inspector Martino claims a fiber from the scarf was found on Carol's body and he warns the students to be on the lookout for anyone wearing something similar.

Dani is upset because she noticed a mark on the neck of one of Carol's male friends. She tells Jane she's frightened and that she was the last person to see Carol alive. Neither of them was wearing a red scarf, she says. (Kids, this is not the way to conduct an investigation!)

Dani does remember seeing someone wearing one but she can't recall whom it was. Stefafano is watching, as she gets into Jane's car to be driven home. Meanwhile, Inspector Martino is keeping a close eye on Stefano.

Dani gets a threatening call from a man disguising his voice. He tells her not get involved if she wants to be spared. Her Uncle Nino comes home and sees how upset she is. He advises her to go to their country house and tells her to invite her friends.

Inspector Martino questions Gianni the street vendor, who carries the type of scarf, but he can't remember whom he's sold merchandise to.

When the investigator leaves, Gianni makes a phone call and tells that person the police are snooping around. He promises not to tell them he's sold the same exact scarf to him if he gets 2 million lira. Gianni plans to collect his hush money that night.

Dani tells Katia and Ursula to meet her at the station the next day so they can leave town together for the house. Stefano tries to talk to Dani but she doesn't want to have anything to do with him. He says "you've got to belong to me and no one else" and she suddenly remembers he was the guy wearing the red and black scarf. He tries to kiss her but she breaks away and locks her apartment door.

Dani calls Jane and tells her to come over right away. She mentions the scarf and implies that Stefano might be the killer. She also tells her about the intimidating phone call. Uncle Nino says goodbye to them as he leaves for Paris and Jane realizes he's the man who told Carol he was through with her. She also feels that he leers at his niece in an inappropriate way.

Jane tells Dani she won't be going to the villa with the group because she has to do a few things in town. She says she'll drive up later after first speaking with Stefano.

Gianni has just collected his bribe payoff and is walking home. A car comes out of the blue and tries to run him down. The driver succeeds and crushes him against a wall.

The next day, Jane visits Stefano in his apartment. The door is open and she enters, but he isn't around. On a chair is a doll with its eyes missing. She finds a note to Dani, which says "I don't understand why you reject me...but I know that one day you will understand me. Do you remember the promise you made when you were a child?" Stefano's landlady tells Jane it doesn't look as if he came home the night before.

The girls take a train to the villa, unaware they're being watched by someone onboard. He seems especially taken with Katia and Ursula, who are lovers. Roberto (Luc Merenda) sits in their compartment, the same guy Carol was admiring at the university. He doesn't say a word to the friends.

They arrive in the village and their good looks make them the center of attention. Dani tells a deliveryman to bring them bread and milk every morning and they're taken up to her country house on a tractor. (The villa is located in a mountain overlooking the small town.) A couple of men tease the village idiot by telling him to go up to the villa because the girls are expecting him.

Jane finds a note on the dirty windshield of her car from Franz, which puts a smile on her face. It says he has two tickets for a concert in a couple of days. She takes off for the villa.

Night falls and Jane hasn't arrived. The girls are sitting around in the house and Ursula can't help but notice that it feels like a fortress. Dani says there's no one there most of the year and the bars on the window are to keep thieves out.

Jane finally arrives with the help of a filling station attendant, who shows her how to find the house. Her car is having problems so he takes it back to have it repaired after dropping her off.

The first thing Jane tells Dani is that Stefano had nothing to do with the murders. Dani remembers back and says, "of course, Stefanos' scarf was different. He had a red design on a black background. The one the inspector showed us was just the opposite." (Forget this ridiculous dialogue and remember you're watching some beautiful women, folks!)

After relaxing with a drink, Jane says goodnight to Dani and goes up to bed. Ursula and Katia enjoy a little Sapphic love while a gloved stranger stalks the house. In fact, there are two people watching the women make love.

The village idiot has made his way up to the house and is scared away by a glimpse of the stalker's knife. The killer corners him and slashes the guy's neck, then disposes his body.

The deliveryman arrives the next morning and gets an eyeful when he sees Dani, Ursula and Katia sunbathing in the nude. Coming down the staircase, Jane trips and twists her ankle. Dani tells the guy to get a doctor immediately and Stefano watches through a pair of binoculars as the young man rushes back into town.

The doctor turns out to be Roberto. He wraps Jane's ankle in a bandage and tells her to stay in bed. He also gives her some pills to help her sleep better. Dani gets a phone call from her uncle in Paris and she remarks that he sounds as if he's in the next room.

Three of the girls spend the afternoon by a lake, where Ursula and Katia go skinnydipping (ah, those wild lesbians!) Dani sees Stefano across the lake and calls out his name. He doesn't respond and the other two tell her she must be imagining it.

Jane is bedridden so they break open a bottle of champagne in her room. She's tired from the medication and goes to sleep early, while the others go downstairs.

Dani plays the piano a little bit and then gets the urge to call Stefano. The phone line is dead and the doorbell suddenly rings. Katia makes a joke about it being the doctor making a late call.

Dani opens the door and Stefano is standing there. There's something not quite right about him and the girls soon see why. His body falls to the ground and the killer is standing behind him. The girls all scream for their lives.

The next morning, the killer buries Stefano's body not far from the house. Jane wakes up late and admires the spectacular view of the town from the window. She calls out to her friends but gets no answer. When she goes downstairs, she notices some of the furniture askew and then sees the bodies of Ursula and Katia covered in blood.

Jane screams, and Dani, who is barely alive, tries to say something before falling at her friend's feet. The killer returns with a hacksaw and Jane hides in the next room. She's forced to watch as he cuts her friends up, unable to scream or call for help.

The doorbell rings and it's the deliveryman. He gets no response and leaves the daily bread and milk outside the door. The killer goes back to dismembering the bodies and all Jane can do is cover her ears to avoid hearing the ghastly sound. When he's done, he stuffs the body parts in bags and takes them outside to bury them.

Jane discovers the phone is out of order. The front door is bolted shut so she goes back upstairs. Her foot is still in pain and she hurts herself on the staircase, losing her slippers in the process. In the bedroom, she uses a mirror to reflect the sun, hoping it will get someone's attention. Roberto happens to see it and calls up to the house. He gets no answer.

Jane sees the killer returning to the house and she tries to hide the fact that someone else is in the house by shoving everything in a closet. Unfortunately, she realizes she left her slippers behind.

The filling station attendant attempts to return Jane's car. He leaves, believing there' s no one home. Jane knocks over a chair, which gets the killer's attention. He goes upstairs to see what it is and she hides in the closet.

There's no sign of anyone in the room and it appears as if the chair was knocked over by wind from the open window. When he leaves, the killer locks the bedroom door from the outside and leaves the key in the door.

On the way down, he finds the slippers on the staircase but doesn't think too much of it. Jane spends the entire day in the bedroom.

Meanwhile, Roberto has a car accident and takes his vehicle to the filling station. He sees Jane's car and the attendant tells him it looks as if the girls left the night before because he hasn't seen anyone go up or down all day. Roberto gets in his car and drives up.

It's the evening and the killer overhears the deliveryman tell a group of his friends that there are four girls in the house. He now knows he missed someone.

While she's alone in the house, Jane places a newspaper sheet under the door and tries to knock the key out of the keyhole with a pin. The key lands on the floor and the killer, amused by her attempt, places the key on the paper. Jane pulls the paper into the room and then takes the key and unlocks the door.

To her surprise, the man on the other side of the door is Professor Franz. "I had to do it. I had to, Jane. They were only dolls, stupid dolls made out of flesh and blood," he tells her. He says she's not like the others because she's pure.

Franz recalls an incident that twisted his mind when he was a child. His brother fell over a cliff and died while trying to retrieve a doll for a friend of theirs. He tells Jane that Flo and Carol seduced and then blackmailed him. He got rid of anyone who might be able to figure out he was the killer, including Stefano and Dani.

The Professor has completely lost his mind and he tries to strangle Jane with the scarf. Roberto saves her just in time and Franz runs out into the stables. The two men fight and Franz goes over a cliff, plunging to his death. Jane and Roberto go off together to call the police.

Guido De Angelis and Maurizio De Angelis composed an effective score for this one and Giancarlo Ferrando showcased the beauty of Italy with his cinematography.

Anchor Bay's Torso DVD truly does it justice. Compared to the video we had seen, the print is vibrant and clear. What's more, it's the uncut version and adds at least three minutes to the movie. This footage includes dialogue (in Italian with English subtitles) as well as extended scenes of graphic violence.

Carlo Ponti (husband to Sophia Loren) produced this and one can only wonder what his wife thought of this project!

Jason: Martino's thrillers are always delightful (especially the ones starring beauty Edwige Fenech), but Torso is head & shoulders above the rest. Kendall is superb in the leading role, both stunningly innocent looking and wisely mature.

The plot of the killer terrorizing Rome's college students is hardly new, but freshly done here with the aid of the atmospheric villa retreat and a pounding score.

Hunter: I'm crazy for this movie, despite its loopy logic. It is candy for the eyes - beautiful shots of Rome and the Italian countryside, and stunningly lovely women. What is in their genes? It must be the olive oil! I dare you to look at the photos on this page (of the women AND men) and not think the Italians are the best-looking people on the planet!

I'm especially fond of the latter half of the film, in which Jane hides in the house and the killer is unaware of her presence. It's truly scary and suspenseful, an exceptional exercise in terror!

An attractive cast, a great score, wonderful photography, a hooded killer - all these things make Torso fun viewing. I highly recommend this, especially if you're a fan of giallos.