Pyjama Girl Case Review

Shot on location in Sydney (but updated to the 1970s), Pyjama Girl Case is not your typical Italian giallo thriller any more than the case itself is a typical murder mystery.

Director/writer Flavio Mogherini, in his lone extraordinary entry in the genre, matches the atmosphere of the case with a confusing, off kilter narrative, alternately following the investigation of retired police detective Ray Milland and promiscuous waitress Dalila Di Lazzaro (Phenomena), who may have some connection to the victim. The film’s centerpiece – a master stroke by former art director Mogherini – is the public display of the partially charred nude corpse of the victim in a glass case, which the police put on public view in the hope that someone might identify her.

It’s an amazing combination of the surreal, the erotic and the grotesque, made all the more disturbing because it mirrors the true events the film is based on.

An insert booklet contains a comics story by Eddie Campbell about the case from Taboo magazine. An accompanying featurette uses an interview and archival footage to explain the case in more detail.