Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS.

 
 
Stewart Scrafton
5 febbraio alle ore 13:44
 
If there’s one film I can think of that’s so quintessentially ‘giallo’, it’s Giuliano Carnimeo’s 1972 whodunnit THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS.
 
A young escort girl is brutally slashed to death (in a scene pre-dating a similar – and infamous one – in Brian De Palma’s DRESSED TO KILL) in the lift of a plush Milan apartment building.
 
Less than 24 hours later, a nightclub entertainer named Mizar Harrington (Carla Brait) is drowned in her bathtub.
 
Commissario Enci (Giampiero Albertini) – whose hobby of stamp-collecting regularly sidetracks him from his job – finds this one a puzzling case, and the list of suspects quickly begins to mount up.
 
Prime suspect is Andrea Barto (George Hilton), the architect of the building, who finds himself under intense police scrutiny.
 
He’s just starting a relationship with a young English model named Jennifer Langsbury (Edwige Fenech), who has just moved into the apartment of Mizar.
 
Adding to the problems, is Jennifer’s deranged and persistent ex-husband Adam (Ben Carra’), who’s angrily trying to drag Jennifer back into his sex cult.
 
Other suspects include Jennifer’s ditzy, tactless flatmate Marilyn (Paola Quattrini), a bitter old widow named Mrs Moss (Maria Tedeschi) who wears jam-jar glasses and keeps a secret hideously disfigured son locked up in the flat, refined and mysterious Sheila Isaacs (Annabella Incontrera), her violin-playing father (Jorge Rigaud), a shifty nightclub owner (Alan Collins), a gay fashion-photographer friend (Oreste Lionello) of Andrea’s, etc etc.
 
When Adam is found dead inside of Jennifer’s apartment, it’s not looking good either for Andrea or Jennifer.
 
But they’ve got worse to fear from the scalpel-wielding killer, who now hopes to make Jennifer the next victim…
 
Giallo buffs will love this one, since just about every single genre convention can be found right here.
 
Even down to cast and crew – Hilton, Fenech, Incontrera, Rigaud are all welcome genre regulars, and all do a fine job in their roles.
 
Also, this film does a better job than most of continually pointing the finger of doubt at Hilton’s character (here, he suffers from mental-blocks when he sees blood), being that he so often proves to be the killer in these movies.
 
But the film does have two of the best secondary characters in any giallo film, who steal all their scenes - Quattrini’s likeably joky flatmate (she gets a great bathtub scene of her own, which gets her a slap across the chops for her troubles!), and Lionello’s gabbling photographer.
 
Other major assets include Bruno Nicolai’s excellent score, whose music lends the film the required atmospheric touches – including possibly his finest ever title theme, and an absolutely gorgeous flashback to a free-love orgy, which involves Fenech being covered in flower petals.
 
And the widescreen, crystal-clear photography is superb, with a number of great shots and Argento-style flourishes (a particular standout is the near-end chase through the building’s tunnel-like basement).
 
Cinematographer Stelvio Massi – a busy and experienced director himself, most notably with crime thrillers – does a fantastic job here, and would later have considerably less success with his own giallo, the gory but bland 5 WOMEN FOR THE KILLER (1974).
 
Better still, the photogenic Fenech looks absolutely fantastic in this one - even in some of the most garishly loud 70s’ clobber, she still looks stunning, but then was she capable of ever looking unflattering or ugly?
 
A couple of point of interests, is that often-used illustration of her in a body-painted t-shirt comes right from this movie, and she gets nude more often than most in this one.
 
Ernesto Gastaldi's script and Carnimeo’s direction keeps things interesting, with always ‘something’ going on - a standout scene being a bizarre nightclub in which Mizar promises sex with her, if the patron can go a three-minute round with her (doesn’t do her much good with the killer, though).
 
Tons of daffy dubbed dialogue here too, for trash-movie fans to lap up – “She’s black – but not TOO black!”, “He understands what whores you are!”, “From what I see, you couldn’t find a pig in a poke!”, “What sells beer is a bare-assed broad, holding a barrel, or a bottle, or a beaker!”, “Don’t compare me to that idiot!”, “You’re an object, and you belong to me!”, “How dare you enter my house, you little slut!”, “The fact is, my girlfriend just stuck a can-opener into her hand!”, “No orgies – I get motion sickness!”, Well, you won’t have her, you bastard – because she’s mine! Mine!”, “I prefer to follow Islam, where paradise is palm trees and lovely girls!”.
 
The murders themselves aren’t particularly imaginative or gory (the bloodiest one is the first one, which is gorier still in the film’s trailer!), but do have impact due to the cold and clinical way they’re executed – a face is burned off due to a jet of steam, the aforementioned lift murder, the sadistic bathtub scene, and an audacious stabbing murder pulled off in public and in broad-daylight.
 
Rather than the sex or violence – which are both milder than you’d expect – it’s the political incorrectness of some of the dialogue that remains the most contentious thing in the movie, with some uncomfortably misogynistic/homophobic/racist little cracks that makes you cringe, and which you just wouldn’t get away with in a movie these days.
 
It isn’t as stylish or as suspenseful as the best of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or Sergio Martino giallo thrillers, but it does have pace and the film never gets boring or overstays its welcome because of that.
 
And due to its cast and music, it does feel very much like a Martino thriller, but the overly-generic nature of the film actually serves as a bit of double-edged sword.
 
As efficient as he is, Carnimeo isn’t as experienced in gialli as Sergio Martino, and so it never gets as suspenseful as the likes of Martino’s own ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK or THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS WARDH (both of which also had Fenech and Hilton in great roles).
 
But the conventionality also serves as a plus, because this movie serves as absolutely the perfect introduction to anyone who might enjoy what the giallo genre has to offer.
 
And since I’m already a fan of giallo movies in general myself, it scarcely needs pointed out that I love this one, and it seems to get slightly better each time I see it.
 
Plus, how can you hate a film whose Italian title translates as ‘Why Are These Strange Drops of Blood on the Body of Jennifer?’?
 
Well, I certainly can’t – and so I very much recommend this one!

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