Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Mark Turner Arrow Video has allowed fans of the giallo genre the chance to finally see movies that most of us never had the chance to when they were initially released. Sure major cities might have offered these films at the time but widespread release across the county was unheard of. The invention of home video changed that and DVD has increased the offerings. But few companies have taken the genre to the levels that Arrow Video has. This shows once more with their release of THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL.In London Lisa Baumer (Ida Galli) is an unfaithful wife meeting with her lover whose wealthy husband Kurt dies in an exploding plane on his way to Japan. She becomes the sole beneficiary of his insurance policy of $1 million dollars and problems begin. They start with an ex-love and junkie who blackmails her with the threat of exposing her to the insurance company for wishing her husband dead. Meeting him later to pay him off she finds him murdered. Heading to Greece to avoid problems she followed by Peter Lynch (George Hilton), an investigator for the insurance company following up any loose ends on the case. While thinking she left behind her problems in London it isn't long before Lisa finds more in Greece. They begin with Lara Florakis (Janine Reynaud), a woman who claims to be Kurt's mistress who he planned on leaving Lisa for. She demands that Lisa split to money with her or she'll contest his will. To help convince Lisa she has a stiletto carrying "lawyer" named Sharif on hand. Lisa escapes with the help of Peter who was following her.Attempting to avoid any more confrontations Lisa asks for the settlement in cash and then books a flight to Tokyo. Before she can fly out a mysterious masked killer complete with trademark giallo black gloves enters her hotel room, kills her and takes the money. Enter Police Inspector Stavros (Luigi Pistilli) and Interpol agent John Stanley (Alberto De Mendoza) who'd been watching Lisa since her arrival. As they begin to investigate her murder their main suspect is Peter.Covering the story of the murder is reporter Cléo Dupont (Anita Strindberg). Meeting with Peter she tries to find out what he knows and it isn't long before the pair fall into bed together and become lovers. But more bodies begin to turn up. First off is Lara who is attacked by the same gloved figure that killed Lisa. Her "lawyer" also falls to the hands of the killer. As the bodies begin to pile up suspicion remains on Peter in spite of the fact there could be others behind it all. And an attack on Cléo seems to clear Peter. What of the boyfriend Lisa had in London? Or could her husband have faked his own death? What makes this movie work so well is less the typical giallo staples like the gloved hand, the knife wielding killer or the murderous intent of seemingly everyone involved. It works well as a mystery first and foremost with clues provided throughout to direct the viewer to the films conclusion. Each is meticulously placed in a well written screenplay that doesn't get caught up in pop culture like some in the genre tend to, instead sticking with story.For once the acting on display loses nothing in translation. All involved perform for the camera and for the written word they were provided. No flamboyant gestures or wasted words here, everything in its place and adhered to. Each one makes their character believable and no one attempts taking over the screen are seen here.The cinematography is also well done with beautiful locations shots coupled with well-lit interiors and street shots throughout. The composition of shot also works well and shows that director Sergio Martino and cinematographer Giorgio Bertolini worked well together to focus on the story visually as well as through the written word provided by Eduardo Manzanos, Ernesto Gastaldi and Sauro Scavolini. As I said at the start, Arrow has been bringing a number of these well know and not so well known giallo films to blu-ray and every time a new one is announced I find myself waiting with anticipation. It's not just the fact that they're becoming available but that Arrow is the one bringing them out. They continue to offer the films with not just the best looking versions of them found but with plenty of extras on hand that add to the film rather than interfere with it. I'm not one to watch a lot of extras finding most to be little more than promotional pieces put together by corporate entities that want to increase sales by adding the standard Q&A with the stars. Arrow goes far beyond that making their extras as interesting to watch as the film itself.So let's look at what they're offering here. To begin with the disc is a new 4k restoration of the film from the original camera negative. This provides viewers with that exceptional look that I discussed earlier. Extras abound with the following: an audio commentary track with writer Ernesto Gastaldi moderated by filmmaker Federico Caddeo in Italian with English subtitles, a new interview with George Hilton, a new interview with director Sergio Martino, a new analysis of the Sergio Martino's films by Mikel J. Koven who wrote "La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film", a new video essay by Troy Howarth the author of "So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films", the theatrical trailer, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon and for the first pressing only an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Rachael Nisbet and Howard Hughes and a biography of star Anita Strindberg by Peter Jilmstad. As I said, Arrow continues to give more than expected. Some might think that the only people who would find this film worth watching are fans of European films and giallo films in particular. They'd be completely wrong. The movie works on so many levels and those who love a good mystery would be well served by seeing this one. Martino is hailed as one of the masters of the giallo genre and it's easy to see why. For those unexposed to the genre they couldn't pick a better place to start and this Arrow version is the best way to do so.

Sam Panico While she makes love to someone else, Lisa's husband dies in a jet crash. She stands to inherit all of his money, despite them being basically separated. An ex-lover has a confrontation with her, threatening her with blackmail. She pays up — some money now, then some when she gets the letter where she wished that her husband was dead. But a gloved hand finds the letter and kills the ex-lover!Lisa has to go to Athens to collect the money, but runs into one of her husband's ex-lovers, Lara Florakis (Janine Reynaud, Succubus) and a knife wielding maniac. Peter Lynch (George Hilton from All the Colors of the Dark) saves her and takes her to the hotel. She asks for all of the money in cash, despite warnings to how dangerous that is.That same maniac tries to kill Peter, then comes back to kill Lisa, sharp jazz wails staccato punctuating each stab of the knife, each rip across her body. Jump cuts and flashes and the room is covered by the police, who question him.An INTERPOL agent, Inspector Stavros (Luigi Pistilli, The Good, the Bad and The Ugly, Your Vice is a Locked Door and Only I Have the Key), offers to help Peter with the case and the moment he goes to talk to Lara, he's attacked by the gloved man.That brings in Cléo Dupont(Anita Strindberg, Who Saw Her Die?), a journalist who pretty much instantly falls in love with our hero. They go up to his room, but it's been turned over by the police, with even the bed sliced open looking for the million dollars that went missing when Lisa was killed.Turns out the gloved man wasn't on Lara's side — he or she slits her throat, then runs up a spiral staircase as a guard gives chase. This reveals a room full of one eyed baby dolls and a strange oil painting. Between the woman's face against the glass with blood spraying everywhere and these reveals, this film is really tipping its hat toward Argento.The bodyguard chases after the killer, but is knocked off the roof. One slash across the fingers and we have another dead body. It's 45 minutes in…and most of the IMDb cast is already dead!That said — there's a stewardess that gets the gift of scorpion earrings from an unseen lover. So there's that.Meanwhile, Peter and Cléo make love on an orange shag couch while a peeping tom watches from the window. You know how Bruce Banner always has on purple slacks and you wonder, "Who wears purple slacks?" Peter does.Read more at http://bit.ly/2xdXawP

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS**** In this blood splattering Gaillo flick it's greed and money more then anything else that motivates the killer to do in his victims then the usual failed love triangle or him being mistreated as a youth, by not getting a birthday or Christmas present, that you would expect in movies like this. It starts with death of businessman Kurt Baumer in a suspected bombing of the passenger plane-by a suspected like ISIS terrorist group no less-he was in, with the plane looking like a toy model, over the Pacific. It's Kurt's old lady Lisa who ends up getting one million dollars in insurance who's suspected by insurance agent Peter Lynch of somehow, he just can't put the finger on it, of having Kurt done him in.Meanwhile Lisa is stalked by this down and out on his luck junkie Phillip, her former lover, for cash to pay for his drugs who's later found dead when Lisa went to pay him off. As for Lisa herself she also ends up murdered by the same person who killed junkie Phillip when she flew to Athens Greece, from Rome Italy, to cash the million dollar check and take a flight to Tokyo. In order for her to split it with what seamed like the person who made all this good fortune possible, by knocking off Kurt and Phillip, for her. Things pick up when insurance investigator Lynch gets hooked up with reporter Cleo Dupont whom he not only falls in love with but later saves her life from the killer.***SPOILERS*** It's much later that both Lynch and Cleo go on a boat trip to an out of the way Greek island, oh how romantic, for both fun and games that the truth behind all these murders finally comes to light. And it's Cleo by doing a little scuba diving who not only uncovers the missing million dollars in cash but the person who stole it from Lisa Baumer after he murdered her! It was in fact a scorpion trinket found at Lisa's hotel room in Athens as well as a matching one in her late husband Kurt mansion back in Rome that lead, thus the movie's title "Case of the Scorpion's Tale", to the killer. That's after he also murdered the two other persons Lara Florakis and her burly bodyguard Sharif who could prove that Kurt's death wasn't an accident.

Camera Obscura THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL (Sergio Martino - Italy/Spain 1971).Not a great, but a very decent Giallo from the ever reliable Sergio Martino. Quite a restrained but surprisingly effective if somewhat tame effort. Lisa Baumer (Ida Galli, but credited as "Evelyn Stewart") is enjoying the good life in London, when she learns her husband died in a dramatic airplane explosion (hilariously done on the cheap with a scale model). Due to the loss of her husband she can collect on his million-dollar insurance policy, and from this point on the setting is shifted to Athens. Naturally, the million dollars starts to attract all kinds of malicious characters and when a suspicious insurance agent (George Hilton) starts investigating the case, the corpses start piling up.The film is almost worth seeing for one scene alone, shot in typical Giallo fashion. When Lisa Baumer meets her husband's mistress (Janine Reynaud) in a beautiful abandoned theater in Athens, we see the brightly overlit faces, almost white with the ink black backgrounds. A beautiful set-up with stunning photography. In some other scenes, Martino does show some visual flair, but overall it's a bit sloppy. George Hilton, in his usual smooth turn, is so smitten with blonde beauty Anita Strindberg in some scenes, he seems to forget about acting at all. Furthermore, there are some nice locations and at one point the story is moved to a nice yacht on the Aegean (for preposterous reasons), only to show Anita Strindberg in her bikini. Very nice...The plotting is a bit over-complicated and marred by some incredibly dumb dialog and silly remarks by the investigating officers, from Interpol to the local Athens detectives. When Lisa Baumer is found murdered in her hotel room, the police inspector arriving at the scene claims it's the work of a sex maniac, even though he already met the victim and knew her background. Therefore he knew she had one million dollars in her room at the time of the killing, which are now missing! Furthermore, she is suspected of blowing up (!) the airplane her husband was in. Two obvious motives for murder, one might think, but later in the film he even comes back with this silly theory of the sex maniac. I think Martino somehow liked to the word so much he just had to use it a couple of times. Although the murders are quite imaginatively filmed, Sergio Martino is no Argento and the film falls a little short when it comes to visual spectacle, but the story is basically well told. Despite some laughable dialog and moronic secondary characters, it's made just well enough to pass as a competently made thriller, that should appeal to Giallo-fans.Camera Obscura --- 7/10