Sergio
Martino was one of the premier Italian giallo filmmakers of the 1970s, having
churned over a countless amount including my personal favorite entry The Suspicious Death of a Minor. The man behind such genre classics as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, All the Colors of the Dark and most
infamously Torso, Martino has left
behind an indelible mark on the genre which signifies him as arguably the
quintessential giallo filmmaker. Which
makes the elongated absence of his revered genre classic The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail in the English language all the more
baffling. Initially the film was offered
on DVD in a non-anamorphic letterboxed version until recently when Arrow Video
stepped in to right that wrong and present this solid and frequently surprising
entry to modern moviegoers for the first time.
Working
from a script by Death Walks on High
Heels screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, the film concerns recently widowed
Lisa Baumer (Ida Galli) who after a plane crash inherits her husband’s
exorbitant life insurance policy, the young woman finds herself on the run from
a ruthless masked murderer with a straight razor eager to snatch the money away
from her. Meanwhile insurance investigator
Peter Lynch (George Hilton of Sartana’s
Here…Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin) joins forces with reporter Cléo Dupont (gialli regular Anita Strindberg) to unravel the mystery of who
is after the money and why before they both find themselves at the end of the
killer’s razor blade.
Tapping into newfound interest in
international travel as part of the post-war Economic Miracle in Western
Europe, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail exploits
the scenic beauty of London and Athens with numerous wide-angled shots with the
central characters in the epicenter thanks to the lush cinematography of Emilio
Foriscot. Also aiding the proceedings is
frequent Martino collaborator and film composer Bruno Nicolai (All the Colors of the Dark) who provides
a rousing, thrilling soundtrack. Most
importantly actor George Hilton gets to flex his acting muscles in this entry,
providing a welcome antidote to his usual roles of mercurial villainy. Having seen him briefly take over the Sartana role from Gianni Garko, it was
refreshing to see the actor come into his own instead of merely filling in a
role thought out by someone else previously.
Fans
and newcomers to the giallo subgenre will be enormously pleased with this taut
and handsomely constructed thriller which, despite the occasional bursts of
ultraviolence, shouldn’t deter in the way some of the genres nastier offerings
such as What Have You Done to Solange? might. Moreover, the film is awash with geographical
splendor and boasts splendid performances by Strindberg and Hilton who do much
of the plot’s heavy lifting. All in all,
a superior giallo offering from one of it’s most skillful technical craftsman.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki