A surgeon kills a lover by accident when she is impaled by a steel petal from an elaborate sculpture during the course of a physical argument in his apartment. He dismembers and disposes of the body but soon a secret blackmailer starts sending him communications indicating a knowledge of his crime.
Everyone seems to have been sleeping with one and other at some time or other in this obscure Italian giallo. The plot-line, therefore, is quite convoluted like many of the films in this sub-genre. Another characteristic familiar to the genre is that none of the characters are particularly sympathetic with the lead character played by Gianni Garko being an especially unlikable misogynist. So, welcome to the wonderful world of giallo where everybody is amoral and there is no obligation from the film-makers to spoon feed the audience with any nice characters to empathise with!
This one is overall not one of the entries in the genre that follows the classic-style serial killer format and instead focuses on the psychology of the central character and the escalation of events off the back of a murder. We still nevertheless have pleasingly familiar elements such as absurd plot twists, abundant nudity and dark secrets of the past informing the present. It would probably also be fair to say that this one isn't as visually stylish as most, although it does have a couple of beautifully shot underwater sequences which bookend the film, the latter of which culminates with a pretty audacious lesbian love scene! In truth, the gorgeous and evocative underwater opening is so captivating it does mean that the subsequent story pales a little by direct comparison to it but its relevance is confirmed by the end scene; I would probably say that those two distinctive sequences constitute the highlight of the movie overall. The Flower with the Petals of Steel is ultimately another involving giallo. It isn't really an upper bracket entry in the genre or anything but it is a solid movie which will definitely appeal to seasoned fans of the genre.
