The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire

So I decided to re-watch "The Iguana and the Tongue of Fire" by Riccardo Freda after many years of not seeing the movie.In the prologue beautiful woman has her face melted with acid and her throat slashed by unknown black gloved killer.Her body is found in the trunk of a car belonging to the Swiss ambassador.Former police Inspector John Norton(Luigi Pistill)tries to solve this grisly case of mutilation and murder.But the elusive killer soon will kill more victims.""The Iguana and the Tongue of Fire" is a watchable albeit quite unsatisfying giallo with several nasty and gory murder scenes and very sadistic finale.The acting is fairly good and there is a bit of nudity.Still it seems that Riccardo Freda himself was dissatisfied with the film and effectively disowned it.That's why he directed it under the pseudonym of Willy Pareto.7 fiery iguanas out of 10.

After a brutal and attention-grabbing opening murder, this movie settles into a predictable rut. Riccardo Freda seems content to borrow the conventions of the giallo genre--such as giving the killer a recognizable trait like a limp, and then having half the characters in the film limp in various scenes--but manages to suck the life out of them, leaving a rather slow-moving film. Freda is considered a top-notch Italian director but it's hard to see why, especially since his protege had outclassed him and positively defined the genre the year before. Still, it's done with enough care to have (apparently) taught Brian DePalma a thing or two when it came to "Dressed to Kill," and the finale has a jaw-dropping viciousness to it that has to be seen to be believed, involving a nude 16 year-old, an old woman and a completely berserk black-gloved killer. It's just a shame that the scenes between the violent ones aren't more involving and interesting.

This starts very well, indeed, startlingly so with surreal quality about it as we proceed from outlandish and vivid killing to child finding body in trunk of car and something strange going on with eyes. Various persons emerge from secret doors and there is emphasis upon dark glasses and limited sight with some weird sound going off to suggest something untoward is about to happen. Things calm down and killing become a bit mundane, very bloody but not very involving until the end when things spark back into life. Along the way, Anton Differing is effective, if a little one note and Dagmar Lassander lovely as ever. Veteran actress, Valentina Cortese puts in a great little performance and Italian movie stalwart Luigi Pistilli is most effective. Great shots of Dublin and Switzerland along the way and if this is not the finest giallo, it is certainly entertaining enough.

Riccardo Freda's rude giallo is not quite a masterpiece, but it still delivers good entertainment and some stuff quite unusual for the "typical" Italian thriller of the Sixties and Seventies. First of all, the movie plays in Dublin, which I already assume unique in the history of giallo. Second, the family involved in the crimes is the one of the Dutch ambassador in the Republic of Ireland, which makes the case even more complicated for the policemen involved.

Also very remarkable is the fact that this giallo delivers no nude scenes, which is quite rare for this genre. And last but not least, it's one of the goriest gialli before Dario Argento made "Profondo Rosso" (Deep Red). E.g.: Some hapless victims get their faces mutilated by acid before the killer slits their throats.

By the way Freda delivers some thrilling and uncanny moments, and the climax is extremely nasty for various reasons: It has to be seen to be believed. The cast - including Anton Diffring, Luigi Pistilli, Dagmar Lassander and Werner Pochath - is above average and always convincing.

All in all, "L'Iguana dalla Lingua di Fuoco" is not a masterly but still very cool giallo. Its only fault (possibly) is that it's too nasty for the easily offended - but easily offended people don't watch gialli anyway, I guess.

Encumbered with the somewhat unwieldy, yet not entirely uninviting title of, 'The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire' (1971), Riccardo Freda's enjoyably off-beat, skin-searingly schizo shocker actually proves to be a skittish, hysteria-laden, entertainingly twisted Giallo-esque blood-spiller from the gifted Italian genre maestro. Thus far the consensus on Freda's pleasingly lurid, early 70s psycho-slasher is curiously unflattering, but, on the contrary, I really dig this handsomely shot, palpably odd, yet undeniably charismatic, Emerald isle-set murder mystery. With all its pungent red herrings, gonzoid throat slashing, and plethora of charred, vitriol-burned flesh 'The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire' brazenly tweaked all my more grisly-minded Giallo G-spots! The esteemed character actor, Anton Diffring employs his glacially aristocratic spiel with great élan, and the always sublime, Luigi Pistilli makes for an indomitable, no nonsense copper. 'Iguana with the tongue of fire' is a bellicose, Black-Gloved blood-spiller; and yet again, masterful soundtrack il duderino, Stelvio Cipriani percolates yet another moorishly flavoursome, magnificently mellifluous score!