The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire

Pay no heed to the somewhat disparaging reviews here on IMDb: although The Iguana With The Tongue of Fire fails to live up to its wonderfully evocative title thanks to a rather mediocre storyline and a lacklustre finale, there is still much to entertain fans of the genre. Director Riccardo Freda's film features a decent cast, atmospheric location work in Ireland and Switzerland, some gnarly violence, silly red herrings aplenty, a little action, and a touch of sleaze, making this one fun despite the drawbacks of the plot.

The film stars Luigi Pistilli as Detective John Norton, whose investigation into the murder of a young woman (who has her face ruined by sulphuric acid and her neck sliced with a cut-throat razor in the gory opener) sees him becoming personally involved in the case after he develops a relationship with Helen (Dagmar Lassander), sexy daughter of the prime suspect, Swiss diplomat Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring). As the bodies continue to pile up, Norton's own mother and teenage daughter find themselves at risk...

From its gruesome opening, to the spectacular demise of the film's killer, The Iguana With The Tongue of Fire is trashy fun and should appeal to those who love their giallos bloody and sleazy; if the likes of The New York Ripper and Strip Nude for The Killer float your boat, you'll most likely get a kick out of this one too. In addition to the juicy razor attacks, we also get a 'decapitated cat in a fridge' gag, and Norton's mother having her head bashed in, while the nudity includes Lassender getting her top off for a brief sex scene, and Norton's daughter being attacked while just in her knickers (her childish dubbed voice making this scene a tad uncomfortable to watch).

The film also offers some great unintentional laughs: the woeful 'Oirish' dubbing will no doubt illicit some chuckles, as will the numerous red-herrings (everyone seems to own a pair of sunglasses, a cut-throat razor, or leather gloves) which, as if they're not blatant enough, are accompanied by a crashingly loud sound effect that really drives the point home—this is a possible clue and the owner of the item in question could be the killer!!!! The final reveal of the murderer's identity and his convoluted motive for killing are suitably daft—the icing on the whole silly giallo cake.

"L'Iguana dalla lingua di fuoco" aka. "The Inguana with the Tongue of Fire" is certainly not a very memorable or spectacular Giallo, but it is still a pretty entertaining film that I recommend to my fellow Italian Horror buffs. The film, which is brought to you by director Riccardo Freda ("Lo Spettro", "Murder Inferno",...) has its flaws, but it also has quite a bunch of highly memorable elements. The film takes place in Ireland and, as far as I know of, this is the only Giallo ever set in Eire. The plot may not be the most original, and the twists sometimes seem a bit silly for Giallo standards, yet this is very cool in some aspects. The film has an eerie general mood and is often quite nasty, with gory murders, and the great Italian actor Luigi Pistilli in the lead as an investigating ex-cop. Pistilli truly was one of the greats in Italian cult-cinema, whose great performances complimented masterpieces of a variety of genres, such as brilliant Westerns ("For A Few Dollars More", "The Good The Bad And The Ugly", "The Great Silence"), ingenious Crime-Cinema ("Milano Calibro 9"), sublime Gialli ("Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key", "The Scorpion's Tail") or Mario Bava's blood-soaked slasher landmark "A Bay Of Blood", just to mention some of the most memorable films the man has been in. And Pistilli once again delivers a great performance as the former Detective John Norton, a Dublin ex-copper who lives with his teenage daughter and his almost deaf mother. After a murder near the Swiss embassy, other violent murders follow. Since the police don't find any clues, the ex-detective Norton is appointed to the case... As mentioned above, the murder sequences are quite gory and nasty (if sometimes a bit clumsy). The score is also excellent, which contributes a lot to the atmosphere. The film also has some silly elements, such as a shrill tune whenever something eerie happens, but never to an extent that would lessen the entertainment-value. Pistilli is great, and the rest of the performances are not bad either, Anton Diffring is wonderfully arrogant as the Swiss ambassador, Irish actor Arthur O'Sullivan is very good as a grumpy elderly Police inspector, and beautiful Dagmar Lassander makes a sexy female lead. All things considered, this film is certainly no Giallo-highlight, but it is an overall entertaining flick that is well worth watching for Italian Horror buffs.

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!