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

Bezenby This film has near enough all the trademarks of a standard Giallo: a black gloved killer, Euro-babes, gore, red herrings, exotic locations, set-piece murders, J&B whiskey, creepy dolls, semi-effective policing. That said, it uses all these trademarks in the best way and although it starts off slowly, it very quickly becomes a standout.A thin lady (Ida Galli) is meeting her lover while her husband is boarding a plane to go on a business trip. She's in the middle of a nudie session when the plane (a cheap toy one!) explodes, and due to her husband's death she now obtains a million pounds in insurance money. Before she goes, some junky boyfriend tries blackmailing her with a letter that could suggest that she wanted to kill her husband for the money, but luckily for her someone stabs him in the guts before he can do anything.Ida heads for Greece, where the money is waiting for her, along with George Hilton, who has been hired by the insurance company to make sure everything is legit, and he's being followed by an interpol agent, plus the local police (led by Luigi Pistilli) are also involved, and if that's not enough, her husband's mistress and her thug sidekick also want a cut of the money too! That's a lot of characters – if only some insane person would simplify things by thinning out the ranks a little.The trouble with Gialli is that describing the plot kind of diminishes the impact of the film, so I won't say any more about what happens plot wise, but one character is brutally murdered, things kick into high gear and no one is safe. There's little time for dull spots in this one as the killer goes head to head with most of the characters, some of which put up a fight, including one who manages to get the knife off the killer only to receive a broken bottle to the eye for their trouble. Took me surprise, that bit. In fact, although pretty fake looking, there's plenty of gore in this film (I think the cheapness just adds to the charm to be honest). This is a solid Giallo with many twists, red herrings and quirks right up to the end, and Sergio Martino would give us other classics like The Strange Case of Mrs Wardh (also with Hilton) and Torso (not with Hilton). I have watched Your Vice is a Locked Room And Only I Have the Key yet, but it's got Edwidge Fenech in it so it's probably a safe bet.

acidburn-10 'The Case of the Scorpion's Tail' is a fantastic visual treat that allures you into a plot of an intriguing mystery and murderous mayhem, it begins rather abruptly with a suspicious death of businessman Karl Baumer dies when his plane explodes mid-air, while his wife Lisa indulges in an affair in London with her lover, then she inherits a cool $1 Million from his life insurance and this where the fun really begins with assorted characters keen to get their hands on the money where she gets threatened and blackmailed that eventually leads to murder.This is movie is definitely a intense thriller with an interesting storyline that keeps you hooked as well as second guessing everybody's motivation throughout and despite the odd ropey special effect (like the laughable plane explosion) everything else in this is top notch and well and truly benefits from an unpredictable script and even taking a cue from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' where the movie switches heroines part way through, which honestly was a total surprise and did not see that coming and was a neat little twist. Of course like many Italian thrillers a large part of the attraction is seeing glorious exotic locations, which this movie does and thanks to excellent direction of Sergio Martino who showcases the globetrotting form in all its purest glory. Of course the other standard trademarks are here such as the black gloved killer, beautiful women and wonderfully crafted death scenes, all of which makes this an enjoyable ride. Also this movie is efficiently paced with many twists and turns throughout, including throwing a total spanner in the works towards the last act as well as several other tense scenes littered throughout.The cast is very good here also with the ever wonderful George Hilton playing the insurance investigator who really sinks his teeth into the role, and the beautiful Anita Strindberg another Giallo legend plays the feisty photographer and really pulls you in with her astonishing beauty and has great chemistry with George. Evelyn Stewart was also a nice inclusion to the cast playing the adulterous wife Lisa who does well to keep you interested in her story during the first half of the movie and Janine Reynaud was just brilliant as the spiteful scorned ex-lover showing true menace and just having a ball with it.So in all 'The Case Of The Scorpion's Tail' is yet another definite classic in the Italian Giallo genre with an engaging story with many plot twists and turns with some set pieces and beautiful scenery that is very elegant and a must see for fans.

Schwenkstar Sergio Martino may not be *the* best director of gialli, but compared to most directors who work within the confines of the genre he is certainly at least *one* of the best.This film is one of Martino's strongest efforts, featuring a rather clever and well-constructed plot, decent characterizations (which nearly all gialli lack), a solid musical score, and well-directed suspense sequences.In reference to the plot, the film starts are conventionally, but the film takes a surprising turn when it changes its main focus onto an entirely different character (ala "Psycho"). At this point, the narrative begins to go in more interesting directions, with plot twists referring back to the film's opening reels, thus making it more focused and tight. There is also a rather clever red herring that proves quite effective (it threw me off for a second), but unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep the ending form being so obvious as it is (to me, at least).The suspense sequences are genuinely suspenseful, especially the sequence in the apartment building (which features a slow motion sequence to heighten the suspense) and the climax (which I will refrain from commenting on to minimize spoilers).The film is certainly a solid entry into the giallo canon, in fact I would as go as far as saying that it's one of the better examples of the genre.However, like the genre itself, the film suffers from lack of almost no subtext to speak of. As a result, everything is fairly shallow and not emotional evolving, despite it's well produced surface.Still, this is nearly essential viewing for fans of giallo. For fans of thrillers I would give a recommendation. For others with only a passing interest, I actually would suggest skipping it and watching an Argento film instead.