L'Iguana Dalla Lingua Di Fuoco/The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire - 1971 Italy/France/West Germany d: Riccardo Freda (as Willy Pareto)

Well, I've waited a long time to see this film, and I am delighted to say it was worth it!  Although not a top division Giallo like Don't Torture A Duckling or Deep Red this is certainly only a small step down from those classics. Freda here essays a fine murder mystery set in and around Dublin - and it's actually Ireland!

The film has a great cast with a macho Luigi Pistilli as an ex-copper called in to help with the search for the mysterious serial killer, Anton Differing snapping and barking his way through a fine part as Swiss Ambassador to Ireland who would rather be bobsledding and chasing the ladies than tending to his duties or his stoned, disturbed wife - Valentina Cortese in a fantastically over-the-top turn.  The female lead and she whose duty it is to provide nudity is the genre legend Dagmar Lassander, looking amazing with fine head of red hair. Rowr, etc.

The story is riddled with suspects!  It is unfortunate that everyone in Dublin owns the same sunglasses as the killer! Red herrings abound, swimming in Guinness.  And, in best Giallo tradition, you soon enough don't really care whodunnit, you just get into the howdunnit (acid and razors!) and the search for the killer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and I am pleased to add it to my ever expanding Giallo collection.  This stands out benefited by the wonderful Irish settings, the wonderful cast of eccentric types and ne'erdowells who may or may not be the killer and some inventive murder scenes featuring amounts of gushing blood that surprised me!

The German New Entertainment World release is a lovely hardbox package, but the print isn't the best.  It's an anamorphic presentation at 1.78:1 (which is nice) but is from a pretty poor source (which isn't!).  Either from an analogue tape source or a 16mm print for cinema club showings, I would imagine; this suffers from often impenetrably dark scenes, faded colours, a yellow tinge to the picture and some print damage.  The English audio track is fine.  Although not perfect, I have seen a lot worse releases in terms of picture quality. This is still perfectly watchable and you can get drawn into the film despite the picture, it's not so bad as to alienate the viewer.

I'm just happy to own it and to have finally seen it.  I would recommend the film to any lover of Gialli or eccentric Euro cinema.  It's a better Irish serial killer film than The Fantasist, but you are left with one burning question...who on Earth would call their dry cleaning business Swastika Cleaners? And yes, you can guess what the logo is