A Lizard in a Woman's Skin

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A Lizard in a Woman's Skin

February 4th 2010 23:48

The late Italian director and legendary gorehound Lucio Fulci is best known for his Romero rip-off Zombi 2 (1979, AKA Zombie Flesh Eaters), as it was known in Italy, where Dawn of the Dead (1978) had been re-titled Zombi ... yes, confusing, I know. However Fulci had been making movies for years before he descended into the surrealist, phantasmogorical mire of his 70s work. Before supernatural incoherence completely overwhelmed his sensibilities he made a handful of giallo psycho-thrillers, the Italian "yellow" brand of lurid murder mysteries, lurid being the operative word.

Lizard in a Woman's Skin Florinda Bolkan

Florinda Bolkan as Carol Hammond

Lizard in a Woman's Skin Anita Strindberg

Anita Strindberg as Julia Durer

A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) is the best known of his giallo movies, but it’s not his best movie. Made with the English-language market in mind, the movie takes place in London and features less Italian actors than normal. In the US it was cut and re-titled Schizoid, while in France it was known as The Whores Go to Hell. Fulci directs more competently than his latter work, but the inherent trappings of the murder-mystery genre weigh heavily on the movie and despite some alluring elements the movie is overlong and frequently tedious. Still, a brilliant title, a sensational pursuit set-piece, and several sensationalist, sexadelic dream/nightmare sequences lift the movie’s game considerably.

Silvia Monti as Deborah

Lizard in a Woman's Skin Florinda Bolkan and Anita Strindberg

Carol is seduced by Julia ... In reality or her dreams?

The plot is at once ludicrously simply and painfully convoluted; and therein lies the Rub. The giallo movies reply on way too much dialogue and supposed detective work, and precious little action and suspense. Dario Argento made the two finest giallo movies: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Deep Red (1975). But Argento injected his murder-mysteries with shards of the supernatural, and drenched his movies in the most memorably creepy atmospheres. Curiously it wasn’t until Fulci launched into his full-blown horror movies that he began to command a most impressive hold on surrealist atmosphere, with his rough-cut diamond from Hell, The Beyond (1981), being the flawed jewel in his crown.

Acid-soaked hippies gaze on

Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan) is the deeply troubled daughter of a prominent English politican, Edmund Brighton (Leo Genn). She has frequent reoccurring phantasms in which she is emersed in bisexual bacchanalian scenarios soaked in the inhibition-stripping LSD surrounds of the late 60s swinging London. Her husband Frank (Jean Sorel) seems strangely detached from her predicament, yet Frank’s teenage daughter Joan (Edy Gall) is more supportive.

Carol stabs away in a nightmare frenzy

Carol’s apartment building neighbour Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg), is a hedonistic sex kitten with the huge false eye-lashes and pneumatic breasts to prove it. She hosts the drug-fueled all night parties that are playing havoc with Carol’s fragile psyche. Carol has been visiting a psychoanalyst to help determine the true nature of her disturbing dream/nightmares. To thicken the plot there's adulterous play at work between Frank and his striking secretary Deborah (. It’s only a matter of time before all these factors come to a head, and when Julia is found brutally stabbed to death, spreadeagled on her crimson, crushed velvet bed spread, the whistle-happy investigating Inspector Corvin (Stanely Baker) has his work cut out for him.

Psycho-delic victim

Murder mysteries always rely on a few red herrings to keep the narrative interesting, and Lizard in a Woman’s Skin is no exception. There’s Frank, of course, and Deborah, and a hilarious hippie couple, Hubert (Mike Kennedy) and Jenny (Penny Brown, whom rather tickled my fancy). Did Carol actually commit the murder she dreamed about? Certainly her letter-opener is missing, and turns up in the dead neighbour’s bedroom (embedded between her uber-pert bosom to be precise). Carol has a perpetual expression of guilt and anxiety etched onto her face (which becomes rather boring after a while).

The controversial dog sequence

By the last scene where the murderer is finally agreed upon I’d given up caring. But along the way I had marveled at the fantastic location shooting in and around parts of London I hadn’t seen used before. Fulci and his camera-operator had a field day with all the crash zooms, wide-angles, low angles, and tracking shots. Also a young Carlo Rambaldi, the legendary special effects wizard, came to attention when authorities arrested Lucio Fulci on the grounds of suspected illegal animal slaughter after the movie was released, due to a scene where Carol stumbles into a sanatorium experimental laboratory where dogs have been strung up, surgically clamped and disemboweled, yet kept alive and whimpering. It is an utterly hideous image indeed. Rambaldi was brought into court, with fake dog prop, to prove it was all just a rather convincing special effect.

Penny Brown as hippie Jenny

A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin is more a curiosity than anything else; it pushes some boundaries for its time with nudity and gore, provides a modicum of interest on a murder mystery level, and features a jazzy score from Ennio Morricone, but is too bogged down in the police and domestic banter to let the real action speak volume. Giallo movies demand a fast pace, with more action and less conversation. The best detectives shut up and get on with it, Fulci and his screenwriters should have paid heed.

Hippie Hubert (Mike Kennedy) approaches a wounded Carol

US movie poster

Italian movie poster

Here's the trailer:

Here's a more alluring trailer (it's unofficial, so not sure if it's fan-made):

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin DVD is courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment, many thanks!

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by The Master

February 9th 2010 18:14

Agh, I don't think this one will be in my collection of Horror DVD's any time soon. It's more disgusting than anything else. And the title is horribly misleading, I would have expected some Supernatural monster disguised as a woman rather than a Murder Mystery, no thanks..............

Comment by Bryn

February 9th 2010 21:36

Horrorphile

I actually really like the title, and exactly for that reason, that it isn't what you think it will be. Still, the movie doesn't live up to the title's potency.

Comment by Matt Shea

March 5th 2010 01:49

20/20 Filmsight

the inherent trappings of the murder-mystery genre weigh heavily on the movie and despite some alluring elements the movie is overlong and frequently tedious.

That pretty much sums it up. Great review, and we are indeed on the same page with this one.

Did you manage to see Perversion Story? Lizard is definitely much better than that.