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The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire
AKA L’ Iguana Dalla Lingua Di Fuoco
Directed By Riccardo Freda
Released: 1971
Starring: Luigi Pistilli, Dagmar Lassander, Anton Diffring, and Dominique
Boschero
Running Time: 92 minutes
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A woman’s body is found in the trunk of the Swiss Ambassador’s
car. She is sliced up with a razor and her face horribly mutilated by acid. Inspector Lawrence
(played by Arthur O’Sullivan) is at a loss to solve the case when Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring) claims diplomatic immunity and stalls the
investigation. Lawrence calls in a former colleague, Detective John Norton
(Luigi Pistilli), who was fired for police brutality, to handle the case
outside of the law. During his investigation, Norton falls in love with
Helen Sobiesky (Dagmar Lassander), the ambassador’s daughter. Meanwhile, the
sick and sadist killer continues to rack up a body count and it is up to
Norton to solve the case before things get personal.
Riccardo Freda (The Ghost,
Murder
Obsession) throws his hat into the Giallo ring once
again. Camerawork by Silvano Ippoliti is quite good and the gore effects are
surprisingly nasty (if only just a little clunky). The writing on the other
hand… It’s easy to get lost here since the plot of
The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire
is so pointlessly complicated. So much depends on a pair of sunglasses, that
it’s a little embarrassing. This makes the final reveal a bit of a
disappointment but the bloodiness of its execution helps a bit. And just why
Detective Norton’s identity is withheld until after the first 25 minutes is
anybody’s guess.
The always amazing Luigi Pistilli is great as Detective Norton, a guy with a
lot of issues. He is haunted by the death of a suspect he was interrogating
as well as by the murder of his wife. Of course, I’m totally head over heels
for Dagmar Lassander (Werewolf
Woman, House By The
Cemetery), but who isn’t? The film is
loaded with familiar genre film folks playing supporting roles. There’s
Anton Diffring, Dominique Boschero, Renato Romano, and Valentina Cortese;
just to name a few. Seriously though, I could go on.
Though it suffers from poor dubbing (Luigi Pistilli’s “Irish” accent) and a
couple of really cheesy performances, The
Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire is quite
an entertaining Giallo. There is plenty of sex, violence, and baffling
moments to satisfy Euro-trash cinemaphiles. Stelvio Cipriani’s lush and
swinging soundtrack is excellent and helps keeps things moving right along.
This film has a claustrophobic and a manic quality about it that never lets
up. And besides, the killer has to get in pretty close in order to throw
acid in our faces.
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DVD Stuff:
The DVDR of The
Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire comes
from the awesome site, European Trash Cinema (get your butt over there and
check them out), and the quality is quite good. They also sent the DVD in
a case with a color cover. The widescreen print is just a little dark and
colors are a tad washed out but it is still in great shape. Most
importantly though, the film is definitely uncut and very watchable. The
audio is clear and the English dubbing is easy to hear and understand.
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Links:
Get this DVD from
European Trash Cinema.
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Quotes:
Detective Norton: “Well now, my fleet-footed philly, are we going to have
it off in the bushes or on the bike?”
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