{"id":4905,"date":"2019-04-15T21:04:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T21:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4905"},"modified":"2019-04-01T21:05:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T21:05:52","slug":"the-case-of-the-scorpions-tail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/reviews\/the-case-of-the-scorpions-tail\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case of the Scorpion\u2019s Tail"},"content":{"rendered":"

aka La cola del escorpi\u00f3n (Es), La queue du scorpion (Fr), Der Schwarz des Skorpions (WG),\u00a0La coda dello scorpione\u00a0(It)
\n1971
\nItaly\/Spain
\nLuciano Martino for Devon Films (Rome), Copercines (Madrid)
\nDirector: Sergio Martino
\nStory: Eduardo Maria Brochero
\nScreenplay: Eduardo Maria Brochero, Ernesto Gastaldi, Sauro Scavolini
\nMusic: Bruno Nicolai
\nCinematography: Emilio Foriscot {Eastmancolor}
\nEditor: Eugenio Alabiso
\nSet design: Jos\u00e9 Luis Galicia
\nCameraman: Giancarlo Ferrando
\nFilmed: Elios Studios, with exteriors in Greece, London, Rome and Madrid
\nRelease information: Registered 15.08.71. Italy (16.08.71, 90 mins), Spain (21.02.72, Barcelona), France (Paris, 04.10.73, 95 mins), West Germany (25.05.73, 94 mins)
\nSpanish takings: \u20ac117.630,05
\nCast: George Hilton (Peter Lynd), Anita Strindberg (Claire Dupont), Alberto De Mendoza (John Stanley), Evelyn Stewart [Ida Galli] (Lisa Baumer), Janine Reynaud (Lara Florakis), Luigi Pistilli (Stavros, a police commissioner), Tom Felleghy (Mr. Benton), Luis Barboo (Lara\u2019s henchman), Annalisa Nardi, Tom\u00e1s Pico<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Several cast members from The Sweet Body of Deborah<\/strong> were reunited a few years later for this above average giallo which boasts groovy London locations (again demonstrating that Euro-filmmakers were far better at using English settings than native ones) and a script that is so convoluted that you could stuff it in your chest cavity and use it to digest food.\u00a0Evelyn Stewart plays yet another icy maiden with a bizarre line in eyebrow twitching, an heiress whose husband has died in a (very cheesy toy) plane crash and left her a cool million dollars. The insurance firm that has to pay out is suspicious and puts ace investigator Peter Lynch (George Hilton) on the case. Before long, he stumbles into her hotel room and finds the dame with her throat cut open and the money missing.<\/p>\n

From here the number of suspects widens to include a dodgy police inspector (Alberto De Mendoza), a haughty broad and her mute manservant (Janine Reynaud, Luis Barboo) and a female reporter (Anita Strindberg). Of course, seeing as George Hilton is in this there’s no question as to who the murderer actually is, but it’s an entertaining ride nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Sergio Martino directs a damn fine thriller, and this is one of his best. Taking his cues from Dario Argento’s Bird With the Crystal Plumage<\/strong>\u00a0there is a black gloved killer who sports a nifty line in dark polo neck jumpers set off by a similarly coloured stocking over the head. Tension is well built, and a couple of sequences are especially noteworthy: Stewart being pursued as she walks down a canal path, the introduction of Reynaud’s character and the climactic sea-bound cat-and-mouse chase. There is a strange proto-Goblin soundtrack and a cool array of threads and decor. JB Whisky is prominently shown at every opportunity, demonstrating that product placement is by no means a new phenomenon.<\/p>\n

The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail<\/strong> may be derivative and have more holes in it than St. Sebastian, but it remains a highly enjoyable undertaking that possesses enough style to ensure that it sticks in the memory; it’s probably the most underrated of all Martino’s early seventies giallos but possesses enough style and distinction to stand up with the likes of his better known works such as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh<\/strong> or Torso<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"8\/10\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several cast members from The Sweet Body of Deborah were reunited a few years later for The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, an above average giallo which boasts groovy London locations (again demonstrating that Euro-filmmakers were far better at using English settings than native ones) and a script that is so convoluted that you could stuff it in your chest cavity and use it to digest food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1212,8],"tags":[1423,1434,931,407,91,1427],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4905"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4911,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions\/4911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}