Films That Witness Madness

review

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS

WARNING! The following contains spoilers!

Released early in the giallo-boom, Giuliano Carnimeo's 1972 giallo, THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS, is a much more playful effort than other films released that year. While THE FRENCH SEX MURDERS, WHO SAW HER DIE?, THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES, SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS, DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING, and YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY were indulging in incest, rape, pedophilia, murderous priests, and graphic violence, Carnimeo's film is colorful, humorous, and witty - offering only one truly distasteful plot element to the fold.

Jennifer and Marilyn take up residence in a high-rise apartment complex where two beautiful women have been murdered. Andrea, the architect of the building, takes a shining to young Jennifer and the two begin a relationship, under the disapproving eye of Adam, Jennifer's ex-boyfriend and ex-partner in a sex cult. A third man, this one dressed in the standard dress of the giallo killer, breaks into their apartment one night, but vanishes out the window when Jennifer screams out. Is Jennifer the next to die? Who could the killer be? Could it be Andrea, the troubled architect with a bizarre phobia of blood? Their neighbor, Sheila, a lesbian, or her violin-playing, ex-professor father? The angry old lady or her disfigured son?

The solution to the mystery doesn't quite come out of left field - there are numerous clues to the solution throughout the running time - but leaves a bad taste in the viewer's mouth. Blaming the beautiful women of the apartment complex for his daughters lesbianism, the Professor has taken to systematically murdering any woman he senses his daughter is attracted to. This is systematic of the giallo, which looks upon homosexuality as a deviancy. In film after film, a homosexual male is presented as either a suspect - homosexuality is often viewed as a gateway to further perversions, such as pedophilia, and murder - or as a simple comic relief. Consider the portrayal of the art dealer in Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE or of Arthur, the photographer, in this film - both are comedic roles, the comedy deriving from the stereotype of the "effeminate gay man". Lesbians in these films tend to fair better than gay men. They are usually presented as objects of male lust. Numerous films, like Sergio Martino's YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY and TORSO feature soft core lovemaking between women without the sense of moral outrage that accompany pieces featuring gay males.

Carnimeo's film doesn't draw an explicit link between Sheila's lesbianism and the murders - she didn't commit them after all - but they are a definite result of it. Her father's decision to remove the temptation and, we can surmise, cure her of her behavior by doing so is more disturbing than if he were merely doing it out of a sense of moral outrage.

Opening with a murder in an elevator - a scene that I am convinced served as inspiration for the similar scene in De Palma's DRESSED TO KILL - and ending with a tumble down a stairwell, Carnimeo certainly doesn't skimp on the potent violence. While nowhere near as graphic as many of the other gialli I mentioned at the start, the film should appeal to those who enjoy the red stuff. Edwige Fenech, in my estimation the most beautiful woman genetics ever created, might not have been that great an actress but she certainly has the giallo damsel in distress role down pat. With little more to do here than disrobe - which she does frequently - and look worried, she still manages to make Jennifer a likeable enough character to carry the picture. George Hilton, a permanent fixture in the Italian horror industry, doesn't fair so well as Andrea. Given remarkably little to work with, Hilton's practically wasted. A shame, as Hilton was one of the stronger leading men in the giallo film. Ernesto Gastaldi, one of the most successful screenwriters of the giallo, mixes the suspense with the humor quite frequently - the police commissioner that collects stamps, the Woody Allen-esque rants of Arthur, and lines of dialogue like "No orgies... I get motion sickness" - and helps make the whole film just fly by. With the giallo starting to turn deadly serious, THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS comes across as a good afternoon's entertainment and less the work of uncontrollable sadism.

Carnimeo - who would go on to make SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL with Fenech the following year - should have made more gialli. He has a style similar to Sergio Martino, with a predilection towards sudden camera movement and piercing close ups, but doesn't quite have the range. A few more and he would have perfected that style. He certainly made a winner in THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS. I wish he would have made a few more.

Highly recommended.

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