THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL

For some strange reason, THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL holds the distinction of being one of the lesser examples of Sergio Martino's gialli. The reasoning escapes me. It contains all the Martino trademarks - excessive displays of female flesh; quick, compact editing; heavy melodrama; swift, graphic violence - with none of the campiness that marks his non-gialli films. If it doesn't reach the delirious level of YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY or THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, I most certainly don't hold that against it. THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL is, for me, one of the best gialli around, a taut, tight, humorless thriller that stands above the vast majority of Argento's prettier, nastier work.


The Case of the Scorpion's Tail

Granted, THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL won't win any awards for narrative originality. Lisa Baumer becomes the beneficiary of one million dollars when the airplane carrying her husband explodes in mid-air. Suspicious, the insurance company sends out an investigator, Peter Linch, to look into the matter. A druggie ex-boyfriend contacts Lisa, threatening to turn over evidence implicating her in her husband's death to the police unless Lisa buys his silence. When she comes to his house to recover the evidence, she discovers him dead, stabbed to death by an unknown assailant. Lisa travels to Greece to collect the insurance money and soon receives a letter. She arrives at the address given in the letter and finds herself confronted by her husband's mistress, Lara, and her "lawyer", Sharif. Lara demands half the money. Lisa refuses. Thankfully, Peter has followed her and the two narrowly escape a beat down. But things become even more complicated when Lisa is found slashed to death in her hotel room, the money missing.


Anita Strindberg in The Case of the Scorpion's Tail

This bit of PSYCHO-inspired plotting - main characters rarely get bumped off in the giallo film, although Luciano Ercoli did exactly the same thing in exactly the same year in DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS, another under-appreciated giallo - throws the film forward with Peter now under suspicion by a local police investigator, Stavros, and an Interpol agent, John Stanley. Peter takes a shining to a news reporter, Cleo Dupont, and the two begin a relationship. Their happiness is short-lived. Soon more people begin to die.


Sergio Martino Case of the Scorpion's Tail

Martino is most often referred to as a hack. Why? Hell if I know. His films are as visually interesting as anything you will get from Argento with the distinct difference being that Martino rarely confuses art with storytelling in the way Argento does. You won't find anything as nauseatingly masturbatory as Argento's massive tracking shot from TENEBRAE in any Martino film. Martino rarely wastes a shot, though his sometimes strange choices in direction - the interrogation scene after the attack on Cleo in this film, for example, is shot entirely from overhead, the actors appearing sideways in the frame, the camera swinging like a pendulum back and forth to cover the action - are sometimes disorientating. What he lacks in visual verve - and that's not to say he doesn't have any - he makes up for in style. And yes, there is a difference.


George Hilton in The Case of the Scorpion's Tail

In my estimation, no one, not even the mighty Argento, shoots set pieces with the ease and skill of Martino. THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL contains some of the strongest in his career. Brutality is nothing special in the giallo but several of the murders on display here go above and beyond the call of duty in this regard. They're not necessarily the most graphically violent - you won't find anything here as graphic as, say, Kitty's slow, painful death in Fulci's NEW YORK RIPPER - but they are sudden, violent, and unforgettably nerve wracking. Lara's murder in particular stands out. With its brief flashes of nudity, quick editing, tight close-ups, POV shots and sudden eruptions from just off-screen, it resembles a scene from a slasher film, even culminating in a nasty slit throat that sprays blood all over the place. But the way it's handled - quick, abrupt, very matter-of-fact - that makes it so much more terrifying that anything to ever come out of the 80s. It's a terrific couple of minutes. No cheating, no using heavy metal music to get the audience's blood pounding, nothing false or extraneous. Just simple direction. I'll take a simple, frightening set piece over an overly complicated, flashy set piece any day of the week.


A great giallo.