Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Memorable, crazy movie

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

With the rather cumbersome title of 'The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire' the film itself actually proves to be a supremely limber and entertaining giallo-esque thriller from Riccardo Freda. Thus far the general consensus on this lurid early 70's slasher is a trifle underwhelming, but, on the contrary, I really enjoyed this brisk, Ireland-set thriller; with all its pungent red herrings; gonzoid throat slashings, and plethora of charred, vitriol burned flesh. The venerable Anton Diffring does his regular aristocratic aloof spiel with great elan, and the sublime Pistilli makes a zesty show of the violent, maverick copper; all in all 'Iguana with the tongue of fire' is a blast; and yet again, il maestro Stelvio Cipriani percolates another magnificently potent score.

After having been instrumental in introducing the Fantasy genre (which would thrive for close to 40 years) in Italy, with four classics to his name – I VAMPIRI (1956), CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959), THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (1962) and THE GHOST (1963) – much like James Whale in 1930s Hollywood, Freda's enthusiasm for the genre seems to have run out. Even so, towards the end of the 1960s, he dabbled in a new and flourishing branch of the horror/thriller genre, albeit with diminishing results: the pretty good (if derivative) DOUBLE FACE (1969); the film under review which, while not bad, is essentially uninspired; and the hilariously inept TRAGIC CEREMONY (1972); a measure of the director's own increasing disenchantment with his work is the fact that, in the case of the latter two, he chose to be credited not under his usual (thus recognizable) Anglicized alias of Robert Hampton but rather as the obscure Willy Pareto! For the record, after almost a decade of silence, he would return for one last fling with yet another Giallo i.e. the as-yet-unwatched MURDER OBSESSION (1981) featuring Softcore starlet Laura Gemser! To get back to the matter at hand, I have always found myself in two minds when it comes to this type of international production: while I generally lean towards the Italian dialogue because in all probability the script would have been written in that language, I know that, in most cases, the actors deliver their lines in English!; here, then, since the narrative is set in the Irish city of Dublin anyway, it would be natural to take this route. The thing is that I first laid my hands on an English-dubbed version (though, at least, both Anton Diffring and Valentina Cortese lend their voices to its audio track) but then also came across one in Italian which, however, I did not feel inclined to acquire (the irony is that, on the English-language print, the credits are still presented in their native language!); in fact, quite a number of Gialli I got hold of in English have been turning up in Italian (online or on TV) but I rarely, if ever, bother to 'upgrade' anymore! Anyway, here we get the usual flurry of vicious murders (of the throat-slitting or acid-splashing variety right from the very opening sequence – unfortunately, while the gore is plentiful, it looks ultra-fake!) countered by a Police investigation, set against stylish backdrops and accompanied by a delightful score (courtesy of Stelvio Cipriani). The other notable cast members, both genre stalwarts, are leads Luigi Pistilli and Dagmar Lassander (as the fast-living daughter of globe-trotting ambassador Diffring and drug-addled Cortese). Typically, the complex plot yields suspects galore, since most of the characters generally have something to hide (Diffring is a lecher, thus prone to blackmail, while ex-cop Pistilli's violent streak during interrogations has driven a suspect to suicide, etc.) but, as often happens, once the villain's identity is revealed, we get a motive that is all but flimsy (here, this figure had actually been so peripheral to the narrative that one's reaction to the finale is extremely muted and downright indifferent)! The surprising carelessness on the film-makers' part is evidenced in an early banal dialogue exchange relating to the use of acid as a murder weapon, which suggests that the killer may be either a woman or a colored person(!) and the fact that the music is allowed to go preposterously over-the-top when it wants to direct our attention – fruitlessly, as it turns out – to would-be vital clues like sun-glasses or razor-blades! Besides, there is additional gratuitous gore (an effectively graphic shot of a suture being applied to a gash on Pistilli's head) and nudity (apart from the obligatory love scene between Lassander and Pistilli, there is also a somewhat disturbing shot of Pistilli's underage daughter in the nude{!} being pursued by the killer inside their home – but, truly, why on earth should Pistilli's relatives be targeted?), some bizarre comic touches (provided by Pistilli's elderly amateur sleuth of a mother, who is repeatedly told that she cannot hear properly unless the woman has her glasses on – WTF, right?! – except that a colleague of mine, who I am sure is unfamiliar with the film, actually makes of that assertion a running gag!) and an unusual prevalence for foul language (especially on Diffring's part)! Although this is somewhat better than the reviews I have read of it would have you believe, the end result satisfied neither the director (who also edited the film under the afore-mentioned alias) nor prolific German co-producer Artur Brauner who decided it was not worthy of a theatrical release in his native country! Having said that, it was rather ingenious of the screenplay to have Cortese's supposed assassination attempt turn out to be a bungled suicide and that the seemingly scot-free Diffring is revealed at the film's very end as having actually murdered the first victim and that Justice will be catching up with him shortly upon making his return to Switzerland!

"L'Iguana dalla lingua di fuoco" aka. "The Inguana with the Tongue of Fire" is certainly not a very memorable or spectacular Giallo, but it is still a pretty entertaining film that I recommend to my fellow Italian Horror buffs. The film, which is brought to you by director Riccardo Freda ("Lo Spettro", "Murder Inferno",...) has its flaws, but it also has quite a bunch of highly memorable elements. The film takes place in Ireland and, as far as I know of, this is the only Giallo ever set in Eire. The plot may not be the most original, and the twists sometimes seem a bit silly for Giallo standards, yet this is very cool in some aspects. The film has an eerie general mood and is often quite nasty, with gory murders, and the great Italian actor Luigi Pistilli in the lead as an investigating ex-cop. Pistilli truly was one of the greats in Italian cult-cinema, whose great performances complimented masterpieces of a variety of genres, such as brilliant Westerns ("For A Few Dollars More", "The Good The Bad And The Ugly", "The Great Silence"), ingenious Crime-Cinema ("Milano Calibro 9"), sublime Gialli ("Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key", "The Scorpion's Tail") or Mario Bava's blood-soaked slasher landmark "A Bay Of Blood", just to mention some of the most memorable films the man has been in. And Pistilli once again delivers a great performance as the former Detective John Norton, a Dublin ex-copper who lives with his teenage daughter and his almost deaf mother. After a murder near the Swiss embassy, other violent murders follow. Since the police don't find any clues, the ex-detective Norton is appointed to the case... As mentioned above, the murder sequences are quite gory and nasty (if sometimes a bit clumsy). The score is also excellent, which contributes a lot to the atmosphere. The film also has some silly elements, such as a shrill tune whenever something eerie happens, but never to an extent that would lessen the entertainment-value. Pistilli is great, and the rest of the performances are not bad either, Anton Diffring is wonderfully arrogant as the Swiss ambassador, Irish actor Arthur O'Sullivan is very good as a grumpy elderly Police inspector, and beautiful Dagmar Lassander makes a sexy female lead. All things considered, this film is certainly no Giallo-highlight, but it is an overall entertaining flick that is well worth watching for Italian Horror buffs.

This is not a review as I have not seen the movie but I worked on it as 3rd Assistant Director and also had a part as a barman opposite star Luigi Pistilli - all of 30 seconds. Would love to have a copy for posterity! Your reviewer was pretty accurate as to the gore. I was there when granny's cat got its throat cut in the fridge. I can also tell you a tale or two about the cast and the making of the movie. The whole thing was shot in 2 weeks on location in Dublin. One of the dead bodies in the boot of the car was a friend of mine. The car used in the final scene where the villain crashes through the window belonged to a friend of mine. We had to get it resprayed after that. If anyone can tell me where I can get a copy I would be truly grateful Regards - John McCormack