Day One Roundup: Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, Qui?, and Puzzle

So...I finally managed to embark on day one of the giallothon.

Not too much of a marathon, per se, since I plan on around three movies a day.  But, hey, baby steps.  Right?

Draining the pool and deflating it took way less time than I expected.  So I ate and headed into my room.

I don't own a physical copy of Iguana with the Tongue of Fire.  Instead I have some sort of Instant Stream thingy from Amazon.com.  Paid $8 and I can't even watch it on my TV.  WTF?

So I pressed play and set the browser to Full Screen.

Some thoughts:

I don't think acid has that effect on human flesh.  The film makes it look like tempera paint drying and flaking on the girl's face.  That said, can you imagine if Fulci had done this movie?

I honestly didn't know what was going on half the time.  But Dagmar Lassander was in it.  Looking as nice as ever.

Stelvio Cipriani is woefully under-appreciated in terms of giallo scores.  From the pre-Goblin era, you almost only hear about Ennio Morricone's contributions to the genre.  And some Bruno Nicolai.  But Stelvio did some great stuff.  Don't believe me?  Look up the soundtrack to this bad boy.

The movie didn't pick up until the last 15 or so minutes.  Then it gave a great trashy fun finale.  But I don't remember the killer from earlier in the film.  Did my email pop up when he was on?

Then I took a little (long) nap.  Last night's Vicodin was still in effect.

Woke up, went to the store for dog food and markers, and grabbed some Arby's.  Melodramatic episode of Big Brother.  Back to business.

Movie #2 was "Qui?"

This one was in French, but the subs didn't automatically pop up.  So I miss the original conversation while reconfiguring my settings.  But Marina (Romy Schneider) insults her boyfriend, Claude.  He retaliates by freaking out behind the wheel and driving off the cliff into the sea.  Marina jumps out at the last moment, but Claude isn't found.

So she then hooks up with Claude's brother, Serge.  Literally within two days of him driving off a cliff she sleeps with the dude.  If I had a brother, and he committed suicide, I hope his GF was a total slut like this, too.

But is Claude even dead?  Did Marina kill him?  What's going on?

This one was actually quite fun.  Aided by Romy Schneider's sexiness (seriously.  I'd totally hit that), and a catchy pop tune (Whoooo Are You?...no, not by The Who), Qui? flew by at a brisk pace.  Definitely worth checking out.  And I want that revolver/music box.  If you've seen this film, you'd know what I am talking about.


Movie three was Puzzle, another one I'd been meaning to see for quite some time.  So after a quick pee, I jump right into it.

Puzzle opens with Peter, who is an amnesiac who cannot remember who he is after a car accident 8 months ago.

He is nearly killed by a man who refers to him as "Ted," but the man is killed himself by a sniper's bullet.

Through a series of events, Peter meets up with his estranged wife.  Now living as Ted, he is being pursued by all sorts of types who he was supposedly involved with, who he had double crossed for a million bucks.

This one was probably my favorite of the three today.  Involving throughout, well photographed and acted, with great music.

Seriously, I wish Duccio Tessari had made more gialli.  I'm a huge fan of his work (Death Occurred Last Night is probably my favorite new film I saw from last year's 30 day marathon).  All three of his gialli I have seen are truly quality works, and sadly under-noticed.  I heard somewhere Raro Video USA was releasing Death Occurred Last Night in the future.  If that's true, I'm half tempted to buy a case and give them away as gifts.  I'm that big a fan.

Okay.  Time to rest up.

Later.
-Justin