The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971)

"Your new friend is fast becoming a pain in the arse!"This is one of the most hilariously ridiculous Giallo I've seen so far, and therefore it's great! It's also the only giallo set in Dublin, so you can see regular Italian actors drinking Guiness and saying "There's been a feckin murder, ya great eedjit".The film starts off with a woman getting acid thrown in her face and her throat slit rather graphically. We then cut to the Swiss Embassy in Ireland, where her body is discovered in the boot of the ambassador's car. As the killer wore sunglasses during the killing, we also get dramatic soundtracks cues every time a character in this film has a pair of sunglasses!Luigi Pistilli is the ex-cop hired by regular cops to track down the killer, and even though he's as Roman as you can get, his bushy eyebrows and curly hair do kind of work with his Irish dubbed voice. He gets straight down to investigating by hooking up with the Ambassador's daughter, played by wonky eyed Dagmar Lassander. Her dad is a complete jerk, her mother a drug addict, and her brother played by Werner Pocath in an insane bald get-up that has nothing to do with the plot but looks mental anyway!Someone seems to be killing off people associated with the Swiss embassy, and next up is a cabaret singer with ties to the ambassador. There also seems to be a gay thing going on with some other guy and the ambassador's butler that involves blackmail, as well as the chauffeur being involved in another, separate blackmail plot. Looks like many people are up for an acid facial/throat slashing!The daftness of this film is great. Every character at some point starts acting like they want to murder someone, from Luigi putting his hands around Dagmar's throat as if he's going to throw her off a cliff before just kissing her, to Luigi's gran getting pounced on by a gloved killer, only to reveal that it's her granddaughter reminding her to wear her glasses so she can hear better (I'm not making that up).The chauffeur has an alibi as he was at the "Swasitika Laundry" (not making it up), and Luigi is even a suspect for a few minutes because his gran finds a bloody razor in a cupboard. That's the same scene that involves his cat being stabbed to death and stuffed in the fridge. Then there's the bobsleigh crash that is so crap I was howling with laughter...We need films like this. Every time someone gets slashed in the throat a gallon of blood comes out. There's boobs everywhere and the Irish accents just add to the surrealism. This is a must watch to be honest if you're into crap films...

Pay no heed to the somewhat disparaging reviews here on IMDb: although The Iguana With The Tongue of Fire fails to live up to its wonderfully evocative title thanks to a rather mediocre storyline and a lacklustre finale, there is still much to entertain fans of the genre. Director Riccardo Freda's film features a decent cast, atmospheric location work in Ireland and Switzerland, some gnarly violence, silly red herrings aplenty, a little action, and a touch of sleaze, making this one fun despite the drawbacks of the plot.The film stars Luigi Pistilli as Detective John Norton, whose investigation into the murder of a young woman (who has her face ruined by sulphuric acid and her neck sliced with a cut-throat razor in the gory opener) sees him becoming personally involved in the case after he develops a relationship with Helen (Dagmar Lassander), sexy daughter of the prime suspect, Swiss diplomat Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring). As the bodies continue to pile up, Norton's own mother and teenage daughter find themselves at risk...From its gruesome opening, to the spectacular demise of the film's killer, The Iguana With The Tongue of Fire is trashy fun and should appeal to those who love their giallos bloody and sleazy; if the likes of The New York Ripper and Strip Nude for The Killer float your boat, you'll most likely get a kick out of this one too. In addition to the juicy razor attacks, we also get a 'decapitated cat in a fridge' gag, and Norton's mother having her head bashed in, while the nudity includes Lassender getting her top off for a brief sex scene, and Norton's daughter being attacked while just in her knickers (her childish dubbed voice making this scene a tad uncomfortable to watch).The film also offers some great unintentional laughs: the woeful 'Oirish' dubbing will no doubt illicit some chuckles, as will the numerous red-herrings (everyone seems to own a pair of sunglasses, a cut-throat razor, or leather gloves) which, as if they're not blatant enough, are accompanied by a crashingly loud sound effect that really drives the point home—this is a possible clue and the owner of the item in question could be the killer!!!! The final reveal of the murderer's identity and his convoluted motive for killing are suitably daft—the icing on the whole silly giallo cake.

On paper this sounds like the exemplary and most mouth-watering Giallo purchase any fan of the genre could ever fantasize about. The title is amazing and only something an Italian Giallo writer could come up with, the cast is stellar (teaming Dagmar Lassander of "Hatchet for the Honeymoon", Anton Diffring of "Circus of Horrors" and Luigi Pistilli of "Bay of Blood" in one film!!) and writer/director Ricardo Freda is a reliable name in the business. Heck, even the opening sequences are extremely promising, with an enchanting musical score, an original setting (in Dublin, Ireland) and a downright fantastic – albeit cheesy – first death sequence. We witness the murder of a lovely young girl by a killer that is the utmost sadistic, to say the least! The poor thing has the entire content of a bottle of acid thrown in her pretty face before the maniac slits open her throat from ear to ear with a razor. This is a damn cool sight to behold in case you're a fan of this sort of sick cinema, even when the make-up effects are poor and the set-up is completely tasteless. Unfortunately, however, the film only sinks deeper and deeper downhill from this point onwards. "The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire" suffers from an unimaginably incoherent screenplay that attempts to blend high-society murder with cop-drama and cheap B-movie sleaze… Not exactly an effective combination!In this 100% Italian-made movie, the Dutch mistress of the Swiss Ambassador in Ireland (how's that for European companionship?) is brutally slain by a clearly depraved killer. Former cop with a trauma John Norton sacrifices himself to seduce the beautiful and much younger Ambassador's daughter to infiltrate in these high society regions and investigate the murder further. Whilst the sleazy Ambassador hides himself behind his diplomatic immunity status, the murderer cheerfully continues to slice and dice random people in and around the Ambassador's estate. There are some very essential elements missing in Freda's "The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire". Unlike in the Gialli of, say, Dario Argento or Sergio Martino, the plot and characters nearly aren't as compelling as they should be. Never at one point in the film you feel the urge to help solving the murder puzzle or guessing along for the killer's identity. It's like you know already from beforehand that the denouement will be so absurd and implausible that you don't even bother contemplating about it. Also, the script contains far too many tedious dead-end scenes and certain sub plots that are just utterly ridiculous; like detective Norton's blind & deaf old mother with Agatha Christie allures. Aside from the splendid aforementioned first murder and a few other cool sequences near the end, the movie is tame and unmemorable. The joyous title, if you're interested, refers to a brief little anecdote one of the police characters narrates to his colleague and it is, in fact, totally irrelevant to the story itself. I guess it just sounded too cool not to use and simultaneously it cashes in on Dario Argento's trend to use animals in Gialli ("Bird with the Crystal Plumage", "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" …)

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