The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire — The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire(Blu Ray)
Appearing in 1971 The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (L'iguana dalla lingua di fuoco ) was directed by Riccardo Freda( as Willy Pareto)- a fairly prolific & genre-jumping Egyptian born Italian director, who directed some of the early Italian horror films like 1957’s Lust of The Vampire and 1962’s The Horrible Mr Hitchcock- as well latter spy films, melodramas, a western, and Gallio- such this,1969’s Double Face & 1972’s Tragic Ceremony.
The films set mostly in Dublin with a brief trip to the snowy slopes of Switzerland. Its plot centres around a group of murders that are occurring in & around the Irish household of womanising Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky(Anton Diffring)- trying to solve the case is punchy & rule breaking Detective John Norton(Luigi Pistilli). The film opens with a shocking violent kick with a woman getting her face splashed with acid, then her throat slit with a straight razor- and while later murders are somewhat a little bit of a letdown, there effective enough- all spiralling towards a truly deranged what-the-hell ending. Most of the film's runtime is taken up by putting pretty much every character as a suspect- with often jarring music appearing when they touch or put on Sunglasses- which the killer users as a disguise. On the whole, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is fairly even & entertaining, if slightly clichéd & predictable example of the Giallo genre.
So let's move onto this recent Arrow Video release of the film. First off we get a good enough new 2k scan of the film- it’s fair to say this isn’t one of the most colourful or visual heavy films of the genre, mainly focusing in on the rather drab 70’s city tones & colours of Dublin- so it’s never going to be very vibrate, or stunning. Moving onto the extras- first up we get a new commentary track from genre author Adrian J. Smith and David Flint the editor of The Rebrobate- the pair offer a talky, at times amusing track- talking about the Cipriani Score & his other works, the films uneven Irish accent dubbing, the various visual & character red herrings, the cast, etc- the tracks enjoyable enough, though I’m not sure I learnt or gained a lot. Next we get an around twenty minutes appreciation/ discussion about the film from cultural critic and academic Richard Dyer- here he talks about everything from the films rather misleading title, how the film fit’s into the Giallo rules, the often bizarre/ dysfunctional characters, and the film's treatment of homosexuality- really one comes away from this featurette feeling he wasn’t really a fan of the film. Next we get the around twenty-five mitues of Considering Cipriani- this finds DJ and soundtrack collector Lovely Jon- talking about the composers wider career- going onto discuss in detail his soundtrack for the film to hand, and discussing the scores key themes. This is the second extra I’ve seen him on an Arrow release film, and once again he does a great job, really putting across his passion for both the score & the composer work in general. Next we get two stand alone interviews – each of these lasts around the twenty-minute mark- first, there’s one with the assistant editor of the film Bruno Micheli, next one with actress Dagmar Lassander. Then, of course, get trailers, and image gallery. So, not bad at all on the extras front.
In conclusion The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire may not be the most arty, subversive, or memorable of the Gallio genre- but there are enough plot twists & turns, effective enough gore, & some amusing what-the-hell moments to appeal to euro exploitation fans- and as always Arrow does a great job offering up interesting & worthy extras.