The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972) User Reviews

A gloved maniac, topless women and a dodgy plot — it's giallo time again!!

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 27 April 2006]

Light on the gore and heavy on the nudity, The Case of the Bloody Iris is a passable giallo from director Giuliano Carnimeo (under the pseudonym Anthony Ascott). Made in 1972, this shocker has nearly all of the elements one would expect from the genre: a gloved killer, POV shots, bloody murders, and a convoluted plot in which everyone is both a suspect and a possible victim.

The story revolves around a spate of vicious killings which happen in a posh high-rise block of apartments; gorgeous Edwige Fenech plays Jennifer, a model who has moved into the building and soon becomes a target for the deranged, rubber-glove wearing maniac.

Logic takes a backseat during the storytelling and there are moments which had me laughing in disbelief. In one scene, our hapless heroine wanders through a junkyard at night; for cheap 'shocks', car doors swing open, boots slam shut and a whole vehicle even topples off a stack — no explanation for these spooky happenings is given.

Another moment has Jennifer attempting to enter a suspect's apartment. Finding it locked, she tries the keys on her own keyring, and — hey, presto — the last key opens the door!! What great security they have in this building.

As always, the killer's identity is only revealed in the final minutes, and the reason given for his violence stretches well beyond the realms of credibility.

Despite the flaws in the plot, the film moves along at a reasonable pace and when there is any danger of the momentum flagging, Carnimeo throws in some gratuitous T&A (and a lesbian) to keep us amused — how very thoughtful of him! Nearly every actress gives us an eyeful before her untimely demise.

As giallos go, this is a consistently entertaining example and should definitely be seen by fans of the genre.

Silly and Predictable

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 21 May 2020]

After the murder of a call girl in a building, the dweller Mizar Harrington (Carla Brait), who is a fighter and stripper in a nightclub, is drowned in her bathtub by the killer. The administrator and architect Andrea Antinori (George Hilton) offers the apartment to the models Jennifer Lansbury (Edwige Fenech) and Marilyn Ricci (Paola Quattrini) for a reasonable price and they move to the flat. Jennifer is the ex-wife of the hippie Adam (Ben Carrá), who forced her to practice group sex and now harasses her all the time. Soon Andrea hits on Jennifer and she becomes his girlfriend. When Adam is found dead in Jennifer's apartment, Andrea becomes the prime suspect of Commissioner Enci (Giampiero Albertini), who assigns his Assistant Commissioner Renzi (Franco Agostini) to follow him everywhere. However, Jennifer believes Andrea is innocent and suspects that one of her neighbors might be the killer.

"Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?", a.k.a. "The Case of the Bloody Iris", is a Italian thriller silly and predictable. The goofy Marilyn Ricci is an annoying and unfunny character; Commissioner Enci is ridiculous and dull; the dialogs are very poor; and the music score is irritating and dated. It is not difficult to know who the killer is. But may be entertaining for fans of "giallo" genre. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "As Lágrimas de Jennifer" ("The Tears of Jennifer")

Uninvolving, often stupid murder mystery.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 29 November 2003]

"The Case Of The Bloody Iris" is a movie filled with so many stupid and cheesy moments that it's impossible to list them all here (just an example: a bloody corpse is discovered in the elevator of a high-rise apartment building while the sun is still up; after several hours, the night has fallen, a woman tries to get into the elevator, and the corpse is still there, lying at the exact same spot - apparently none of the tenants cared enough to call the police). So I'll just mention the two things that bothered me the most:

1) The dubbing is terrible. The actors who dubbed in the voices of the original cast sound so bored that you wonder if they even got paid for their work or it was simply forced upon them. There is barely ONE LINE that sounds right in this film.

2) Edwige Fenech is gorgeous but ridiculously wooden as Jennifer. She wears the same "scared" expression throughout. A totally bland "heroine".

The only highlight of the film is a bizarre mixed wrestling match between a tough stripper and one of her "customers". Now THAT is something you don't see every day! (**)

Buy the 4 dvd Giallo Collection to get this gem of a film.

[Rastacat1 · 29 October 2002]

There is a mysterious gloved and masked killer stalking and murdering beautiful young Italian women. Sound familiar? But of course, this is a Giallo from the early 70's!

The Case of the Bloody Iris is part of Anchor Bay's four dvd set The Giallo Collection. Three of the movies can be purchased separately, but The Case of the Bloody Iris can only be purchased as part of the set.

The Case of the Bloody Iris starts out with a pretty young blonde woman being murdered in an elevator in an urban apartment building . The killer is wearing rubber gloves and stabs her with a knife that looks like a scalpel. A day later in the same apartment building, another woman is drowned in her bathtub by a killer wearing the same rubber gloves. This murder is pretty brutal to watch as far as movie murders go.

There is an architect by the name of Andrea (George Hilton), who dated the second murdered woman and starts seeing another woman, Jennifer (ably portrayed by the beautiful Edwige Fenech) who recently left a small religious group lead by a crazed guy who keeps harassing her and trying to get her back to the group. Through a flashback scene we discover that they were into group sex and and he seems to be, and is, seriously deranged. There is also a woman living with her father in an apartment in the building and she hits on every woman she encounters, which in this film are beautiful models and dancers.

A couple more murders into the film and Andrea is suspected by the police of performing the murders, especially after a woman is murdered on the street and witnesses see only him covered in blood and running away from the scene. The police have been following him using a detective who serves as a minor bit of comic relief (fortunately he doesn't try to be too funny). Jennifer also starts suspecting Andrea of committing the murders and after they arrange a secret meeting trying to elude the police, he seems more guilty then ever.

This is a well made movie with a decent script and is well acted by the entire cast. I recommend it for anyone who like a well made Giallo and also as a decent who dunnit.

This movie is released in a beautiful 2.35:1 widescreen display. The sound quality, while dated, sounded great out of my speakers. Extra features on the disk include an alternate stabbing scene and theatrical trailer. The alternate stabbing scene is just an abbreviated version of one of the stabbings late in the movie. Personally I liked the longer version in the film better. The Giallo Collection goes for around $40-50 which means each movie is around $10-13 each. This is a great price for movies that may have never seen the light of day in U.S. except for the Anchor Bay's decision to bring well made Italian Giallo's to the American market.

A Solid Giallo

[blakiepeterson · 6/10 · 25 July 2015]

Stylish, alluring, and agreeable, "The Case of the Bloody Iris" is a straightforward giallo less notable for its dexterous offings and more for leading lady Edwige Fenech, the inarguable queen of the genre. While never reaching the orgasmic heights of other masterpieces of the era (most helmed by Dario Argento and Mario Bava, of course), "The Case of the Bloody Iris" is still a splendidly fun (albeit gory) murder mystery that embraces its ridiculousness and makes up for convoluted time with sophisticated design and worthy blood-soaked set pieces. It's an admirable time waster, a slasher dressed to the nines in pre-De Palma swank.

As in all gialli, a gloved killer wrapped in sharp black is mercilessly butchering physically beautiful young women for kicks, this time in a luxurious high rise apartment. Days after two women are murdered in a twenty-four hour period, models Jennifer (Edwige Fenech) and Marilyn (Paola Quattrini) move into one of the victims' apartment, hardly worried about the room's sordid past. "Life goes on," Marilyn scoffs, as if wishing to jinx herself into murder mystery oblivion. But it doesn't take long for the pair to realize that such things can hardly be laughed off, especially when considering the building itself seems to contain a number of shady characters easily able to commit such heinous acts. Suspects include a stereotyped lesbian neighbor, a misogynistic old woman that lives with her disturbingly deformed son, and even Jennifer's love interest (George Hilton), an architect with a crippling phobia of blood. And it doesn't help that Jennifer's maniacal ex-husband (Ben Carra) enjoys spending his days stalking his former wife instead of making a living.

In order to fully enjoy "The Case of the Bloody Iris", one must disregard the horrendous dubbing, the severely stiff performances, and the regularly asinine script — because this is a film about style and Edwige Fenech, not much else. (Those expecting the normal amount of generous giallo gore will be sorely disappointed.) The first murder is exquisitely shot — with hardly a word of dialogue to spare, it follows a comely blonde from a telephone booth to her apartment building's elevator, where she winds up slashed to death after the passengers depart one by one. Clearly inspiration for Angie Dickinson's gruesome offing in "Dressed to Kill" (which is miles better), the scene sets the tone of the film: absurd but competently suspenseful. Because much of the film is absurd — Jennifer's religious cult back-story is unneeded and contains a gratuitous orgy scene (hardly graphic) more laughable than tantalizing, and her bad habit of wandering away from safety in a time of danger is maddening — but, for the most part, "The Case of the Bloody Iris" classes it up while later '70s peers of the "Black Christmas" mindset didn't. It cares more about how it appears than how it builds intellectually, so thank God it looks like the chic second cousin of "Blowup" or some other mod infused character study.

Best of all is Edwige Fenech: never have I seen her in one of her famous gialli (those were directed by Sergio Martino, and I'm still in the process of trying to find a copy to view), and this film gives an idea as to why she is an underground legend. With her cat eyes, voluptuous figure, and jet black hair, it's impossible not to stare at her, mouth agape and all. One can hardly call her a fine actress, but Fenech has presence, a characteristic hardly found in other giallo women like Barbara Bouchet or Ida Galli. The camera clings to her composure almost passively; she can turn a poorly executed scene into a work of art by merely acting as its center. Maybe her films with Martino are better, but "The Case of the Bloody Iris" is a giallo minor but palatable.

A tense and mysterious Giallo with ordinary gloved killer carrying out a criminal spree

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 8 March 2021]

Usual gialli with intrigue , thrills , chills , tension, slashing , nudism , amount of sleaze and anything else . Having fleed from the claws a sex cult , our starring called Jennifer Lansbury : Scream queen Edwige Fenech, is being stalked and pursued by a series killer . There are various suspicious people : a mysterious owner : Luciano Pigozzi of a rare spectacle , an old woman and her deformed son , a veteran neighbour and her friend's father : George Rigaud , furthermore a good-looking architect : George Hilton who falls for Jennifer . One by one her known people and best friends have been killing, and most victims belong to occupants of the new apartment she's moved . Along the way an obstinate police commissioner : Giampiero Albertini and his underling cop investigate the grisly killings . Who's the killer ? The killer slices without mercy ! Shocklingly True ?..

Giuliano Carmineo's Gialli compellingly filmed , including well-staged crimes with plenty of startling visual content and winning a certain success with box office enough . Customary Giallo in which thrilling events , intriguing happenings , twists , turns and stabbing show up lurking and threatening across corridors , flats , parking, basements and grim interiors . The picture blends atmospheric sets , apartments , beautiful naked girls and a suspenseful final in which we figure out the unexpected murderer . Stars the Gialli queen , the always gorgeous Edwige Fenech playing in his habitual style and showing off her ravishing attributes . Co-stars the Uruguay-born and recently deceased George Hilton , he was a real Spaghetti Western star , though he also played some Giallos . Along with a nice secondary cast , including some familiar faces , such as : Giampiero Albertini , George Rigaud , Annabella Incontrera , Daniela Giordano and the prolific secondary Luciano Pigozzi , who often used pseudonym Allan Collins , nicknamed the Italian Peter Lorre .

It packs an atmospheric musical score in the Seventies style by Bruno Nicolai who was usual colllaborator to Ennio Morricone. As well as evocative cinematography by Stelvio Massi , shot on location in Genoa, Liguria and Elios studios , Rome, Lazio, Italy. The motion picture was professionally directed by Giuliano Carmineo or Anthony Ascott . Giuliano was a craftsman who directed a lot of B films and stories of all kinds of regular Italian genres . Being his especiality Spaghetti Western genre, such as : The moment to Kill , Find a place to die , Two sons of Ringo , They call him Cemetery , They call me Hallaluya , Have a good funeral my friend Sartana will pay , Sartana the gravedigger , Light the fuse Sartana is coming . Although Carmineo also made other genres as Giallo : The case of the Bloody Iris , Ana particular Pleasure , Fantasy/Scifi : Computron , The Exterminators of the Year 3000 , Sex comedy : The teacher dances with the entire class, Pepito the doctor and Terror : The Rat Man , among others . Rating : 6/10 , acceptable and passable .

Just how many knife-wielding psychos are there in Italy?

[Jonny_Numb · 6/10 · 16 March 2008]

The problem with being a fervent connoisseur of '70s-era Italian horror is that it's only a matter of time before the good stuff (the Fulcis, the Argentos, the Bavas) gives way to the derivative rip-offs, until there's nowhere to go but down in the dregs of amateurs who were thrown some money to satisfy a "market demand." And the problem with gialli in particular is that, even the well-made ones begin to seem similar in structure, character, and plot. And while "The Case of the Bloody Iris" is well-done enough for me to recommend, it is ultimately a pretty conventional offering. The excellent opening scene has a beautiful woman murdered in an elevator within her apartment; soon after, luscious models are being slain by a "Blood and Black Lace"-styled killer. Like other gialli of the era, "Iris" sets up its premise early on, and spends the rest of the time twisting it into a pretzel of red herrings, misdirection, and talky exposition. But director Giuliano Carnimeo (under the pseudonym Anthony Ascott) keeps things well-paced and intriguing, giving us some great setpieces and camera work (including a lot of vertiginous shots), and Edwige Fenech ("Strip Nude for Your Killer") is an enticing example of '70s sex appeal who looks great in skimpy negligee or nothing at all. Not the best example of the genre, but certainly worth a look for fans.

Guilty pleasure

[ODDBear · 8/10 · 24 January 2005]

The Case of the Bloody Iris is one of the most entertaining giallo's of them all.

I do realize that it's far from perfect. It's got wooden performances, childish dialogue, illogical moments (more than a few), plot holes etc..., but it's entertaining as hell. These pure giallo's are guilty pleasures to be sure, featuring a number of knockout damsels in distress, gory murders, black gloved killers, a murder mystery with endless red herrings, law officials without an IQ and almost universally badly dubbed actors.

Here we have it all in abundance and it all works. The women here are quite simply stunning, the murder scenes inventive and well done, the appropriate amount of sleaze, impressive visuals and nice location scenery, a terrific musical score (catchy as hell), decent acting and a fair amount of shocks and suspense. It's also quite funny at times, I've never before or after seen a detective obsessing with stamps.

Highly recommended if you're a fan of giallo films.

The glove, the knife, and the tatas.

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 10 September 2010]

They say to never look a gift horse in the mouth. Sometimes a gift isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Andrea (George Hilton) offers an upscale apartment to models Jennifer (Edwige Fenech) and Marilyn (Paola Quattrini). The only problem is that a stripper Mizar (Carla Brait) was just drowned in the bathtub, and someone is in the apartment with evil intentions on Jennifer's first night there. In addition another girl in the building was murdered in the elevator the day before. Is this where you really want to live? This film has a huge assortment of odd characters: a lesbian that lives with her professor father who plays the violin all night, an old lady that reads horror comics, Jennifer's ex who is head of some sex cult, and even a police lieutenant (Giampiero Albertini) who collects stamps and swipes them from crime scenes. No shortage of suspects.

But, discovering the killer and the motive will prove elusive. That's OK, as the music, and the humor, and seeing Fenech will certainly keep you occupied until the reveal.

Dated and dull

[Maciste_Brother · 4/10 · 24 February 2003]

As Gialli goes, THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS is fairly dated and dull. I just can't see anyone get excited over this movie. There is a list of elements that make a giallo successful and COTBI doesn't even come close to fulfilling all these requirements. The first thing is that the killer is dull and the identity is easy to figure out. The murders are equally unremarkable. The cinematography is pedestrian. Compared to the stunning camerawork in BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE made two years earlier, BLOODY IRIS looks truly uninspired. And there are several scenes that don't even fit the story-line, like the flashback scenes that tell us why the man is afraid of blood. Totally useless. But the worst part is that there's almost no tension going on, mainly because of the truly dated feel and look of the film and that annoying "upbeat" music, which seemingly makes up the entire soundtrack and is used incongruously during tense scenes. This film is totally forgettable.

Stylish And Great Giallo With Sexy Edwige Fenech

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 8/10 · 11 March 2008]

Giuliano Carnimeo's "Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?" aka. "The Case Of The Bloody Iris" of 1972 is a great, tantalizing and stylish Giallo that no lover of Italian Horror can afford to miss. A Giallo with Edwige Fenech and George Hilton in the lead should be recommendation enough for a fan of Italian Horror, and this particular film has so much more to offer. I would go even further and say that "The Case Of The Bloody Iris" is a great textbook example for a Giallo: Sleaze and nudity, stylishly violent murders, atmosphere, a jazzy soundtrack and a great cast - this stylish flick has everything that my fellow Giallo-lovers should desire in a film. Nevertheless, I do not agree that this is a giallo-highlight (as some people say). It is a great film, no doubt, but as avid Italian Horror fan (Giallo is one of my favorite genres), I would not name it as one of the highlights of this great sub-genre. That being said, "The Case Of The Bloody Iris" is definitely a great and immensely stylish Giallo that every Horror fan should see.

Seductive beauty queens are being slaughtered one by one in the same house by a masked killer, and the police do not have the slightest clue who the killer could be. When the sexy model Jennifer (Edwige Fenech) moves into a victim's former apartment - and the killer starts stalking her as well...

As mandatory for a good Giallo, the suspense is maintained throughout the movie and the killer's identity and motivations are not revealed until the very end. In a good Giallo almost anybody could be the killer, and "The Case Of The Bloody Iris" sure is no exception here, as almost everybody is suspicious. The characters are very interesting and so is the cast. Sexy Edwige Fenech is always reason enough to see a film, and this is one of the movies that made her a Giallo-queen. George Hilton is also great in the lead, as an architect. Apart from Fenech and Hilton, the cast contains many other familiar faces for fans of Italian genre cinema, such as Giampiero Albertini, who plays the stamp-collecting police commissioner who is investigating the murders. The sexy Carla Brait, who should also be known to genre-fans for her role in Sergio Martino's Giallo-masterpiece "Torso" (1973), is seductive as always as a black stripper. The film is highly atmospheric and excellently photographed in intense colors, and the jazzy soundtrack contributes a lot to the film's style and typical early 70s feeling. All things considered "The Case Of The Bloody Iris" is a great Giallo, that any Horror buff should see. Especially my fellow fans of Italian Horror can not allow themselves to miss this! Highly Recommended!

Very stylish... a typical cool giallo

[rundbauchdodo · 7/10 · 25 September 2000]

This film is not only remarkable for its over long title, but mainly because it's a good example for a typical, chilling giallo of the 1970s. The film delivers all one might expect from it, including the good looking young women that fall victim to the mysterious killer, creepy set pieces where well known surroundings become uncanny, and the big surprise when the killer is finally uncovered. The murder scenes are quite gory and sadistic and also very typical for the giallo of that decade. In one stunning scene, the killer is particularly cold blooded: he kills one of his hapless victims in broad daylight on a lively street in the middle of the city - and gets away with it unnoticed! All in all not quite a masterpiece, but chilling entertainment full of suspense and easily 7 out of 10.

Eh...

[horrorlover1026 · 4/10 · 22 October 2022]

I mean, it doesn't really stand out to me. It's the only giallo I've watched so far that I didn't finish. It's got a generic plot (not really a problem though), and a very weird scene in a nightclub. I cannot describe that scene accurately. My best guess would have to be "weird erotic dancing". Just weird. I will say that when I tried to resume the movie (albeit unsuccessfully) I raised my rating from a 3 to a 4. This is because I think that towards the end the movie has some good cat-and-mouse sequences, particularly the scene where Andrea is pursued by Renzi and the scene in the junkyard with Jennifer. In summary, this movie isn't the worst giallo I've seen, but it's close.

The Stamps

[tedg · 8 October 2005]

When I'm blue, the movies I look for aren't comedies. Film comedies work too hard, follow too many script formulas and when I am blue it is because I have worked too hard following similar internal scripts.

What I need and what you might like are films that are so abstract they have almost nothing to do with reality. They abstract from other movies in a kind of Xerox of Xerox way so that what you get has nothing to do with reality and all to do with film-making.

And no one is better at empty films, films with no emotional content or soul than Italians. Elsewhere I've noted that the Hollywood Italians attach to characters and violence as cinematic icons. Leone abstracted from the western and character fantasy.

Giallo is similar but does something a bit more clever to my mind. It has (for the time) extreme violence and sex (usually a few nipples) but not having much to do with each other. It takes these two abstractions and places it in a highly refined mystery-thriller context.

The way these things work is you have sexy women — or thought so for the era, and since these are Italians, we are talking compliant bigbreasted teases. These are in some sex- related trades and get killed by some serial murderer. Many candidates are described, as if this were a real detective story that we could figure out. We can't of course; when the thing was abstracted all the elements of logic went, things like causality and clues.

In fact, it works in reverse. The things that seem logical turn out not to be. Illogic is always the way.

I like this giallo best of them all. It is the most stylish, the most cinematic (except for the murders which are mundane). By cinematic, I mean the way things are staged, the edges of walls are used. Mirrors.

And it has two characters that are extremely evocative. One is a carbon copy of Woody Allen, appearance, mannerisms and all. He is a photographer here in much the same stance that Allen himself appears as a filmmaker in many of his own movies. Logic says he is the killer.

Then we see a woman in the building where the main action takes place. You will swear that this is the same actor: Woody in disguise. All logic points to this Psycho-based notion.

There's a further structural/character fold. Another character — about whom we learn has a bloody past — is an architect. Now architects in movies are always special people, especially when they have the "plans" to what is important. Logic also says this is the guy and the story duly frames him.

Another movie reference: one potential killer is a member of a group sex, free love new age society. The bloody iris is not a sliced eyeball as you would expect. The iris is the symbol of this sexual commune and one appears bloody. _____

There's a scene in here that I value. You know how it is, that each genre has one scene that is so perfect it acts as a strange attractor for the whole genre? Here we have an inept European policeman who is investigating the crimes: young women in sexy jobs being killed. He and his boss are in an ornate office that one could only imagine of Italians.

The policeman is handed a letter, a piece of evidence and is asked his opinion. The cop goes on and on about how ordinary the stamp is, as if the entire value of the thing had nothing to do with the meaning of the letter, nor the document on which that meaning is recorded, nor even the container for that document, instead the designation on the container — the stamp — that indicates its genre only.

Watch this if you are blue.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Nice erotic giallo

[TAKAROUKAS · 7/10 · 19 August 2004]

This film is the definition of giallo. Don't get me wrong; it is not Argento, but it's got all the elements of the genre: gloved killer, nice murder scenes, nudity, sex, beautiful girls, and a twisted ending. The ending however, seems to be its major drawback since you will be able to discover the killer before the end of the movie and this spoils the fun. I really liked the music score and the female lead (E. Fenech) who was very sensual and added much to the eroticism of the film. Recommended to everyone who wishes to discover the giallo of the 70's. A must see!!! 7/10

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 6/10 · 1 September 2017]

The music of the magnificent Bruno Nicolai ushers us into a busy street scene in which young blond is travelling across town to meet a friend. An elevator. A gloved figure dressed in black. A knife. A spattering of bright blood. And we're off … Lots of scantily clad girls. A camp photographer. Edwige Fenech. An audience of men politely denying a challenge from a dominating model Mizar (Carla Brait): "Let's you and I do it." She's issuing a challenge for a 3-minute wrestling match, of course, and naturally, she wipes the floor with any who accept her challenge. She is not quite so successful when pitted against the mysterious murderer, however … Fenech plays Jennifer Lansbury, estranged wife of aggressive swinger Adam, who demands she returns to him and his polygamous lifestyle. Too obvious to be the killer, attention then turns to Lansbury, who is used as bait to trap the killer by Commissioner Enci (Giampiero Albertini).

There are some effective set-pieces, my favourite of which is the demise of playful scamp Marilyn (Paola Quattrini) in the middle of a bustling street. As she clutches at the blood gushing out of her stomach, no-one appears to take any notice, or are too busy to care, before she collapses in the arms of handsome Andrea (George Hilton) – who becomes yet another suspect.

There's an elderly eccentric (and horror comic addict!) who is discovered to be hiding her deformed son David. Naturally, being scarred, he is also a sex fiend (!) with designs on Lansbury. Could he be a further possible felon? Whoever the murderer is, and I'm not telling, Fenech is the star and quite rightly her character is central throughout (Producer Luciano Martino and Fenech were an item at the time). She is not only a sublime actress that oozes a genuine charisma, but alongside Rosalba Neri, I would say she is one of the faces of giallo. When the tension is ratcheted up toward the end, there's genuine concern for her. My favourite giallo featuring Fenech continues to be 'The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971)', but 'The Case of the Bloody Iris' occasionally approaches a similar standard.

She Sure Is MY Type!!!

[ferbs54 · 7/10 · 5 November 2007]

"The Case of the Bloody Iris" (1971) stars giallo's "Golden Couple," Edwige Fenech and George Hilton, who had recently appeared together in the Sergio Martino masterpiece "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" (1970) and would soon costar in Martino's giallo/Black Mass hybrid "All the Colors of the Dark" (1972). The two make a handsome couple, to put it mildly; indeed, they almost make Grace Kelly and Cary Grant in 1955's "To Catch a Thief" look dowdy! The story here concerns a whacko who's been killing the female residents of the luxury high-rise building where fashion models Edwige and her roommate have just moved. This giallo nutzo shows some imagination, however, and doesn't just depend on a straight-edged blade to do his work; he also drowns his victims in a bathtub and scalds them with hot steam! Many suspects are offered to the viewer: an old lady who loves horror stories, her burnt-faced son, the lesbian next door, her violin-playing dad, Hilton himself (the architect of the high-rise), Edwige's stalker ex-hubby, et al. I amazed myself this time by nailing the culprit halfway through, and I usually stink at these guessing games. Anyway, director Giuliano Carnimeo has shot his film in a fairly straightforward manner, with little of Martino's flashy "stylistics," and composer Bruno Nicolai's theme music is as hummable as can be. All in all, a fun giallo, if nothing great, that is hindered here by some pretty poor dubbing (subtitles would've been so much more preferable!). But Edwige...OMG! I've seen her in five films lately, and still can't quite believe how extraordinarily beautiful she is. My fellow men, you owe it to yourselves to see this spectacular Eurobabe at least once in your lifetime. Then you'll understand why I laughed out loud when one of the characters in this film tells her that she's not his type!

A whole lot of fun for giallo fans!

[martang66 · 7/10 · 26 May 2006]

I have just watched this and I enjoyed it immensely. I normally hate dubbed films but, while I would like to see a subtitled version, the person who did the dubbing seems to have had such fun with it and "got" all the characters so well that it doesn't matter! Well shot, lots of sexy scenes and many breast shots, along with a surprise killer revelation. The acting is of a surprisingly high standard, although this may be down to the dubbing again (God love the person who wrote it!). I'd love to find out how much the dialogue changed in translation, but until I can track down an Italian version I'm stuck! It may not be scary, and it may lack the brilliant characterisation of giallos like Profondo Rosso, but nonetheless this Case is one that is well worth opening up!

"Arrgh! I'm a ghost!" *smack*

[Bezenby · 9/10 · 23 April 2009]

Out of all the gialli I own, the Case of the Bloody Iris is the most fun to watch. It has a healthy dose of humour, great atmosphere, beautiful euro-babes, and a tight plot. It's also extremely funky and stylish. A winner all the way.

Edwige Fenech, one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous women ever to grace the screen, plays Jennifer, a model who moves into an apartment with her crazy model buddy. The problem is, someone in the building has a habit of killing models, and Jennifer and her pal are next up for a stabbing.

You've got the classic giallo list of suspects, most of which spend their time drooling over Edwige's body: the lesbian neighbour and her father, the old lady and her dark secret, the landlord and his fear of blood, Edwige's ex-husband the cult leader. Plenty of inappropriate sexual advances follow, sometimes under the craziest of circumstances.

Throw in a couple of bumbling cops, some topless wrestling involving the also-gorgeous Carla Berle (Torso, Bronx Warriors), and the dizziest sidekick ever to appear in a giallo, and you've got a great movie right there. Edwige, Carla and some other girls ain't too shy about showing off their assets either, if you know what I'm saying.

Top marks go to Edwige's roommate, who has the best dialogue throughout the entire movie. She's possible my favourite Giallo character ever, what with her non-chalant attitude to everything. At one point she recreates on of the murders with ditsy glee - jumping out of a bath in the scud and shouting "I'm a ghost!", which earns her a seventies slap in the gub.

Get it now - Academic, over serious, chin-strokers with no sense of irony need not apply.

Not as bad as expected...

[macabro357 · 6/10 · 27 May 2003]

(aka: THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS)

*Spoiler attached*

A series of women are murdered in a 20 story high-rise apartment building.

Starts off with a young woman stabbed to death in an elevator for no apparent reason. (not a bad blood scene, btw) When the elevator gets to the top floor and some other passengers get on, they don't seem too upset at the sight they see of the dead woman lying on the floor. Unreal...

Then a black woman is then murdered (in the same apt. building) in her own bathtub, by drowning. The aftereffects of seeing her blank stare underwater look pretty cool.

I like the pop-art deco of the bar-casino where the black model wrestles customers for three minutes at a time. Real wild looking with funny globes on the wall and cylinders hanging from the ceiling. Talk about 1972... Nice touch.

Then George Hilton's girlfriend Jennifer, moves into the same apartment and the main characters of the film get involved. Of course Hilton's girlfriend's ex-husband, a leader of a free-love cult, is stalking her as well in order to confuse the audience even more.

We also find out that George can't stand the sight of blood. Yeah, right...

Then Jennifer's roommate is stabbed on a crowded public street with Hilton standing nearby look disinterested. More unreal... The crowd now gathers around after the fact, blaming George who then runs away when the detective who is tailing him, starts to run after him.

We also find out about the horribly scarred son of the woman who lives next -door. He too, becomes a suspect. Not a bad make-up job. Then the lesbian named Sheila, who down the hall with her professor father, is also murdered in the basement steam room. She is scalded to death in a cool scene.

**The question is; why did the professor kill his own daughter? If he was so obsessed at protecting her, then why harm her. Yeah we know he's mad, but it seemed tacked on for some ridiculous reasons known only to the director, Giuliano Carnimeo.**

Nice cool scene of the professor's body falling down empty space between the staircases. Bang...bang...plop...thunk...

The Anchor Bay DVD is up to it's usual high standards although there is some film damage due to what looks like a restored scene of Jennifer walking outside the high rise and seeing a crimpled up orchid lying on the ground.

6 out of 10 for keeping me somewhat entertained. It's not bad. Not bad at all.

How To Solve a Headcase

[radiobirdma · 3/10 · 5 May 2016]

The more so-called "giallos" you watch, the harder you feel the mighty power of Uncle Yawn – it's Groundhog Day again, with scalpel-wielding headcases, slapped faces, catholic chicks in heat, boobs alert, and another cheeeeesy screenplay fusing the spirit of an imbecile Hercule Poirot with the advanced aesthetics of the busty clip. This time two super-bimbos rent a flat in an apartment complex where a psycho killer hunts ... yo, man, super-bimbos! And the mounting tension indeed leads to some equally puzzling and disturbing questions: Why does Uruguayan coat-tree George Hilton always look like he flew in from Stepford? Was Bruno Nicolai's flatulent jingling originally composed for a Walmart Italia commercial? Did scriptwriter Ernesto Gastaldi really laugh so maniacally all the way to the bank? And why the heck is that pale brunette from the bunny dept. in every second fiasco, pardon me, giallo? Now, folks, that's a damn lot of red herrings.

Excellent trashy fun, one of the best giallos around

[hippiedj · 9/10 · 20 July 2002]

Released on DVD in 2002 as THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS, at the time of this review it was only to be obtained as part of Anchor Bay's DVD set "The Giallo Collection." In 2008 it was re-issued on DVD by Blue Underground.

The Italian title translates to What Are Those Strange Drops Of Blood Doing On Jennifer's Body? and has also been known as Erotic Blue. While the film lists "Anthony Ascott" as the director, it is actually Guiliano Carnimeo. For giallo enthusiasts, it is written by Ernesto Gastaldi, who also wrote the classic THE WHIP AND THE BODY and the excessively trashy breast fest TORSO (Torso is disturbing as I found the "get a woman naked right before she's killed" theme rather perverted).

This film is a prime example of the giallo genre and is a must-see. It is very much worth purchasing the entire set mentioned, and when one sees The Case Of The Bloody Iris you'll be hooked. Yes, it's trashy and filled with sex and violence, but it is so incredibly well done that any gripes are easily forgotten. I've become so accustomed to giallos and figuring out mysteries quickly, but this film manages to keep every character an equal-opportunity killer. It has a great collection of characters with dark secrets and the pace of the film NEVER lags! I was so amazed that as soon as the film starts it maintains a tense level. The suspense and murders are spread out evenly, and everything moves so well that you really don't have much time to think very hard about who the killer is and why.

Edwige Fenech stars as a model that, along with a friend, move into an apartment that was inhabited by a performer who was murdered. Add to that an assortment of shady neighbours like an elderly lady hiding her disfigured son, a lecherous lesbian and her violin-playing father, and throw in an architect interested in Edwige, Edwige's stalker "husband" with ties to a sex cult, and a zealous cop, WOW! It sounds outrageous and it is, but it's all put together so well that even thirty years later this film still packs a punch and can keep you guessing. It has a timeless feel to it as well, except for those groovy big sideburns on the men!

A minor technical note: the trailer on the DVD shows a difference from it and the film. The trailer shows a close-up of the first victim's throat being cut, but the film shows a different perspective. Whether this is another case of alternate takes not making the final cut or not is still a mystery as well. Anchor Bay's claim to fame is that they have restored the film to it's complete uncut form. In any case, THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS is a MUST for those hankerin' for a great mystery and for giallo collectors. There's a great feeling of satisfaction from seeing a film like this and obtaining it.

Fun and stylish if slightly flawed Giallo

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 17 January 2017]

Moving into a new apartment building, a pair of models find themselves becoming the object of a strange killer searching the tenants of the building and as the rampage continues they find themselves at the center of the killers' target and must try to stop him before they kill again.

This was quite an intriguing and enjoyable enough Giallo. Like the majority of the films in the genre, this one really gets quite a lot to like here from the opening half which definitely starts off with the typical introduction of the suspects for the case. As much of the opening act is concerned with the strained relationship with the ex-husband detailing flashbacks to their kinky sex-life with orgies and free-love galore modeled around the few select stalking scenes within the apartment and the concurrent investigation that brings the girls into the building makes for a great set-up in this particular genre. Due to the different photography sessions and the murders usually conducted in the bathrooms the nudity present as well certainly helps move this one along rather nicely with these more traditional elements introduced in the police officer investigating the crimes on the outskirts of their lives. Those are just as much fun with the different strikes coming off incredibly well, with the opening murder in the elevator being effective and startling at the beginning of the film, an attack in a victim's darkened apartment knowing there's somebody in there with them is quite effective while the stand-out sequence of an attack in the middle of a crowded shopping center while passersby are so wrapped up in their own lives they fail to notice the death in the first place is a real show-stopper. Later scenes of the stalking in the cars' junkyard which turns into the big battle in the abandoned factory that's really enjoyable, while the main confrontation at the end which uses the twist-ending and brawl with the killer that's rather nice and enjoyable, ending this one a fine note. While these make for a nice enough Giallo, it does have a few flaws to it. The main issue is the fact that the film decides to pile on a series of red-herrings into the plot that it really doesn't make much sense at all. Simply trying to get as many plot-points as this one maneuvers through into action manages to downplay the action into a crawl for a long stretch of time trying to get everything out to set-up it's red herrings moving the story along. It really doesn't generate the kind of proper structure here maintaining all these obscure characters and useless tangents looking at the other features that manage to hold the middle section into a veritable loop of rather bland moments which really slows it down, quite the opposite of what's really needed at that point in the film. Likewise, the other facet of this manifests itself in the fact that the killer is quite easy to guess and really doesn't come as that much of a surprise when it's revealed, leading to a slightly unimpressive finale because all the time has been spent on these other areas that it just feels quite lackluster. These here are the film's issues.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Language and mild sexual scenes.

Boring, homophobic, stupid and sexist

[preppy-3 · 4/10 · 3 March 2008]

Lousy Italian giallo. It starts off with a bang when a woman is stabbed to death within the first 5 minutes! In the same building another woman is later drowned in her tub. Two models--Jennifer (Edwige Fenech) and Marilyn (Paolo Quattrini)--get the apartment of the murdered woman dirt cheap. But it seems the killer is after THEM also.

It may sound interesting but it isn't. For starters the dubbing in this is pretty poor. Lousy music score too. After the first two murders the film quickly becomes boring with at least five sequences of people walking slowly around dark apartments or basements. I was actually fast forwarding through most of that by the end. The storyline gets confusing and there's tons of continuity errors left and right (I was particularly annoyed when one character is stabbed in broad daylight on a crowded street--and no one notices!). There's also homophobia here--a very vicious gay stereotype of a photographer is shown and the one lesbian character is portrayed as predatory. There's the expected gratuitous female nudity and a REAL stupid ending which just threw revelations at you that were more than a little hard to swallow. The acting is real lousy (but the dubbing may be the problem for this). Fenech is a beautiful woman but no actress. George Hilton as her boyfriend was even worse. Look at his "acting" when his fear of blood pops up. To make matters worse the killings aren't even that bloody! Flatly directed too. Boring and stupid Italian giallo. It treats the audience like a bunch of idiots. Avoid.