What looks to be an open and shut case, Lucio Fulci perverts a seemingly simple murder mystery with suspicious individuals and numerous red herrings in 1971’s intriguingly titled giallo, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin.
Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan) is a bored London housewife, married to her staid husband, Frank (Jean Sorel), mother to an ungrateful step-daughter, Joan (Ely Galleani), and daughter to a famed lawyer and big time politician, Edmund Brighton (Leo Genn). Haunted by her subconscious, she often dreams that she has found her way over to her wild-child next door neighbour’s pad, Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg) – a sex-kitten known for throwing massive drug-fuelled orgies. Fulci perfectly encapsulates the situation with an amazing transition – visions of her dreams cut to her husband using a nut-cracker at one of their typically boring dinners, as well as a nicely used split screen shot.
Divulging these lucid dreams to her psychiatrist, Dr. Kerr (George Rigaud), he attempts to steady her psyche (conversations of relationships, vice and other such things), a woman not fully in control. Further adding to her troubles, the next iteration of her dream finds their lesbian tryst ending with her wielding a paper knife, stabbing her neighbour to death – witnessed by a red-headed man and curly haired woman (both looking deadly white).
Soon discovering that her dream is, in fact, reality. . . Carol is immediately thought to be the prime suspect. But is this dream a reality? Does she have the second sight? Is it possible that someone who knows her troubled history is setting her up? Could all of this be bizarre happenstance? Might she have been a sleepwalking witness?
In come the police (usually rather dim-witted in your typical giallo), not good for someone struggling to figure out what is hallucination and what is reality. As if answering to this perceived notion of incompetence, Inspector Corvin (Stanley Baker) insults those working under him – the Head of the Crime Scene is a newbie of one week, prior to this, he was the Head of Filing. Tasked with solving the seemingly simple crime, nothing is as easy as it seems – plenty of evidence, but no motive, it is difficult to pin the crime on a helpless housewife (especially when her father is a famous politician and legal eagle).
Building Carol’s paranoia, Fulci deceptively makes certain that we are never quite sure of what she is seeing – though it seems like she has spotted the hippies from that night, they do not recognize her. . . is it actually them? Utilizing off-putting angles, fidgety camera work, first person perspectives, jarring zoom-ins, as well as intriguing close-ups, fear is at her back, while fate seems to be staring her right in the face.
As to the red herrings, clearly the mysterious hippies linger in our minds, while Brighton receives a phone call looking for money (blackmail anyone?), as to the crime scene – it has its own conundrums (wet footprints everywhere but close to the location of the murder; where did the fur coat, paper knife, white scarf and new boots adorning the corpses’ feet come from?). Then, there is a suspicious photographer, snapping photos from the shadows.
The characters do not help. . . could staid husband Frank actually be having an affair (something Brighton suspects)? Perhaps her all-knowing psychiatrist could be pulling the strings. Then, there is that snoopy step-daughter – who seems to have some connection to the hippie community. Lastly, there are two specific hippies, both always seeming too close for comfort (ominously popping up when Carol is alone).
Shot with an impressive amount of restraint by Fulci, a filmmaker who has always been known for gory excess and illogical storylines, he proves otherwise, and though there are a few moments of bloody and shocking violence, while the film’s opening cannot be called sexually tame, it is, for the most part, a story built through old fashioned suspense and thrills (sharp editing, excellent camera work, everything coming together to create a mesmerizing aura). Featuring stunning locales, perhaps the best set piece finds Carol being chased through Alexandra Palace by that illusive red-haired hippie, a gargantuan building with catacombs, a church-like great hall, rickety staircases, and dark, bat-filled rooms. . . built with a Hitchcockian flair, it somehow feels a bit like Vertigo – panicked claustrophobia in a location that has both giant rooms and tiny nooks, simply put, a sight to behold.
A tricksy giallo treat, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin has each character shedding their skin, masked figures impossible to read. Bringing it all together, composer icon Ennio Morricone develops a dynamic composition, a suspenseful score matching the action seen onscreen. Lastly, Fulci was almost sent to prison for two years (as there is a scene revolving around animal cruelty), so realistic was it that they thought actual animals were harmed during filming – crew members had to testify on his behalf, while special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi had to present the props used on set to prove everything was fake. So, uncover the fascinating finale by seeing A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, it will have you slipping up on all of the bloody surprises.
Can be watched in Italian with English subtitles or in dubbed English