The Case of the Scorpion's Tail

A large insurance payout goes to the widow of a man killed in a plane crash. She travels to Athens to collect it. The investigator sent by the insurance company is on the same flight. Once the money is paid, the killings begin, and the list of suspects does not shorten but grows. The subject is not detection but the Italian giallo itself. Gloved killer, razor, black coat, an identity hidden by camera angle: all of it is here and the film handles the template expertly. The form is sharp: colour, fast cutting, and shots deliberately held long in the violence. Bruno Nicolai's score is among the most cited in the genre. Sergio Martino was one of the directors making giallo after giallo in the early seventies, and this is counted among the best of them. The Greek sections were shot in and around Athens. The revelation of the killer is unusually fair by the habits of the genre: the clues really are left inside the film. George Hilton plays the investigator, Anita Strindberg the journalist and Alberto de Mendoza the policeman. Who it is for: viewers who like giallo and seventies Italian thrillers. Who it is not for: anyone expecting realistic investigation; the logic belongs to the genre and the characters are thinly drawn.