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Scorpion With Two Tails
[Mya Communications]
1982; color
Directed by: Sergio Martino
Starring: Elvire Audray, Paolo Malco, Claudio Cassinelli, Van Johnson & John Saxon
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The Scorpion With Two Tails is a later effort from Sergio Martino, and one that doesn't quite live up to the expectations I had considering his superior previous efforts in the genre like The Case Of The Scorpion's Tail, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh and Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key. (All of which were made 8-10 years prior; before he got into sex comedies and cannibal movies.) After John Saxon gets his neck snapped inside the first 15 minutes, his wife, who was on the phone with him when he was killed, flies from New York to Italy with one of her hubby's fellow archeologist pals to figure out why anyone would want to kill him. Apparently he'd just discovered a very important Etruscan tomb - "more important than Tutankhaman" - but had found something else that resulted in his untimely demise. Her father, a rich art patron played by Van Johnson, financially backed the undertaking, but when all of the crates of artifacts are opened upon on their delivery in NYC he finds something is missing. Something important enough to warrant him making a trip to Italy as well. Turns out dear old dad is a big time heroin smuggler and what was missing is the $700 million worth of dope Saxon had stumbled onto. As the needlessly confusing story continues to unfold, more and more people end up being found with their heads spun around backwards, and despite the usual array of red herrings thrown into the mix it was almost too easy to discern who the killer was within a few seconds of his first appearance onscreen. Weaving together a plot that combines ancient Etruscan mythology (the translation of the film's original Italian title is Murder In The Etruscan Cemetery), archeology, a quasi-paranormally sensitive woman who turns out to be the heroine, and the modern day pursuit of international heroin smuggling, Martino offers up a fairly original plotline but by the time the final half-hour rolls around everything gets overly long in the tooth. Despite all that it's still a pretty good movie; I'd watch it again.
—Giallo Biafra
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