Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer? (1972) Online

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.

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!

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.

"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! (**)

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.

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.

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.

Although I have a great love for Italian genre movies, I must confess that giallos are far from my first choice. Still, I have seen a number of them, some of them that pleased me enough that I know what makes a good giallo. "The Case Of The Bloody Iris" (a.k.a. "What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing on Jennifer's Body?"), unfortunately, is not a good giallo. It starts off promising, with two murders in a short amount of time, plus a real feeling of strangeness, from the offbeat characters to the direction. However, after this promising start the movie slowly falls apart. There are a bunch of really obvious red herrings, and the movie soon becomes a real slow slog. There are a few minor distractions along the way - occasional creepiness, some sleaze - but too little to make the viewer do anything but fall asleep. If you are in the mood for a good giallo, watch "The Bloodstained Shadow" or "Strip Nude For Your Killer" instead.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"The Case of the Bloody Iris" (as it has been redubbed for DVD) is, without a doubt, one of the finest gialli to come out of Italy during the subgenre's heyday in the early 1970s. It's tense, it's funny, and it's deliriously inspired, the type of film that could almost pass for a work by genre masters Dario Argento or Mario Bava.

Jennifer (Eurohorror fave Edwige Fenech) is Jennifer, a beautiful model who moves into a luxury highrise shortly after its previous tenant had been brutally murdered. Soon enough, she encounters a masked man creeping into her room at night; her estranged husband's possessiveness turns violent; she finds herself falling in love with the most peculiar landlord....and, of course, the bodies start piling up.

'Bloody Iris' is a most unusual giallo in that it was released in 1971, at the peak of the genre's Italian output, and yet it always seems so supremely self-conscious. The traditional giallo elements (the gloved killer, the violent flashbacks, the sexual taboos) are all present here, but not necessarily in the manner you'll usually find them. It is as though director Giuliano Carnimeo put all the cliches into a blender and let the screenplay mix itself up...meaning that seasoned fans of this type of film will have a much more difficult time guessing the killer's identity, and thus a much more satisfying time watching the film. As some one who has seen more of these movies in recent years than I would care to count, I was shocked to find that I was WAY off on figuring out the killer OR the motive. The red herrings are all so subtle and the colorful supporting characters (usually fertile ground for the killer in these movies) so expertly presented that the viewer never feels manipulated by the director. It's anyone's guess as to who is killing and why, and it makes the experience all the most exciting.

Furthermore, the film has more going for it than merely a good mystery. The acting is surprisingly solid throughout, especially Edwige Fenech, who is every bit as goregous and innately watchable as you've heard. Bruno Nicolai's score is appropriately minimalist while being beautiful and often creepy, and at least one piece certainly seems to have influenced music played in a similar scene in "Halloween"...astute fans should pick up on this towards the end of the film, when Jennifer sneaks into a neighbor's apartment... There is a fair amount of humor throughout the film, most of which is, surprisingly, quite effective (!), and several of the suspense sequences are smashingly successful; you don't have to be easily scared to find yourself hanging off the edge of your seat during several of the film's most memorable set pieces. Speaking of which, fans may want to note that some of the film's highlights actually predate (and dare I say influenced?) similar bits in such Dario Argento classics as "Deep Red" and particularly "Tenebre". Although those two gems are, ultimately, superior films, 'Iris' does deserve credit for influencing later efforts of the man who essentially defined the genre in the first place.

Finally, I should close my review by offering typical kudos to Anchor Bay Entertainment for yet another stalwart DVD release. Can they do wrong? Probably, but I have yet to find any concrete proof myself! Simply put, their transfer of this film is out of this world. Taken from what seems to be an immaculate print of the film (or, perhaps more likely, the original negative!), the gorgeous job they have done made it hard to pay attention to what was going on onscreen during several sequences. Stelvio Massi's gorgeous photography looks stunning on this DVD, boasting a unique and highly appealing array of pastel colors and bright lighting; an unusual choice for a thriller, but a smashing choice all the same. And as Anchor Bay has been kind enough to present the film in its original 2.35:1 scope ratio, fans can fully appreciate director Carnimeo's masterful use of the widescreen lens. I don't know of any other thrillers he has directed, but if this is his only contribution to the genre, then it is a damn shame...with a few more titles under his belt, he could easily have wrestled his way onto the same shelf as Argento and Bava.

All in all, this is a terrific, wonderfully inspired giallo that any fan of Italian thrillers will want in their collection.

My Grade: A-

• I've now seen this movie twice and I enjoyed it even more this time. It's a fairly standard, straightforward giallo - a series of murders in an apartment building committed by a gloved, black-cloaked figure. There are no shortage of suspects and the police are unable to do much other than find stamps for their collection (yes, that's right - stamps). But there are three things that really make The Case of the Bloody Iris stand out to me:

1. Cast - Any giallo with both George Hilton and Edwige Fenech is going to be a winner as far as I'm concerned. Hell, anything with Edwige is a "must see" for me.

2. Murder scenes - Each murder scene is very well handled. There's even one that takes place on busy sidewalk that is so well done that it seemed plausible to me.

3. The Score - I think Bruno Nicolai's score is one of the best I've heard. I'm especially fond of the main title music. So much so that I've burned it to a CD (with some music from 5 Dolls for an August Moon, Deep Red, and others) and listen to all the time on my way to and from work.

• The Case of the Bloody Iris is part of Anchor Bay's The Giallo Collection. While I enjoyed some more than others, none of the four movies was what I consider bad.

I've seen quite many Italian giallo-horror movies by now and, not reluctantly, I would call "What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing On Jennifer's Body?" the ideal prototype to illustrate what exactly are the marvelous aspects for which this unique sub genre stands. This movie has them all: beautiful women (preferably large-eyed fashion models or strippers) are brutally stabbed to death by a masked killer whose motive remains a big mystery until the very last minutes of the movie. Indispensable also are the many eccentric characters, going from dumb coppers to a large collection of uncanny suspects, beautiful music, sleaze and nudity (although stylish at all times) and imaginative camera-work. As top of the bill, and this really is what makes this gem a truly representative giallo for me, the amount of red herrings is just enough to constantly trick you without the risk of making you lose your interest for the actual revelation of the killer's identity. Too often it happens that one silly twist too many turns an initially compelling whodunit-mystery into a ludicrous comedy and that's certainly not the case here! The drop-dead-gorgeous Edwige Fenech (also a regular Sergio Martino muse) stars as the petrified new tenant of an apartment where a black stripper violently got murdered. She becomes the new target of the relentless killer but she doesn't receive much help from anyone around her. Her brainless roommate Marilyn laughs her fear away and the police inspector in charge of the investigation cares more about finding rare postal stamps for his collection! Just to make things more complicated: all the other people living in the building complex behave strangely and distant, Jennifer's ex-husband returns to stalk her and she can't yet trust her new boyfriend Andrea enough. The screenplay for this film was written by the true Italian horror prodigy Ernesto Gastaldi (just click his name and browse through the gigantic list of horror beauties this man delivered) and, even though he sometimes borrows ideas from his own previous work, his script is very original and genuinely shocking. The building complex makes a great setting with its ideal filming perspectives and the murders are intriguingly sadistic. Some of Italy's finest horror directors made unforgettable gialli movies, like Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, but there are numberless other highlights out there that are lesser known but equally unmissable. And this gem certainly is one of them.

This is not a great movie but it might be THE quintessential giallo. It is garish and highly-stylized--the director, Anthony Ascott, is no Bava or Argento (or even Sergio Martino) but he does a really decent job here. It stars Edwige Fenech (and her breasts) as another hysterical victim. It's also completely ridiculous--Fenech and her ditzy roommate move into an apartment where not only has the previous tenant been murdered, but so have several other women. There they are surrounded by the reddest possible herrings including a lesbian violinist, a comic-obsessed mutant who lives with his overly-protective mother, and the shady landlord (George Hilton)who quickly becomes Fenech's new beau. Fenech's weirdo ex-husband, who is apparently the leader of some strange 70's sex cult, is also lurking around. Yet the two women seem remarkably unconcerned. The badly-dubbed, sexpot roommate even plays a practical joke where she pretends to be drowned in the bathtub just like the apartment's previous murder victim!

I read somewhere that gialli were/are very popular with gays. With this movie, I could definitely see it. It's VERY campy. Fenech and her roommate are both models and I imagine gays would enjoy some of the ridiculous outfits they're wearing as much as straight guys will enjoy watching them strip out of them. On the other hand, some may find the ridiculously flamboyant photographer character and the sleazy lesbian a bit offensive. This movie is definitely sexist and perhaps a little racist (the bathtub murder victim is black), but its also an enjoyable antidote for the starchy political correctness of today's cinema. Besides, NOBODY could possibly take this movie too seriously.

I did have one problem though with the lurid Italian title--there is at no point any drops of blood on the body of Jennifer (Fenech). Believe me, you would see them if there were.

I'm a big fan of the Italian horror sub-genre, 'Giallo' and since 'The Case of the Bloody Iris' is generally considered to be one of the best films of it's type, my reasons for seeing it are obvious. To be honest, I don't agree with the notion that this is one of the best of the sub-genre. The story and intrigue are there in droves, but the movie is let down massively on the technical side. The acting is below par even for a euro-trash film, and this isn't helped by even more terrible dubbing and a script with certain lines that will make even the most hardened euro-trash fan's toes curl. This is topped off by a score that wouldn't be out of place as backing music to someone doing their weekly food shopping, and this is obviously not what you want in a horror film. The fact that the score is out of place is made even worse by the fact that the score is one of the most important ways of building atmosphere in any movie, but it's one of the things that Giallo has become famous for so it's very disappointing that this movie didn't put it to the best use like the best Giallo's do.

If you're still reading, you're probably thinking that I don't like this film, but that's not the case at all. Although it's extremely flawed, there is still much for the Giallo fan to like about this movie. Its story is intriguing and it will keep you on the edge of your seat, although it is a little slow to get going. I am very much of the opinion that story is the most important aspect of a film, so that's lucky here. The film does deliver on the death front, which is a front that's very important for a Giallo. Really, the deaths could and should have been a bit more imaginative, but in a film that sees a woman mauled by hot steam, I'm not complaining. The mystery side of the film is well set up, and many suspects are presented to the audience, which allows us to think about who it is that's doing the murders. The red herrings that are thrown in are sometimes a little too obvious and therefore don't always work, but I only guessed the killer moments before they were revealed; so I guess it's safe to say that the movie does the suspect deal well.

Overall, this film is definitely recommended to the fan of Giallo, but I don't think it's safe to say that this is one of the best in a sub-genre that contains classics such as 'Profondo Rosso', 'Blood and Black Lace', 'What Have They Done to Solange?', 'Tenebre' and many more.

"Perche Quelle Strane Gocce di Sangue Sul Corpo di Jennifer?" is a typical cool giallo of the early 1970's with some unpleasant murder scenes and a surprising revelation of the killer at the end.Beautiful Edwige Fenech plays a model who moves into the apartment of a slain colleague and soon fears that she is next on the killer's list.The killings are pretty vicious-for example one victim is stabbed in the stomach and has her throat slashed.There is also a nice amount of sleaze and nudity to satisfy fans of Italian cult cinema.Highly recommended,especially if you're a fan of Italian giallos!

Giuliano Carnimeo's "What Are Those Strange Drops Of Blood Doing On Jennifer's Body? (this has got to be one of the most elaborate titles used in a genre ridden with flamboyant, wordy titles, that border on daffiness!) is one of my favourite Giallo films of all time. It's really a prototype Giallo in a lot of ways. First it combines genre regulars George Hilton and Edwige Fenech, who'd appeared previously in Sergio Martino's "Next!/ The Strange Vice Of Madam Wardh" (yet another wonderfully eccentric title!) , and "They're Coming To Get You/ All The Colors Of Darkness/ Day Of The Maniac", and contains more red herrings then you can shake a stick at. The movie boasts a wonderful lush score by genre regular composer Bruno Nicolai (who'd assisted Ennio Morricone in quite a few of his musical endeavors as well) and great cinemagraphic imagery bordering on surreal. The plot has the usual violence, drug and sexual debauchery that Italian cinema loves to exploit, with the black gloved assassin carrying out his moral dementia on the vice ridden young ladies. Such tortuous acts as repeatedly stabbing a young lady in an elevator, drowning another in a bath tub, and even steaming one to death, are commited as acts of vengence on an immoral society (a typical genre theme). The story concerns two models, Jennifer Osterman (Edwige Fenech) and Marilyn (Paola Quattrini) who meet building architect Andrea Antinori (George Hilton) and move into an apartment he designed. The newly available apartment has a sinister history though. Days before they moved in, an exotic dancer was murdered in the apartment (she herself having discovered the body of a dead prostitute in an elevator days before) and it seems that their newfound architect friend is the police's biggest suspect. Despite the suspicions surrounding Andrea, Jennifer begins an affair with him. Because of the beginning affair, she is harassed by an ex-boyfriend, who she use to engage in drug (heroin) induced orgies with. To give anymore away, would cheat the reader from discovering (and trying to piece together) this most convoluted puzzle of a film. Trying to figure out who the murderer is in a Giallo, is one of the genres many pleasures (my girlfriend got a kick out of solving this one before it's conclusion!). Filled with enough nudity that can be done in 94 minutes, this film contains one of the genre's biggest (and most beautiful) assets...Edwige Fenech! She is amazing! It's really a shame more people in America have no idea who she is! And of course George Hilton is the dependable shady rogue as always.

This is one of my favourite Giallos and a pure Euro-Trash masterpiece! Highly recommended!!!!

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.

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS begins w/ the murder of a woman on an elevator by a masked, rubber glove-wearing killer. Yep, we're in giallo country! Enter model, Jennifer Lansbury (Edwige Feneche), who has left a -very groovy- cult, led by a mad zealot named Adam (Ben Carra). Adam believes that no one, especially Jennifer, can ever leave his group of naked, flowery followers. Meanwhile, another murder occurs in the same building as the first, and the police are on the case. Architect, Andrea Antinori (George Hilton) discovers the sudden apartment vacancy and figures it would be perfect for Jennifer and her modeling friend, Marilyn (Paola Quattrini). Unsurprisingly, it's not long before Jennifer is stalked by the creepy killer. Who is this person? What do they have against the women living in this building? IRIS is another great giallo from their heyday. The finale is genuinely satisfying!...

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.

Sweet and beautiful young model Jennifer Lansbury (a winning performance by the strikingly gorgeous Edwige Fenech) moves into a swanky apartment where a previous fetching female tenant was brutally murdered. Pretty soon Jennifer is being stalked by the mysterious killer. Propable suspects include predatory lesbian neighbor Sheila Heindricks (lovely Annabella Incontrera), Jennifer's possessive ex-husband (creepy Ben Carra), a weird old lady with a deformed son, and even suave, handsome architect Andrea Barto (a solid turn by George Hilton), who suffers from a severe blood phobia. Director Giuliano Carnimeo and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi concoct an engrossing thriller that unfolds at a steady pace, delivers a pleasing plenitude of tantalizing red herrings, tasty female nudity, and a few bravura brutal and shocking murder set pieces (the single most startling murder occurs on a crowded street in broad daylight!), and tops things off with a deliciously sly sense of playful humor (for example, the ineffectual cops on the case are more interested in rare expansive stamps than they are in catching the killer!). Fenech and Hilton are both excellent in the leads; they receive fine support from Paola Quattrini as Jennifer's ditsy airhead pal Marilyn Ricci, Giampiero Albertini as the feckless Commissioner Enci, Franco Agostini as Enci's equally inept assistant Redi, Oreste Lionello as effeminate homosexual photographer Arthur, George Rigaud as the friendly Professor Isaacs, and Carla Brait as brash, formidable nightclub stripper Mizar Harrington (Mizar's fierce fight with a cocky macho jerk is an absolute hoot!). Stelvio Massi's fluid and dynamic cinematography boasts a lot of great crazy tilted camera angles. Bruno Nicolai's funky, yet elegant score likewise does the trick. Director Carnimeo's smooth style and infectious verve keep the proceedings lively and entertaining throughout. Well worth watching for giallo fans.

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.