A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)

Sadly Over-hyped

One of my all time favorites.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

In London, Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan) lives in a fancy building with her husband Frank Hammond (Jean Sorel) and her stepdaughter Joan Hammond (Edy Gall). Carol is the beloved daughter of the wealthy and prominent lawyer and politician Edmond Brighton (Leo Genn) and Frank is his partner in his office and has a love affair with Deborah (Silvia Monti). Carol's next door neighbor Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg) is a depraved woman that promotes parties with drugs and orgies. Carol has psychoanalyze sessions with Dr. Kerr (George Rigaud) and is intrigued with a nightmare where she stabs Julia to death three times with a couple watching the murder. When Julia is found dead in her apartment, the efficient Inspector Corvin (Stanley Baker) and his partner Sgt. Brandon (Alberto de Mendoza) are assigned to investigate. All the evidences point out to Carol, but was a dream or reality?"Una lucertola con la pelle di donna", a.k.a "A Lizard in Woman's Skin", is a great giallo by Lucio Fulci. The story is complex with many twists and there are many suspects that might have killed Julia Durer. The conclusion is exceptional, with Inspector Corvin soling the case. Florinda Bolkan has great performance and is extremely elegant. The graphic dog scene is impressive and was necessary to prove in court that it was the work of the special effects. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Uma Lagartixa num Corpo de Mulher" ("A Gecko in a Woman's Body")

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) *** 1/2 (out of 4) The mentally unstable Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan) lives a rather good life considering her father and husband are both quite rich. Carol is seeing a therapist because of feverish sexual dreams that she has been having about her more sexually liberated neighbor Julia (Anita Strindberg). One day Carol has a dream of where she brutally murders Julia and sure enough a few days later the police find her body. Was it all a dream or did Carol have something to do with it? A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN comes from director Lucio Fulci and if you're only familiar with his horror films then I think you're going to be in for quite a shock. Look, I really enjoy Fulci's films including some of the ones that he made in the later days of his career but at the same time there's no question that they were all "B" movies that depended on gore and a little style.This giallo is amazingly beautiful to look at and the style that the director captured here is something that I would think was the greatest of his career. The film starts off with a very acid-inspired sequence where the visuals and camera shots just leap off the screen at you. There's a lesbian scene between the women that is captured from about three different points of view and the way it's all edited together is something really great to look at.The film also benefits from a terrific score by Ennio Morricone, which perfectly captures the spirit and mood of the picture. The cinematography is exceptionally good as well. The performances are also another major plus with Bolkan easily stealing the picture as she gets across the mental breakdown of this woman. Her scenes of the sexual pleasure is also performed quite well. Jean Sorel, Stanley Baker and the rest of the cast are impressive as well.If you're expecting a lot of gore and non-stop violence then you certainly won't find it here. Whereas some of the director's later pictures had more gore than story or style, this one here is all about the story, the mental state of the lead character and all sorts of style. A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN is certainly one of the best looking giallos that you're ever going to see.

O goody, Anita Strindberg (Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Women in Cellblock 7, The Eroticist) is back as a wild partier next door to Carol (Florinda Bolkan). Carol keeps dreaming of being ravished by her neighbor.However she wants to be ravished, she is torn and kills her in the next dream. She is, of course, a suspect when her neighbor turns up dead the next day.Nice touch with the bats in the belfry. If Carol wasn't crazy before, she certainly would be after that scene.As is usual in Giallo, there is always a twist at the end when elaborate plans are revealed and mistakes found.Great Fulci thriller.

Lizard In A Woman's Skin is an interesting, and highly enjoyable alternative to the gialli of Dario Argento. Although this movie and Argento's seem to belong to the same genre, Lucio Fulci shows here a different style and approach to storytelling. In fact one could say this is less of a horror movie and more of a mystery. Whereas Argento doesn't tend to deviate from the slasher formula - omniscient, omnipresent killer bumps victims one by one until he's stopped - Fulci goes for something more complex.Carol (Florinda Balkan) has a dream about killing her promiscuous neighbor; but then she actually shows up dead, murdered in the exact same way Carol dreamed it. What is happening? Did she really dream it? Is she insane? Is she being framed? Fulci's misdirection is one of the best features of this movie. Usually in mystery movies the least likely suspect is the killer, but here there are at least three strong suspects, and Fulci manipulates the viewer into thinking that one or another is the killer at different times of the movie. And not until the end is the truth revealed.Watching this movie, I kept getting echos of older movies: George Cuckoor's Gaslight, Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound in that a dream has to be dismantled and analyzed to find the truth. Not to say it's derivative, since it's quite fresh in the way it's done; but at least it draws from a more interesting source than other gialli.There are some problems of editing and writing, the dialogue can be a bit simplistic, the characters underdeveloped. The movie has some weaknesses. But in comparison with other gialli, it's quite good. And boasts as good as cinematography as any in a Dario Argento movie and some very tense situations. There's a chase scene that starts in an underground chamber and ends in a rooftop that should leave any viewer on the edge of the seat.I'm very glad to have seen this movie and can't wait to watch more movies by Lucio Fulci.