A DRAGONFLY FOR EACH CORPSE (1973/released 1975)

Director: León Klimovsky

Writer: Jacinto Molina (Paul Naschy), Ricardo Muñoz Suay

Producers: Jose A. Perez Giner, Ricardo Sanz

Cast: Paul Naschy, Erika Blanc, Maria Kosti, Ãngel Aranda, Susana Mayo, Ricardo Merino, Eduardo Calvo, Ramón Centenero, Mariano Vidal Molina, Anne Marie, José Canalejas, Beni Deus, Cesar De Barona, Maria Vidal, Ingrid Rabel, Frances O’Flynn, Javier de Rivera, Juan Madrigal, Rafael Albaicin, Luis Alonso, Antonio Mayans, Ernesto Vañes, Juan Cazalilla

In Milan, Italy, a serial killer is murdering people that the killer considers unclean and sinful. A plastic dragonfly is left on each of the killer’s victims. Police Inspector Paolo Scaporella (Paul Naschy) is on the case, which becomes personal as the killer taunts Scaporella with notes and as some of the detective’s friends also become victims.

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Spain’s genre film Renaissance man and horror film champion, Paul Naschy, wrote and starred in this film with the perfect giallo-styled title of A Dragonfly for Each Corpse. He teamed with his frequent horror film director León Klimovsky to make a movie almost as offbeat as Naschy’s earlier giallo-inspired effort, The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1974). I suppose the fact that this movie is a Spanish-Italian co-production and that it is set in Italy ought to qualify it as a giallo. However, the purists would argue that to be a true giallo the movie must be a purely Italian production. I think the real reason that A Dragonfly for Each Corpse is hard to classify as a true giallo is that it doesn’t show even a single bottle of J&B Scotch.

Besides a great animal-themed title (à la Italian director Dario Argento’s first three gialli), this film has many giallo trademarks. These include the mystery being set in Italy, a black-gloved killer, flashy fashions, successful and decadent professionals with secrets, infidelity, sexual perversity, and a high body count.

Although this movie has a very high body count, the kills are often pretty perfunctory. They are occasionally bloody, but usually not teased out to more suspenseful lengths like a lot of giallo movie murders. The plot is not too convoluted and plays fair with the audience, but there are a couple of illogical instances of characters not communicating what they know in the most direct fashion. Of course, that only serves to prolong the mystery.

One great asset this movie has is the main couple of Naschy, as Inspector Paolo Scaporella, and the radiant redhead Erika Blanc, as his wife Silvana. They are seemingly mismatched but compliment each other perfectly. Paolo is blunt and intense, while Silvana is a bright beauty that can soften some of his hard edges. It is refreshing to see a happily married couple as the protagonists in a giallo or near-giallo.

The other greatest asset that this or any other film could hope for is the magnificent presence of Anne Marie. She gives new meaning to the term showstopper as a stripper that gets pimped out to perform private perversions after hours. No other coffin ever had it so good (except Erika Blanc’s in 1971’s The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave, but that is another kink from another film for another review by this obsessive reprobate).

A major difference here from most giallo films is that the police are neither incompetent nor inconsequential to the story and its outcome. The hero here is a police inspector. This story may also be influenced by poliziotteschi, the Italian police thriller film genre that was also very popular at this time. Yet, like many gialli, it is a creative or artistic person who intuits the killer’s identity.

As in many giallo films, there are sexual norms crossed by several characters, which attracts the puritanical wrath of the killer. Here we also have the mucho macho Inspector Scaporella accompanied on some inquiries by his gay, fashion designer friend, Vittorio (Ramón Centenaro). There is never a single remark, snide or otherwise, concerning Vittorio’s homosexuality. This seems like a very progressive bit of nonchalance for a film of this time.

A Dragonfly for Each Corpse is a pleasant surprise for longtime Paul Naschy film fans. There are many differences for Naschy’s character in this film from what he usually wrote for himself. He often treats himself to couplings with more than one woman in his films, yet here he is faithful to his devoted wife. Considering that the enchanting Erika Blanc portrays this wife, it is a wise choice, though the blonde prostitute Ornella (played by a dazzling and unknown actress) who offers her services to him would probably be indulged in by Naschy’s character in any other film. It is just one more reason we still respect this violence-prone, cigar-chewing cop who wears very loud ties. Naschy’s Inspector Scaporella is so honest and genuine that he does not even wear a toupee.

A Dragonfly for Each Corpse is a Paul Naschy film with a change-of-pace characterization for him, great theme music, a mystery killer that tallies up a high body count, and three of the most magnificent Euro-film beauties ever. That’s all that this sleazy sleuth craves in his Euro-horror film investigations. I just wish I could solve the mystery of who played Ornella.

THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (1971)

Director: Emilio P. Miraglia

Writers: Fabio Pittorru, Massimo Felisatti, Emilio P. Miraglia

Producer: Antonio Sarno

Cast: Anthony Steffen, Marina Malfatti, Enzo Tarascio, Erika Blanc, Maria Teresa Toffano, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Joan C. Davis, Roberto Maldera, Umberto Raho, Paola Natale, Ettore Bevilacqua, Brizio Montinaro 

Widower Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) is obsessed by the memory of his late wife Evelyn (Paola Natale). She had been unfaithful to him before she died during childbirth trying to give him an heir. A mix of grief, guilt, and anger over Evelyn caused Alan to have a mental breakdown. Once released from the psychiatric ward, Alan picks up redheaded prostitutes that remind him of Evelyn. He brings them back to his rundown country estate to abuse and kill them. Alan’s deadly Evelyn obsession seems to be brought under control once he meets and impulsively marries Gladys (Marina Malfatti). However, strange manifestations of Evelyn continue to torment Alan and threaten his sanity again. 

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Lord Alan Cunningham isn’t the only one with a redhead obsession. I’ve been hopelessly infatuated with Euro-film goddess Erika Blanc ever since I first beheld her sexy playfulness as a stripper that pops out of a coffin in The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave.

Undoubtedly her routine has been an influence on the fine art of exotic dancing the world over. Decades later in a favorite strip club of mine, I thrilled to a voluptuous Amazon named Debbie. Her Halloween performance began with the same ritual of the dancer inside of a black coffin being carried out onto the dance floor from which she would emerge and begin to strut her stuff. Erika Blanc has continued to make the world a better place with just one striptease.

Believe it or not, The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave is about other stuff than Erika Blanc’s dancing. It's hard to believe that any director would be brave enough to even attempt to carry on with the rest of the film after showcasing such a spectacle that is bound to outshine all cinema achievements past, present, and future. However, Emilio P. Miraglia, being the professional that he is, does carry on and direct over an hour and a half of other scenes and situations, some of which don’t even involve Erika Blanc. I will now toast the man’s fortitude with a J&B Scotch cocktail before moving on… 

Like most giallo films, this one features characters of the upper class living posh lives full of parties and easy sex. They dress in flamboyant fashions, drive luxury automobiles, and live in swanky and comfortable quarters. However, the reason I can’t really root for any of the characters here is not due to wealth-envy; it is because we know next to nothing about anyone except Alan. This is the guy that is the closest thing to a sympathetic character in this flick, and he’s a psychotic sadist and murderer! 

This movie confounds expectations and keeps one wondering what are its genre goals. Madness and murder are introduced early on. The “hero” Lord Alan Cunningham tries to move on from his obsession that has institutionalized him once and now led to his current crimes. Just when he seems to be on the path to normalcy and happiness, things get even stranger when his dead wife Evelyn starts haunting him. 

All of the main characters in this movie are corrupt or ineffectual, and many of them are also victimized. Ultimately, this is a very pessimistic film that seems to be criticizing the morality of well-to-do people while showing how some of them never pay for their sins. 

Offbeat even by giallo standards, The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave keeps you guessing as only Euro-horror can. Its mix of the kinky, psychotic, murderous, gothic, and supernatural is made even more outré by the slippery morality at work here. Once the story is over, you will probably think that you must have missed something, but you haven’t; it simply refuses to give us the comfort of justice dealt to all the perpetrators of nastiness. That omission is almost as remarkable a distinction for this movie as Erika Blanc’s out-of-the-coffin striptease routine.