Review: Scorpion with Two Tails

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Scorpion with Two Tails (aka The Scorpion with Two Tales;
Assassinio al cimitero etrusco; Lo Scorpione a Due Code)

Directed by Sergio Martino
Dania Film; Medusa Distribuzione; Publikampus;
Full Moon Entertainment; MVD Visual
98 minutes, 1982 / 2022
www.FullMoonDirect.com
www.MVDVisual.com

Not to be confused with director Sergio Martino’s The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail (La coda dello scorpione, 1971)  there are some Italian giallo genre that gets a chef’s kiss, when talking about the A-line of the likes of Dario Argento, Lucho Fulci, Mario Bava, etc. However, as with every genre, there is also the B-films, of which this is one. That is certainly not meant as an insult, but rather a statement of fact.

John Saxon

Like many giallo films of the period, they had some fading stars from the break-up of the movie studio system, in this case John Saxon (d. 2020) and Van Johnson (d. 2008). Saxon’s role is more of a cameo, and Johnson’s was probably no more than a couple of day’s work, and are in the film more for name recognition to sell for the Western audience. That being said, I do not know if their roles were longer in the television version (see below).

This film was popular in Italy under the name Murder in the Etruscan Cemetery, but I am willing to bet dollars to donuts (Lira to ciambella?) that they changed the name to the Scorpion one, even though it might make one from this side of the Pond go “henh?”, but I bet some marketing team believed that Americans are not educated enough to look beyond their own borders, and figure out the meaning of “Etruscan.”

Etruria is an area of Italy when it was a group of Nation States, that is on the west coast about halfway down the “boot,” across from the island of Corsica. They had their own language and rituals.

Elvire Audray

Joan (Elvire Audray, who looks like Julia Duffy during her “Designing Women” years, d. 2000 at age 40) is a psychic who has a dream her archeologist husband, Arthur (Saxon), who studies Etruscan history, will fittingly be murdered in an ancient Etruscan death rite. Of course, unlike real life but prominent in Italian giallo, she has the shining, as it were. And being a giallo, some of those visions include maggots. De rigueur.

I was bemused when one of the opening shots was of Joan walking across Fifth Avenue in New York, with St. Patrick’s Cathedral behind her; I do get the idea: standard religion  (relatively modern) vs. fringe religion (then). It is pretty common for Italian giallos to be shot somewhat in New York, such as Fulci’s The New York Ripper (1982; quack-quack). It was nostalgic to see not only the World Trade Center, but also 5 WTC, the building where I worked for a number of years around the time this was shot. Many other scenes were filmed in Italy, deep in real catacombs, caves and cemeteries. While Joan is in my home town, Arthur is in the Etruscan ‘hood. Also, like many releases in this genre, the film is both spoken in English in parts, and dubbed into the language from Italian in others, depending on who is speaking. For many of the Italian actors, even the ones speaking English, they are dubbed over in that language. This is made a bit obvious in a scene with Johnson, where the people he is talking to sound normal (dubbed), and his voice is echoey, as he obviously did not sign up for dub sessions. 

Van Johnson, Audray

Thing is, while Arthur is the good guy, Joan’s father, Mulligan (Johnson) is a drug and antiquities smuggler, though she is unaware of that part of their lives. Following the fruition of her dream, Joan travels to Italy with a work companion who has the hots for her, Mike (Paolo Marco). There, they meet the wonderfully named Contessa Maria Volumna (Marilù Tolo, who I remember as the whip-wielding Conchita in the 1968 classic, Candy). The Contessa hosted Arthur when he was murdered at her villa. Also helping in trying to figure out what is happening is Venessa Hull (Wandisa Guida, who starred in numerous Italian Sword and Sorcery films in the 1960s; this was her last film), and Nick (Jacques Stany, nee Stanislaski).

Joan is determined to investigate Arthur’s demise, and of course, this being a giallo, nothing is as it seems and neither is anyone. Who is the good guys, who is the dangerous ones? What is the meaning of the titular piece of ancient jewellery? In the meanwhile, we get to see some really amazing ancient sites and carvings in their natural settings.

As Joan scopes out events and people are turning up dead (again, giallo), as we slowly but surely delve into criminal activity, psychic dreams, and possibly reincarnation (shades of 1932’s The Mummy!). This could have gotten away with just the smuggling story and still be giallo, but that there is a supernatural element is a bonus for my worldview (wheelhouse?).

Like an Agatha Christie novel, there are way more characters than seem necessary, making the story a bit convoluted at times. This tends to drag the story out a bit, as one tries to follow who everyone is, and how they are associated with the main plotline. I believe this is a way to produce red herrings and exposition, but it sometimes feels ponderous. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more of the supernatural element than the smuggling.

The soundtrack is perfectly moody and has strong ties to the giallo genre, with a score by the well-recognized Fabio Frizzi (who did the same for a number of Fulci films, and even recently with Nightmare Symphony in 2022).

Giallos tend to have some of the best and long titles, and this is definitely one of them. Also as in many giallos, much of the dialogue is fraught and at high drama (I call it Telenovela style), like it is something out of an Anne Rice book (an expository example: “He opened the door! He walked inside the room!!”). There is also the nearly mandatory assassin in a motorcycle helmet or mask. This would be carried on in giallo-styled films such as Maniac Driver (2020) and Nightmare Symphony..

Extras for the Blu-ray and DVD are a Deleted Scenes section (19 min), which contain parts that were excised for the television version; it is in Italian with subtitles, including Saxon’s voice dubbed into Italiano. Also included are a bunch of Euro Trash Trailers. Skimpy, but good. I just wish they included English subtitles.

This is the first time this has been released in North America on Blu-ray and DVD, obviously taken from the original print, as the occasional film “noise” is present. It is also not “crispy clean,” having a slight fuzz to the original (yet still better quality than a VHS, where I originally saw it decades ago). Full Moon said this version was, “taken from the best source material available.” Previously, this was an 8-part miniseries on Rai Television (Radiotelevisione italiana}, and was cut down to this film length before being released in Europe outside Italy.

One of the oddities I have found is the random Confederate flag in the home of photographer Gianni (Franco Garofalo; d. 2019). All that being said, this is a fun film, drenched deep in the giallo formula. Being a giallo B-film, that is more than fine as I have an affection for films below the “A” grade.

IMDB listing HERE

Trailer is HERE