Michael_Elliott 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.

Finfrosk86 Oh my god, I hate this damn genre. It is so mind-numbingly boring.The only redeeming quality in this movie is the cheesiness. No wait, the audience's reaction to the cheesiness. There was a lot of laughing at a lot of the stupid dialogue and cinematography. And for a change the audience laughing at stuff not meant to be funny, didn't p*** me off. (I usually hate when people laugh because they think something is stupid)There is one actor that has a real good presence, and the scenes with him in them are not boring. Only because of him. Pretty much everything else here is boring. Annoyingly boring. I don't remember much from this, as I saw it some years ago, but I do remember being bored.I guess I don't have to sum it up for ya, but if I were to, I would use one word. It starts with the blessed letter b.

christopher-underwood Delirious movie and one of Fulci's best. Set in London, there are some decent street scenes but these are mainly the usual 'tourist' ones but there is spectacular use made of Alexandra Palace towards the end. The opening is simply wonderful. Having purchased the recent Optimum release, I was comparing various versions I have by screening the opening sequence from the train/orgy dream sequence and through the lesbian seduction scene on the red bed and didn't even begin to tire of watching it. There is also a most graphic and affective breast slashing scene I did not recall and the Morricone music holding everything together beautifully. There are stretches, especially towards the end , when it is a bit 'police procedural' but there is certainly enough surreal/psychedelic visuals to prevent this becoming the least bit pedestrian.

Jonny_Numb (Second review: pertains to the recent DVD release that clocks in at 103 minutes--allegedly the most complete version available.)To those--such as myself--who were weaned on Lucio Fulci's post-"Zombie" gorefests, looking back at his earlier work can be a jarring experience. Films like "Don't Torture a Duckling" and "The Psychic" show a filmmaker bringing a sense of macabre mystery to the mainstream; the same can be said for "Lizard in a Woman's Skin," his first foray into the 'giallo' subgenre...though the result is terribly disappointing.It's hard to ignore the cue Fulci takes from Dario Argento, making an animal-themed (and relatively restrained) film in the footsteps of "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage." There are glimpses of the frenetic (almost invasive) camera tricks and stylistic techniques Fulci would mine with more confidence (and effect) in his gritty horror outings. While he stages an impressive extended chase through Alexandra Palace (beginning in the underground tunnels and finishing on the rooftop), piques our interest with a smattering of sex, violence, and psychedelics at the very beginning, and gives us a dog-vivisection dream sequence that foreshadows his later work (and is still gruesomely effective today), what lies in between is talky and largely uninteresting.The plot is simple enough: Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan--"Don't Torture a Duckling"), daughter of a prominent politician in Great Britain, is afflicted with strange hallucinations that literally bleed over into reality when her next-door neighbor, Julia Durer (sexy Anita Strindberg) is stabbed to death. Meanwhile, Carol's husband Frank (Jean Sorel) is carrying on an affair with a family friend, and Carol's daughter-in-law, Joan (Edy Gall) is somehow involved with a bunch of hippie types who know something about the murder.I consider Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling" one of the finer examples of a giallo done right--it wasn't so heavily stylized that it detracted from character or story, and at times invoked a sense of realism-through-restraint. "Lizard" is almost the total opposite--the characters tend to become dancing puppets within a plot that's constantly twisting itself into a pretzel; indeed, much like Argento's style-drenched films, the best method of viewing is to just drink in the look and feel of things, and wait for the inevitable Closing Revelation, in which all the convoluted plot points are explained. Yet "Lizard"--save for its experimental, color-soaked LSD scenes--isn't even that much fun to watch; taking place in a perpetually gloomy Britain, one feels Fulci stretching for legitimacy and falling short. The dialog scenes are endless to the point of tedium, and produce more confusion than intrigue.In short, "Lizard" is required viewing for the Fulci completist, but otherwise not worth the bother.