A Lizard in a Woman's Skin

1971 "Biting, Gnawing Terror Claws at Your Brain!"
6.8| 1h44m| R| en| More Info
Released: 13 October 1971 Released
Producted By: International Apollo Films
Country: Spain
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Carol Hammond, the sexually frustrated wife of a successful London lawyer, is having bizarre, erotic dreams about her uninhibited neighbour, Julia Durer, who presides over noisy, sex and drug filled parties in the house next door. One night, Carol dreams culminate in violent death and she wakes to find her nightmares have become reality - Julia has been murdered and Carol is the main suspect. Was she set up, or did she really do it?

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Director

Lucio Fulci

Production Companies

International Apollo Films

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A Lizard in a Woman's Skin Audience Reviews

ThiefHott Too much of everything
Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.
Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Sam Panico If you were a well-to-do woman in Italy in the 1970s, chances are — based on the movies that I have seen — that you are about to killed, have killed someone, are having a lesbian affair, are on drugs or all of the above.Carol (Florinda Bolkan, Don't Torture a Duckling) is one of those wealthy women. She lives with her father, rich lawyer and politician Edmund Brighton, husband Frank and step-daughter Joan (Edy Gall, Baba Yaga, The Devil is a Woman). Carol's been having dreams that cause her to see a doctor. It seems next door neighbor, Julia (Anita Strindberg, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, The Antichrist) is having all night sex and drug orgies that at once repulses and excites Carol.All sorts of rich people shenanigans are going on — Frank is having an affair with his secretary. And Carol may or may not be having a lesbian affair with her neighbor. Her dreams have become so intense, she can't tell fact from fiction. What worries her the most is that her latest dream ends with her stabbing Julia in vivid Fulci splendor while two hippies watch. That dream turns out to perhaps be true, as Julia is dead and Scotland Yard is on the case. The room and condition of the dead body match Carol's dream. The hippies that she remembers from her dream don't remember seeing her kill Julia. But Carol's prints are on the murder weapon. As she waits for her trial in an insane asylum, one of the hippies breaks in and chases her. What follows is an infamous scene where she happens upon a room full of vivisected, still alive dogs. It's a dream sequence unconnected to the rest of the film, but it landed Fulci in prison. Carlo Rambaldi, the amazing special effects artist of E.T., Alien and more, saved the director from a two-year jail sentence by bringing the fake dog props to the courtroom.Read more at http://bit.ly/2xfNe5K
Claudio Carvalho 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")
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.
jadavix "Lizard in a Woman's Skin" is part giallo whodunit, part striking, hallucinatory nightmare. Only one of these parts in successful.Those who have had to suffer through some of Fulci's later garbage such as "City of the Living Dead", "Manhattan Baby" or "The Beyond" might be surprised to find that he could actually direct. The dream sequences are filled with startling imagery made all the more striking for their auteurism. Who could forget the dissected canines? Even the giallo parts, the "real" aspect of the movie, feature inventive camera angles that take you by surprise.But when the movie leaves the dreams behind, as it must, we are left with a not terribly interesting mystery. I didn't much care who did it, and the ending scenes, where we are supposed to be surprised, and kept guessing, by sudden revelations, felt needlessly drawn out and tiresome.Who did do it? I wasn't paying attention.The movie has some nudity, and a stabbing during a lesbian liaison. We only see the stabbing, not the bit before.