SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Red-Barracuda A surgeon kills a lover by accident when she is impaled by a steel petal from an elaborate sculpture during the course of a physical argument in his apartment. He dismembers and disposes of the body but soon a secret blackmailer starts sending him communications indicating a knowledge of his crime.Everyone seems to have been sleeping with one and other at some time or other in this obscure Italian giallo. The plot-line, therefore, is quite convoluted like many of the films in this sub-genre. Another characteristic familiar to the genre is that none of the characters are particularly sympathetic with the lead character played by Gianni Garko being an especially unlikable misogynist. So, welcome to the wonderful world of giallo where everybody is amoral and there is no obligation from the film-makers to spoon feed the audience with any nice characters to empathise with!This one is overall not one of the entries in the genre that follows the classic-style serial killer format and instead focuses on the psychology of the central character and the escalation of events off the back of a murder. We still nevertheless have pleasingly familiar elements such as absurd plot twists, abundant nudity and dark secrets of the past informing the present. It would probably also be fair to say that this one isn't as visually stylish as most, although it does have a couple of beautifully shot underwater sequences which bookend the film, the latter of which culminates with a pretty audacious lesbian love scene! In truth, the gorgeous and evocative underwater opening is so captivating it does mean that the subsequent story pales a little by direct comparison to it but its relevance is confirmed by the end scene; I would probably say that those two distinctive sequences constitute the highlight of the movie overall. The Flower with the Petals of Steel is ultimately another involving giallo. It isn't really an upper bracket entry in the genre or anything but it is a solid movie which will definitely appeal to seasoned fans of the genre.

HumanoidOfFlesh Andreas Valenti(Gianni Garko)is a respected surgeon with misogynistic tendencies.When his girlfriend Daniella(Paola Senatore)is accidentally killed by titular metal sculpture of flower he becomes the main suspect.In fact he surgically dismembers her body and disposes remains.Daniella's half-sister Evelyn(Carrol Baker)becomes suspicious and informs Inspector Garrano about possible Andreas guilt.The intrigue of blackmail and backstabbing begins...Sadly overlooked Italian giallo with fantastic underwater lesbian scene.The pace is deliberate and there are several very interesting twists and turns.The performances are splendid and there are some similarities to Luigi Cozzi's memorable "The Killer Must Kill Again".Overall,"The Flower with the Petals of Steel" is a must-see for Euro horror enthusiasts.

lazarillo Gianni Garko plays an amoral, social-climbing surgeon who has had his wealthy wife committed to a mental institution. After he accidentally kills his mistress(Paola Senatore) in a bizarre accident involving the titular "flower with petals of steel" (actually a sculpture),he manages to dispose of the body, but finds himself being pursued by the woman's sister, who is also his vengeful former (Carrol Baker), and a dogged police inspector. Then he begins to be blackmailed by a strange voice on the phone. He also has ANOTHER lover, a nurse (Pilar Velasquez) who may not be what she appears.This obscure, long unavailable(at least in English) Italian giallo has a central twist that even by the standards of the genre is pretty far-fetched. It generally works though. It is very well-filmed. Piccolo is not one of the acknowledged masters of the genre like Argento or Bava (or Martino, Fulci, or Lenzi), but he definitely does a good job. The movie begins with a beautifully shot, seemingly gratuitous underwater diving scene that doesn't make sense until the end where it turns out to be a (definitely gratuitous) underwater lesbian scene (which gives new meaning to the term "muff diving"), but I would think also the first such scene in cinema history. The rest of the cinematography and editing is impressive too (if sometimes a little dark in the print I saw), but with one rather awkward murder scene.The acting is very good, the Italian cast much more so than Carroll Baker (who I imagine was getting tired of the genre by this time). Garko manages to make his character a sympathetic Hitchcockian innocent, who only towards the end is revealed to be real cad getting his comeuppance. Paola Senatore doesn't have much screen time, but is very effective (it helps that she's naked in almost every scene). The beautiful Velasquez also provides some sumptuous nudity, but also some good acting as she goes from a seemingly throw-away character to a very important one by the end. The print I saw was a Spanish language fan-sub, but I imagine this would only get better with a more legitimate, re-mastered release.

MARIO GAUCI Being a latter-day entry in Carroll Baker's Italian giallo tenure, coupled with its essential lack of reputation (probably ascribed to the involvement of an obscure director – one of only three he helmed), I was surprised to learn that the title under review was held in higher esteem by the "Cult Filmz" website than the American star's renowned collaborations with Umberto Lenzi; in hindsight, I agree with this estimation, since I had always found that series of movies average at best (though, in all fairness, I still have one more to check out i.e. SO SWEET…SO PERVERSE [1969] and which I will do presently). Incidentally, despite her top billing, Baker is not the protagonist of the film – in fact, she is just one among a bevy of fetching females with whom leading man Gianni Garko interacts (in more ways than one) throughout. This suggests a reasonably convoluted plot line and, in fact, the revelation offered here is among the wildest (as the whole resolves itself with a bit of lesbian underwater sex!) I have seen within this genre…though I felt the added ironic twist (which sees the culprits not getting away with it after all) unwarranted and a miscalculation! For the record, two other unexpected elements here are the sheer fact that a surgeon would allow himself such an impossibly intricate love life, which would surely prevent him from functioning properly within his chosen – and ultra-delicate – profession, and also that the (hardly handsome) cop on the trail of the assassin would fall for one of the suspects, the not-so-young-anymore Baker (whose drop in stature in this case eventually numbers her among the murder victims themselves)! While the film maintains a frustratingly unhurried pace – albeit offset by a good Marcello Giombini score – along the way, like I said earlier, the premise is woolly enough to keep one engrossed trying to unravel it!; by the way, the subject of the Argento-like title is the weapon that unwittingly brings about the original killing (which party's face is cleverly concealed until the climax).