Light on the gore and heavy on the nudity, The Case of the Bloody Iris is a passable giallo from director Giuliano Carnimeo (under the pseudonym Anthony Ascott). Made in 1972, this shocker has nearly all of the elements one would expect from the genre: a gloved killer, POV shots, bloody murders, and a convoluted plot in which everyone is both a suspect and a possible victim.

The story revolves around a spate of vicious killings which happen in a posh high-rise block of apartments; gorgeous Edwige Fenech plays Jennifer, a model who has moved into the building and soon becomes a target for the deranged, rubber-glove wearing maniac.

Logic takes a backseat during the storytelling and there are moments which had me laughing in disbelief. In one scene, our hapless heroine wanders through a junkyard at night; for cheap 'shocks', car doors swing open, boots slam shut and a whole vehicle even topples off a stack — no explanation for these spooky happenings is given.

Another moment has Jennifer attempting to enter a suspect's apartment. Finding it locked, she tries the keys on her own keyring, and — hey, presto — the last key opens the door!! What great security they have in this building.

As always, the killer's identity is only revealed in the final minutes, and the reason given for his violence stretches well beyond the realms of credibility.

Despite the flaws in the plot, the film moves along at a reasonable pace and when there is any danger of the momentum flagging, Carnimeo throws in some gratuitous T&A (and a lesbian) to keep us amused — how very thoughtful of him! Nearly every actress gives us an eyeful before her untimely demise.

As giallos go, this is a consistently entertaining example and should definitely be seen by fans of the genre.

The Case of the Bloody Iris is one of the most entertaining giallo's of them all.

I do realize that it's far from perfect. It's got wooden performances, childish dialogue, illogical moments (more than a few), plot holes etc..., but it's entertaining as hell. These pure giallo's are guilty pleasures to be sure, featuring a number of knockout damsels in distress, gory murders, black gloved killers, a murder mystery with endless red herrings, law officials without an IQ and almost universally badly dubbed actors.

Here we have it all in abundance and it all works. The women here are quite simply stunning, the murder scenes inventive and well done, the appropriate amount of sleaze, impressive visuals and nice location scenery, a terrific musical score (catchy as hell), decent acting and a fair amount of shocks and suspense. It's also quite funny at times, I've never before or after seen a detective obsessing with stamps.

Highly recommended if you're a fan of giallo films.

After the murder of a call girl in a building, the dweller Mizar Harrington (Carla Brait), who is a fighter and stripper in a nightclub, is drowned in her bathtub by the killer. The administrator and architect Andrea Antinori (George Hilton) offers the apartment to the models Jennifer Lansbury (Edwige Fenech) and Marilyn Ricci (Paola Quattrini) for a reasonable price and they move to the flat. Jennifer is the ex-wife of the hippie Adam (Ben Carrá), who forced her to practice group sex and now harasses her all the time. Soon Andrea hits on Jennifer and she becomes his girlfriend. When Adam is found dead in Jennifer's apartment, Andrea becomes the prime suspect of Commissioner Enci (Giampiero Albertini), who assigns his Assistant Commissioner Renzi (Franco Agostini) to follow him everywhere. However, Jennifer believes Andrea is innocent and suspects that one of her neighbors might be the killer.

"Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?", a.k.a. "The Case of the Bloody Iris", is a Italian thriller silly and predictable. The goofy Marilyn Ricci is an annoying and unfunny character; Commissioner Enci is ridiculous and dull; the dialogs are very poor; and the music score is irritating and dated. It is not difficult to know who the killer is. But may be entertaining for fans of "giallo" genre. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "As Lágrimas de Jennifer" ("The Tears of Jennifer")