Des garces pour l'enfer

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.

Sep 22

So we have here a pretty decent giallo, which remains very hard to get hold of, so i am surprised its got as many reviews as it has.

Depending on how you are watching it, it clearly has several titles, its on imdb as "Flowers With A Deadly Sting", i know it as " Flowers With The Petal Of Steel".

Perhaps i would find it a bit better if i could see it top quality, but as it stands its a decent giallo but not a great one, and i have only seen it about half dozen times, which is well below what i watch my favourite gialli.

Plenty of faces you have seen before in gialli and as pointed out by others the end does come as something of a surprise.

If you can get it and you are a giallo fan then of course its a must watch, but its definitely a middle of the road giallo for me.

My rating for this one is 7.5 out of 10.

An acceptable Giallo in which our starring becomes involved in a dangerous game of sex, lies, blackmail, treason, double-crossing and death by tacky 70s home decor. A wealthy doctor Andrea Valenti (Gianni Garko) accidentally kills his mistress, then the surgeon falls victim of blackmail. Dr. Andrea Valenti is a prestigious surgeon who works in a hospital in Rome and has a lover, Daniela, and a beautiful secretary (Pilar Velazquez) .Her wife, whom he is thinking of divorcing, has just left the asylum where she was confined for years. Evelyne Graffi (Baker) and Daniela (Paola Senatore) are not only stepsisters, but also lovers. Evelyne who was also romantically involved with Andrea in the past - encourages the relationship only because Andrea frequently gives Daniela money, but that doesn't stop her from being insanely jealous whenever the two are together. The well known surgeon Andrea Valenti accidentally kills his mistress in the course of a heated argument, Andrea pushes her, and she falls on some decorative plants with metallic leaves, fatally injuring herself. The leaves of that artificial plant are pointed and sharp like knives, and Daniela dies instantly. Fearing that no one would believe it was an accident, Andrea decides to make her body disappear. Since he is a surgeon and has extensive anatomical knowledge, he prepares to dismember the body in the bathtub, using his scalpel and other professional tools. He then carries the pieces in plastic bags to the trunk of his car, being observed in the process by a gossipy neighbor. He transports the remains of the body to the crusher of a garbage dump, and he watches, somewhat calmer, as the "evidence of the crime" turns into puree. Along the way, the surgeon carries out undisguised attempts to get rid of his stalkers. Later, a killer commits other gruesome murders in cold blood. Who could it be behind the blackmail?.

A passable and attractive dramatic thriller with a surprising premise, twists, turns and red herrings, being competently paced and made in Gialloesque style . A Giallo/thriller about a alleged murderer whose lover dies with a metal sculpture of a flower, later he tries to cover-up his crime never realizing he's being watched by someone lurking, then he begins receiving menacing phone calls from an unknown witness. The film contains violence, thrills, chills, grisly killings and lots of nudism. Although there is not much intrigue because we know from the first moment who the murderer is, therefore no necessary assumption what in other films of the Giallo genre it does happen, here the film focuses on an embarrassed doctor and his followers, stalkers and cops , developing between them a game of cat and mouse in which the police usually tends to lose. Stars Gianni Garco who surprisingly gives a good performance as the disturbing and bewildered doctor. A psychological giallo from Italy that can compete with the best representatives of other best known Italian directors. Very interesting and tense giallo with an atypical approach for the genre. Normally it is not discovered until the end who the murderer is, and yet in this film we know from the first moment that the author of the "crime" is our protagonist. The plot develops from his attempts to evade the investigations of the police and the uncomfortable Evelyn. In reality, in this Italian-style thriller there has not even been a murder: Daniela's death, after stabbing herself with the "steel petals" has been purely accidental. But who would believe it, taking into account the terrible relations he had with her wife?

Luckily for her, Dr. Valenti is about to call the whole thing off. The fact that we know in advance what has happened does not diminish the intrigue of the story in any way. That's way this plot structure is reminiscent of the episodes of the famous series "Colombo", with Peter Falk. There, too, the viewer knew who the murderer was, and the plot revolved around the investigation of the colorful detective, and the "mistakes" that the suspect could make by giving himself away. Revolving around the supposedly guilty homicidal doctor and guess who the real murderer is until an incredible and surprising plot twist that is the best part of the movie. "The Flower with Steel Petals" stars Italian-Croatian Gianni Garko as the protagonist, in the role of the beleaguered surgeon Andrea Valenti. Gianni Garko is a regular in the polizzieschi and Italo subgenres, especially Spaghetti Western with his character as the unforgettable Sartana. For her part, Evelyn is played by the American of Polish origin Carroll Baker -real name Karolina Piekarski, muse of Umberto Lenzi y she starred a lot of Hollywood fims, then she emigrated Italy where starred sex comedy a various Giallos. This American actress won a great triumph with Baby Doll (1956), after she did some Westerns. Being historically or aesthetically significant her performances : Giant (1956) and John Ford's How the West was won and Cheyenne Autumn . Signed a contract with Paramount Studios in 1963. She was given roles originally slated for Paramount starlet Stella Stevens - Harlow , The Carpetbaggers and Sylvia . The studio felt Baker was a more experienced dramatic actress and just as alluring. Then , Carroll was to Italy where she performed a lot of Giallos and softcore films , such as : "L'harem , The sweet body of Deborah , Orgasm , Paranoia, The Devil with Seven Faces, Knife of Ice, Death at the Deep , End of the Swimming Pool , Il Corpo, The Private Lesson, The Virgin Wife" .

The sometimes hypnotic soundtrack was composed by Marcello Giombini, author of the frightening film music for Joe D'Amato's controversial "Anthropophagus" and habitual composer of Spaghetti Westerns and Rafael Romero Marchent movies. The motion picture was professionally directed by Gianfranco Piccioli. Rating: 6/10. The picture will appeal to Giallo fans.

You don't often get to see a scuba diving lesbian love scene in a film, but that situation is less likely in the crazy world of the gialli, it seems...

Gianno Garko plays a jerk doctor who has just dumped his lover Daniela, perhaps for his assistant who's been making kissy faces at him. Daniela's sister is angry Carol Baker, who seems to also be Daniela's lover and is enraged at Daniela's continuous relationship with Gianni. Things come to a head one night when Gianni comes home to find a strangely silent Daniela there, and accidentally kills her by impaling her head with one of his strange object d'art required by all characters in gialli.

Panicking, Gianni uses his super surgeon skills to dismember the body and get rid of it, not knowing he's being watched all the time. Also, he's not as smart as he thinks as he didn't notice Daniela's car is outside of the building. When Carol Baker turns up looking for her sister, Gianni tells her, rather unconvincingly, that she hasn't been around in some time, and then a cop, who is falling for Carol, turns up looking for the dead girl too...and he's becoming increasingly biased.

Although this is very much a typical 'Carol Baker' giallo with seventies nudity, it is still watchable for Gianni Garko's increasingly unhinged performance and the twists all thrown in at the end (try not to think about them too hard though or you'll get a nose bleed). There are no good characters to root for in the film so it's a case of seeing who'se going to win the mind games that are being played out. Not the most manically paced, however, and I was kind of yearning for that - until the underwater love scene (bizarre

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.