SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

adriangr A masked killer is murdering the pimps, prostitutes and drug addicts of Milan, and leaving a dragonfly ornament on each corpse. Paul Naschy is the police inspector trying to stop him.As far as giallos go, this is unremarkable stuff. The murders are unconvincing at best, and laughable at worst. There are far too many scenes of chases which showcase very lame gunfire. The plot constantly throws distractions at you like a coat button, a tattoo, golf clubs, extra marital affairs, and two deadly fairground rides, but they don't add up to an engaging story. Paul Naschy does a decent job as the detective, although I couldn't stop staring at his ridiculous comb-over (actually all the male characters in the cast have terrible hair),but most of the rest of the acting is wooden. Even Erica Blanc, who has made striking appearances in other movies, does not impress. To cap it off, the climax is very weak.Currently quite hard to see on DVD and Bluray, this movie has not aged well. Groovy theme music and early 1970's fashions aside, it does not have a lot to recommend seeking it out.

gavin6942 A killer (with impressive red pants) is cleaning up the streets of Milan by murdering deviants, prostitutes and members of the underworld. An ornamental dragonfly, soaked in the blood of the victim, is left on each body.The script was written by Paul Naschy, who was influenced (much like everyone else of the era) by Dario Argento's "Bird With the Crystal Plumage" (1970). In this story, Naschy creates the mythology that a dragonfly is a Chaldean symbol for someone undesirable. While this is probably entirely contrived and fabricated, it does make for an interesting back story and motivation for the killer. This is a Spanish/Italian co-production that curiously never got a release in Italy. And while the giallo genre is usually thought of as exclusively Italian, this film proves that rare exceptions exist. Heck, it even has a very "gialloesque" title. Apparently the reason for Italy's involvement was to get around Spanish censorship. In actual fact, the Italian component is quite slim -- the Milan sequences are merely exteriors, with all the indoor shots done in Spain. Being in Spain was helpful, considering that Naschy was appearing in the now-forgotten "Tarzán en las minas del rey Salomón" (1974) at the same time.The film has been described not only as a giallo, but more of a giallo / poliziottesco hybrid. And with good reason. Being largely Spanish rather than Italian, it could not be a pure giallo in the strictest sense. But moreover, the focus here is on the police and their attempts to catch the killer. In the giallo genre, the police are generally peripheral characters, with the central protagonist being an amateur, someone who just happened to see something or sense something at a certain moment. Rarely in those films is it the police who are successfully tracking the killer.What you have to love about this film, if nothing else, is the use of an umbrella for a weapon. To me, that conjures up images of the Penguin (the Batman villain), but never before has it been so menacing as shown in this film. "Umbrella as weapon" is an interesting motif, and there are real examples in history of umbrellas modified to be guns. But this may be the first time we see an umbrella knife on film.The music is from the CAM library, and you may have heard some of it before in Mario Bava's "Kill Baby Kill" (which perhaps not coincidentally starred Erika Blanc) or Bava's "Blood and Black Lace". In fact, much of it sounds familiar, probably because it is so heavily recycled.According to Mirek Lipinski, "Dragonfly" never saw a theatrical release in the United States, nor did it ever come out on video. Given how strong this film is among Naschy's filmography, that is slightly shocking, but presumably Lipinski is correct. That makes the 2017 Blu-ray from Scream Factory all the more special. Between the crisp picture and informative commentary, it is clearly a must-have for fans of either Naschy or the giallo film.

Paul Andrews Una Libelula Para Cada Muerto, or A Dragonfly for Each Corpse as it's more commonly known amongst English speaking audiences, is set in Milan where some drug addict low life named Franco Perotti buys his latest fix & heads home to inject but once there he is brutally murdered by a hatchet wielding psycho... Italy's finest Inspector Paolo Scaporella (Jacinto Molina under his usual Paul Naschy pseudonym) is on the case with the only clue being a small Dragonfly left on the body, Franco was the second to fall victim to the 'Dragonfly Killer' & as the bodies continue to pile up the pressure on Scaporella increases. It seems someone is waging a one person war on the drug users, dealers, prostitutes & the general scum of Milan. Scaporella has little to go on apart from the Dragonfly's & a drawing by one of the victims, a drawing of something that Scaporella can't quite make out but his wife Silvana (Erika Blnac) thinks she can which makes her the Dragonfly killer's next target...This Spanish production was directed by Leon Klimovsky & I personally thought it was nothing more than a below average murder mystery that tries to spice it's undercooked story up with some nudity & fairly gory (for the time) murders. The script by star Jacinto Molina (under that name) is your basic who dun-nit & not one that particularly impressed me, it starts off well enough with a couple of decent kills but then all sorts of unlikely things happen to stretch the story out & I found the climactic unmasking of the killer very underwhelming. The film states early on that the killer is trying to 'clean up' Milan & in the final reckoning that's all it amounts too, so in that respect we know the killers motives from pretty much the first five minutes & after that it's just a case of them being found out which in the end Scaporella's wife does! Why didn't they just put her on the case in the first place? Also there's the usual stupid unrealistic character actions, for instance if you knew the identity of a sadistic killer who had brutally murdered at least five people would you try to black mail them & even worse meet up with them in the middle of the night in a completely deserted & isolated location? I mean that's just asking for trouble, isn't it? I don't get the roller-coaster escape bit either, if your trying to escape from the police why get on a roller-coaster? I mean a roller-coaster just travels around the same track & will always end up back where it started, right? There really is very little chance of escaping anywhere on a fairground roller-coaster. The film moves along at a reasonable pace, it has a fair few murder scenes although they're not that graphic & it's watchable but it's just not very clever, the killer's motives & identity are both disappointing & could have used more thought.Director Klimovsky does OK, the film has that 70's sleazy horror atmosphere to it, there's a fair bit of nudity but it lacks gore or violence. Oh, isn't that title A Dragonfly for Each Corpse just great? The title is one of the main reasons I bothered with it & as many of you already know you can't judge a film by it's title. The fashions & facial hair are all very 70's & the film has a certain dated feel to it which I liked.Technically the film is alright, it's well made enough with decent production values. The film was shot in Spanish & I can honestly say the dubbing & voice acting is absolutely terrible which gives the film an unintentional & unwanted comedic element. Naschy sports a fine moustache in this one, he's all man...Una Libelula Para Cada Muerto is a by-the-numbers murder mystery that can't quite decide whether it wants to be a full on gory slasher or a thoughtful who dun-nit, it's somewhere between the two without totally satisfying in either department. Watch something like Tenebre (1982), The New York Ripper (1982) or Opera (1987) instead.

gimpwilkinson This is a typically looney Paul Naschy take on the giallo. It has some gory deaths, nice ladies, and totally whacked out dialogue and characters. However, this is not an easy film for Naschy fans (like myself) to find. There was a very early 80's release (about 1980/81) on Video Unlimited which was excellent quality (but full-screen)and uncut: not surprising that it is VERY RARE and highly sought after by collectors/fans.