Todeskreis Libelle (1975)

Todeskreis Libelle: Directed by León Klimovsky. With Paul Naschy, Erika Blanc, Ángel Aranda, María Kosty. A killer is cleaning up the streets of Milan by murdering those considered as deviant. An ornamental dragonfly, soaked in the blood of the victim, is left on each body.

“During the 60u0026#39;s and 70u0026#39;s there were any number of Italian productions filmed in Spain. Well, this is a Spanish production filmed in Italy. It is basically Paul Naschy and his collaboratoru0026#39;s (the Argentinean Leon Klimovsky this time)third attempt to ape the then-popular Italian gialli, and like the previous two attempts–u0026quot;Seven Murders for Scotland Yardu0026quot; and u0026quot;Blue Eyes of a Broken Dollu0026quot;–it is only semi-successful. The story is a little plodding, the cinematography a little leaden, and it comes off rather dark and gritty compared to the garish and colorful Italian gialli (although it is, if anything, even more violent). Itu0026#39;s also pretty derivative, borrowing the famous coffin scene from Luis Bunuelu0026#39;s u0026quot;Belle de Jouru0026quot; and the dead-body-in-the-funhouse scene from the not-exactly-seminal giallo u0026quot;Naked Girl Killed in Park.u0026quot; u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt was clearly also influenced by American u0026quot;Dirty Harryu0026quot; movies and perhaps the cynical Italian police thrillers that were emerging at the time. Naschy, this time,plays a hard-boiled cop who slaps around elderly exhibitionists and makes a wounded biker with a broken leg crawl to the hospital. He is up against u0026quot;the Dragonfly Killeru0026quot;, a vigilante who is offing pimps, prostitutes, and junkies–u0026quot;cleaning up the cityu0026quot; much like the villains in the Dirty Harry sequel u0026quot;Magnum Forceu0026quot; (although his motive for doing so would have made Harry Callahan crap his pants in utter disbelief). Erica Blanc plays Naschyu0026#39;s fashion designer wife who, after one of her gay friends is killed, decides to try to solve the case herself using her u0026quot;womanu0026#39;s intuitionu0026quot;. This leads to comical scenes of her sitting naked in bed pouring over grisly crime photos with a magnifying glass, or acting hysterically (albeit much more believably)when the killer sends the severed head of a Turkish pimp to their house.Of course, she stumbles across the identity of the killer before her husband does, leaving Naschy to rush to her rescue.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eObviously, if you have a low tolerance for graphic violence, completely gratuitous nudity, and Spanish-flavored, 70u0026#39;s-style sexism, you should probably avoid this movie. But if you can get past all this, itu0026#39;s a whole lot of fun.”