The Film (3.5/5)

    After the giallo holy trilogy of Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento. We come to filmmakers like Umberto Lenzi and Serio Martino who made a huge impact in the genre, with multiple films made during the gialli's golden era, many of which would go on to be considered classics.   Martino would debut with the giallo classic The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (aka Blade of the Ripper) and quickly follow that up the next year with the more refined Case of the Scorpion's Tail.

      Following the death of her husband Kurt Baumer in an airplane accident, Lisa Baumer (Evelyn Stewart, The Psychic) finds herself in the middle of a life insurance investigation as the pay out for his death is over 1,000,000 dollars and she appears to be all too happy about his passing. The investigation is lead by Peter Lynch (George Hilton, All the Colors of the Dark).  At the same time Kurt's mistress, and others are trying to get money from Lisa. When Lisa turns up dead herself after cashing the check, Peter begins to investigate more deeply.

    The Case of the Scorpion's Tail is pretty much the definition of a giallo. It has constant odd ball twist and turns, and some decently lurid murder scenes.  Of course the murder of the main character midway through feels like it was lifted directly from Psycho, but I guess you can't copyright a plot twist, so I digress.

  Martino's earliest 5 or so films were all gialli, and Scorpion's Tail was the most by the book of the lot. As such, while I enjoyed watching it, I felt it wasn't as impressive as the earlier Mrs. Wardh or the later Your Vice is a Locked Room, and Only I Have The Key, Torso, or All the Colors of the Dark.   The cast is impeccable with great chemistry with one another. Martino's direction was quite solid and offered more mature visuals just one film after his debut.

Audio/Video (4/5)

    Arrow presents Case of the Scorpion's Tail in a very solid 2:35:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. Detail here is strong, colors are well reproduced, and grain is natural for the most part.

     Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA mono track in both Italian and English. Both tracks are quite solid with dialogue and score coming through nicely. I did not detect any issues on either track.

Extras (3.5/5)

    The disc kicks off with a commentary by Ernestro Gastalidi in Italian with subtitles. The writer goes into detail about his career, and working on this film. We also get quite a nice interview with Martino himself about his filmography as a whole, various genres he has worked in, and more. There is a 21 minute piece with actor George Hilton, a piece called Jet Set Giallo, which is an analysis on Martino's work, and finally a video essay by Troy Howarth on the film. The set is rounded off by a theatrical trailer. There are also printed liner notes.

Overall

    Not my favorite of the Martino gialli, Case of the Scorpion's Tail is still quite a good giallo. The Blu-ray looks and sounds quite excellent, and has a solid array of extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.