THE NIGHT OF THE SCORPION (1972)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

There are no scorpions in this film, even in a figurative sense. But since all of the alternative titles suggest the recrudescence of dead people-- when in fact the story never seriously suggests that possibility-- then one might as well go with the giallo-friendly cognomen.

SCORPION is also barely a giallo, even of the Spanish variety, though it manages to cram a fair amount of similar perverse sexuality into what's basically an "old dark house with mystery killer" flick. So far as I can tell director Alfonso Balcazar didn't helm any other horror-movies, confining his talents mostly to spy-stories and westerns. But it may help to know that one of the three credited script-writers was Jose Larraz, who would soon make his mark with a handful of sexually transgressive spook-shows.

Though the "star" of the movie is the mystery killer, Oliver Bromfield (Jose Antonio Amor) is the nexus around which the trouble coalesces. He's first seen about to depart the mansion where he's lived his whole life, because he had the misfortune to accidentally kill his wife Helen (Gioia Desideri). Apparently the local authorities cleared Oliver of wrongdoing, but he still feels bad and wants to get away from the scene of the tragedy. The audience later learns that only three other people occupy the mansion, but at the outset sees only Oliver's widowed stepmother Sara (Nuria Torray). Sara tries to persuade Oliver to stick around and become her lover. The English dialogue is not clear as to whether the two of them may have already done the deed, before or after the death of Oliver's father, but it doesn't matter, since the late father is never an issue. Oliver resists Sara's temptations and departs.

Some time back Oliver comes back, but with a second wife, and the audience encounters the real viewpoint character, Ruth (Daniela Giordano), the "second wife who has to get used to her husband's weird home and relations." Ruth meets Sara, who can barely conceal her feelings for her stepson, and then sort-of meets Oliver's intense sister Jenny (Teresa Gimpera). The other occupant is apparently the mansion's only servant, the maid Clara.

It doesn't take Ruth long to learn that there's a lot of controversy surrounding Helen. Both Sara and Jenny make odd comments about her, and Oliver has bad dreams about the incident of Helen's death. It seems she took a header off a high staircase, while Oliver was drunkenly berating her. The audience also gets a flashback in Oliver's memory, one to which Ruth is not privy. It seems that Helen cheated on Oliver several times, though the audience only sees one transgression: sleeping with Oliver's weird sister Jenny. But even in the flashback, Oliver doesn't remember exactly what caused Helen to take her fatal plunge.

When the killings eventually start, Oliver's never really a serious candidate for "resident psycho," any more than it's ever likely that Helen has come back from the dead. But this is probably because the film knows its audience, and spends most of its time showing its three gorgeous female stars in all sorts of stunning outfits. (Only Desideri's Helen gets a sizable amount of nudity.) Ruth accidentally jump-starts the psycho when she brings in a private investigator, initially having him pretend to be her uncle. The P.I. is the first to die, and then a couple more follow-- drastically reducing the pool of suspects. 

SCORPION doesn't really have any value as a mystery, but few "old dark house" flicks do anyway. Other reviews found the movie too tame, and indeed the killings are very vanilla. But the sexploitation aspects held my attention well enough, though I'll admit that all of the characters are nothing more than simple psychological constructs.