This is how you make a film stand out in a crowded market, as we get a giallo with all the usual ingredients (black-gloved killer, loads of suspects/red herrings, nakes ladies, beautiful photography) mixed with tons of quirkiness, seventies technology, irony, social commentary and even animation.
The film starts of memorably enough with a kimono clad man waiting in anticipation in his floral, purple themed room (purple an recurring colour in this film). A lady hooker friend arrives and it seems our fella likes to get slapped about and get his hair pulled, but isn't into being strangled and murdered for some reason. A page from a child story book is left by the prostitute, with a different card being left at a murder that happens on a bus shortly afterwards.
This is where Inspector Lomenzo steps in. He sees that there's a killer on the loose, but can't quite figure out the connection between the two people, much to the annoyance of his boss, Tom Skerrit. At the same time, he's caught the eye of the young lady that lives up the stairs from his apartment that he shares with his hippy girlfriend. Further complicating the plot is Eli Wallach as the private investigator who uses modern technology to spy on his clients, his staff, and just about everybody else he encounters. A businessman approaches Eli and say that the police don't have a clue that the two victims were part of some Wildlife Friends Club, and that the murders have something to do with a party that happened at the 'Hoffman House'. Eli gives Lomenzo these little clues, but does he have a sinister motive?
This film seems to head in many directions at once as Lomenzo tries to juggle his love life with the murders (and the two become entwined). The murderer works his way through the cast, including burning to death the prostitute that killed the kinky guy at the start of the film, shooting a guy on live TV, and running over another guy. This is all standard giallo stuff but then you have the businessman's house secured with a futuristic alarm system, his mother's nurse having a chug in the toilets for no reason, and the Wildlife Friends Club watching an completely off-the-wall cartoon porno before taking part in some sort of 'blowjob roulette'. This strangeness runs throughout the entire film and keeps you on your toes.
Although Tom Skerrit appears, he doesn't do much and Eli Wallach only comes in to play mainly in the final part of the film. Neither of them dub there own voice. It's Michele Placido as Inspector Lomenzo who is the main focus of the film, running around trying to figure out what's going while his girlfriend runs off with another man, not that he's bothered it gives him a chance to get to know the young lady from upstairs. Gets to know her all night long.
Plenty of twists in the plot too. John Steiner redeems himself for his diabolical performance in Deported Women of the SS Special Section by being more subdued here, but no less sleazy.
