An Italian/Spanish co-production directed by León Klimovsky and written by Ricardo Muñoz Suay and Paul Naschy, who also stars as Inspector Paolo Scaporall, A Dragonfly for Each Corpse is about a killer taking out the junkies and sex workers of Milan and leaving behind a dragonfly sculpture on each body living up to the title of the movie.

Where most giallo films have five murders or so, this one goes wild with 15 murders, several of which are done with an umbrella knife. Scaporalla and his high fashion wife Silvana (Erika Blanc) follow this vigilante killer — who the police debate may be doing their job for them — and she gets so focused on the case that she studies crime scene photos in bed. Naked.

God bless giallo.

Alley brawls with Nazi bikers, chasing transvestite suspects through Luna Park (the site of a major part of Naked Girl Killed In the Park and an endearing relationship between Naschy and Blanc — I dream that they made several sequels of them as a Thin Man series of psychosexual whodunnits — pushes this movie toward the top of the list of giallo, even if it isn’t made in Italy or even played there. It’s also committed to sleaze, at least in the non-Spanish version. As the country was still super restrictive, Klimovsky shot a version that has every nude scene clothed.  As someone that hates censorship, I have to exclaim how horrible the morals that keep Erika Blanc clothed are.

PS: Your ears do not deceive you. This movie takes liberally from the soundtracks of Bava’s A Bay of Blood and Blood and Black Lace.