My Mouth Lies Screaming opens as many classic giallo films have done. A person dressed entirely in black enters a home where an unsuspecting woman (Sandra Nogueira) is climbing into a nice, warm bubble bath. The person in black barges in, the woman screams and the killer goes for his weapon of choice...a bowtie?
Your first instinct is to laugh at such a , well, laughable weapon, but then the carnage begins as the killer slashes the poor woman to death. My Mouth Lies Screaming starts off with a bloodbath to do any giallo proud.
But, this is the world of film maker Michael Legge so, it's only going to get weirder than the use of a bowtie as a murder weapon.
The story revolves around Antonio(Robin Gabrielli) and Evilyn (Cherry Lynn Zinger, and, before anyone comments, yes it's her real name) who are very much in love. Unfortunately, they are married to different people. Antonio must bear the burden of his dizzy wife Dumbelina (Diane Mela) while Evilyn has the extremely wealthy Professor Kubiyan(Michael Legge) to contend with.
Sure, the Professor is sick being half blind, half deaf and half crippled (???) but with the help of the the genius of Dr. Benvenuti (Phil Hall,) Evilyn won't be collecting her widow's benefits anytime soon. And, to make it harder to off her husband there is balloon fetishist, Nurse Rotunda (Lorna Noguira) to deal with. No, nothing will be easy for these two selfish lovers who are trying to off their respective spouses so that they may live happily ever after.
But what if there is an accident? There is that madman, The Bowtie Killer lurking about. Maybe if...?
MY MOUTH LIES SCREAMING is the newest film from the fertile imagination of writer/director Michael Legge. Having spoofed everything from spy movies to classic sci-fi, Michael has set his sights on the giallo genre and scored another bullseye. This is exactly what you come to expect from Mr. Legge, but it's different. It seems that our film maker is maturing, albeit in a goofy, Sideshow Cinema kind of way.
The opening sequence of the bowtie murder actually works on a suspense/thriller level.
Sure, the bowtie seems a little silly when it first appears, but the slashing and bloodletting that occurs is really not all that silly and done better than a lot of slasher flicks with bigger budgets. Plus, this film seems more preoccupied with sex than most of his other movies. We have Antonio and Evilyn who are all over each other. There are two scantily clad females in bathtubs at one point or another through the film. Nurse Rotunda wearing nothing but some frilly undergarments while having relations with a balloon is actually quite erotic.
My Mouth Lies Screaming might be the most erotic screwball comedy I have ever seen.
I also like how this is such a small, insulated film. While it takes place in a small town, you see very little of the denizens of the town. You get the main characters, a couple peripheral people that are on and off camera in a wink and that's really it. It gives an unwordly, bizarre feel to the movie that actually helps it have more of an impact than your usual flick.
While all the people in this movie breathe such believable life into such unbelievable chracters, I thought that one deserved more of a mention. That would have to be Diane Mela as Dumbelina. Stuck with a name like that is sure to give the viewer some preconceived notions, but Ms. Mela manages to pull it off. Her character is literally a trainwreck that just blunders through life and Diane makes Dumbelina such a joy to watch as she goes about her day. Even when there is chaos and dlaughter all around her, she knows when it's time to just take a nap. Great job, Diane!
Here at Divine Exploitation we are all about the micro budget cinema. Michael Legge has taken that to a special degree in that he has financed his own film and is now selling it through an exciting program at Amazon. It's called Create Space and it enables film makers to have total control over their projects while utilizing the mega giant of the magical interweb, Amazon.
Click here to order this flick using this creative innovation.
So, if you're a big fan of the giallo genre and you've been waiting a long time to see it properly skewered, then My Mouth Lies Screaming is just the flick for you.
In a related matter I would like to mention Sideshow Cinema's Restoration Project. Director Legge has taken four of his earlier, unavailable films and put them on DVD. They come in double feature packs and you can get all four flicks for only 20 bucks postage paid. That's five bucks a movie for those of you that are good at math. The films are CURTAINS, POTENTIAL SINS, WORKING STIFFS and NIGHT BASEMENT. Four classics from Sideshow Cinema.
Get 'em HERE!
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