When we first started working on “The Case of the Bloody Iris” and began our research on the film and its history, it very quickly became obvious that the film had been released under a plethora of titles across the world. What really interested us, however, was the question whether “Perchè quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo do Jennifer?” had always been its intended title.
Common knowledge and mentions in established giallo lore by experts and even Italian film historians quickly told us that the production title was supposedly “Uno strano fiore con cinque gocce di sangue” which translated means “A strange flower with five drops of blood.” This has always been our understanding as well.
Imagine our surprise when we stumbled across this untrimmed clip that we found among some raw footage while working on the movie’s restoration. Pay attention to the clapboard in particular!
It does not read “Uno strano” as would have been the case if the accepted knowledge had held true. Instead, the clapboard reads “Una strana,” which quite obviously indicates that there must have been another title in play yet, but sadly the lower part of the clapboard had been cut off in the shot. It gave us the confidence, however, to dig deeper, and with that image in hand, the hunt was on.
We decided to find out what the original shooting title of the film had truly been, but none of the experts on the subject that we contacted had any knowledge of such an alternate title. In the end, with the help of our friends over at Freak-O_Rama, we decided to go to the source and ask the film’s writer Ernesto Gastaldi directly. While we had been shooting his interview footage for the bonus features a few weeks earlier, he had mentioned that didn’t recall the exact details about script’s title, and was not involved in the movie’s production on the set, but we hoped that the clapboard might help jog his memory. And so, it did…
Ultimately, he remembered that the production was originally titled “Una strana orchidea con cinque gocce di sangue” or “A strange orchid with five drops of blood.” He also recalled that the production team later renamed it to “Uno fiore con cinque gocce di sangue” when they found out that Umberto Lenzi was about to release “Sette orchidee macchiato di rosso”, or “The seven blood-stained orchids,” as you may know it. As a way of avoiding confusion because of the similarities in name, the filmmakers changed the “orchid” to “flower” while the production was underway.
This was an exciting bit of new knowledge about the film and our discovery was very quickly confirmed. As luck would have it, just a few days later, we located another stray behind-the-scenes shot from the set. This time, it was footage of elevator-victim Evi Farinelli, preparing for her shot. Once again, there was the clapboard in the shot, and this time, it was visible in its entirety… and the partial title read “Una strana orchidea!”
What a discovery! It completely corroborated Ernesto Gastaldi’s story and it gave us a chance to finally locate and reveal the movie’s original title for the very first time!
The movie was later retitled once again to “Perchè quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?” shortly before its release into theaters, most likely at the behest of producer Luciano Martino, who thoroughly enjoyed these lyrical kinds of movie titles.
There you have it! The original production title of the movie finally revealed, so make sure to share this post on all your social media, your favorite forums, hangouts, groups and subreddits.
“Una strana orchidea con cinque gocce di sangue,” it is!
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