The Black Lizard

A latter-day cult favourite in the US, but Fukasaku (generally a specialist in macho genres) was far too 'straight' a director to make the most of this camp extravaganza. Black Lizard is a glamorous thief who holds a jeweller's daughter to ransom against a fabled diamond, but then falls in love with the detective who tracks her to her secret island hideaway, home to her bizarre collection of human 'statues'. Yukio Mishima adapted the original Edogawa Ranpo (the Japanese 'Edgar Allan Poe') story as a stage vehicle for his friend Maruyama, a celebrated drag queen, and he demanded a guest spot in the movie version as one of the 'statues'. (He appears naked with a silver figleaf.) Lamentably, Fukasaku tries to treat it as a hip action-adventure and thinks no further than pastiche James Bond. Hints of queer perversity glimmer through, but it's mostly leaden.