(1960)
Dir - Étienne Périer
Overall: GOOD
An excellent, Les Diaboliques-styled infidelity thriller from Belgium filmmaker Étienne Périer, Murder at 45 R.P.M., (Meurtre en 45 45 tours), is an adaptation of Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud's novel A Cœur Perdu. Concerning a cold, calculating composer who concocts a ludicrous scheme in order to torment his pop singer wife who he rightfully suspects of having an affair with her piano player, the entire movie works off of his manipulation both before and beyond the grave. The attention to detail is enormous, not just in the story itself but with Périer's direction which makes sure that the camera cuts to every person or object that is of immediate significance to the paranoia unfolding. Several scenes are expertly suspenseful and linger on dead silence, a pair of footsteps that could be anyone's, or voices that may or may not be coming from either an actual person in the room or a recording. Both Danielle Darrieux and Michel Auclair in the leads succumb to the understandable strain of their mania and the audience is with them the whole way as they ultimately are the victims in such a convoluted charade. Though he, (physically at least), disappears after the first act, Jean Servais turns in the best performance of all as the obsessively jealous husband whose presence lingers throughout.
(1966)
Dir - Gerardo de Leon
Overall: MEH
Filipino director Gerardo de Leon of the Blood Island series "fame" also knocked out two vampire films in the 1960s, the second of which Curse of the Vampires, (Ibulong mo sa hanin, Blood of the Vampires), is laughably plotted and sluggish while not without its visual merits. Various countries and filmmakers have their own slightly to overtly quirky take on the Gothic horror tropes that were primarily established both in Hollywood and in England, with this one taking its cue from the Italians in its garish, Mario Bava color schemes. Several scenes are bathed in red light and the period setting almost exclusively takes place at a castle with a borderline dungeon basement getting substantial screen time. Some of the makeup effects are primitive and ergo silly, but they help give the movie a unique charm at least. Sadly, the story is pure nonsense where a man reluctantly keeps his long undead wife locked up for years without the thought ever crossing his mind to just put a stake through her heart and therefor put both he and everyone around out of their misery. He also manages to keep this information from his children until shortly after the movie starts and continues to make several other hare-brained decisions along the way. The pacing is horrendous so good luck staying awake until the lackluster finish, but hey, at least John Ashley is not in it.
(1968)
Dir - Adrian Hoven
Overall: WOOF
The second directorial effort from usual actor Adrian Hoven, Castle of the Creeping Flesh, (Im Schloß der blutigen Begierde), is a laboriously paced snore-fest that infrequently comes to life with soft-focus nudity and close-up operation footage. As is the case with seemingly every Euro-horror bit of sleaze, men say the word "bitch" a lot and cannot stop raping women, so yes, this is one of countless films to lazily stick to the exploitative formula. Though not as gratuitous and miserable as Hoven and Michael Armstrong's follow-up Mark of the Devil, the shoehorned-in, real life scenes of pulsating, bloody organs are laughably unnecessary for a story that utilizes a mad scientist for no decipherable reason. It is mostly just an incredibly boring series of scenes between unlikable, hedonistic characters who trade sexual innuendos and lick their lips at each other while finding themselves at Howard Vernon's castle for more sex, surgery, and uninteresting flashbacks full of even more rape and surgery. Along with Vernon, Janine Reynauld, Vladimir Medar, and Michael Lemoine fulfill the standard quota of recognizable genre players with Lemoine exhibiting his usual unsettling, wide-eyed, and unintentionally silly intensity. Also, a bear shows up because why not have one of those in there as well?
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