1950s Italian Horror Part One - (Mario Bava Edition)

I VAMPIRI

(1957)

Dir - Riccardo Freda/Mario Bava

Overall: MEH

Both Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava can be credited with ushering in the Italian horror movie in the sound age since I Vampiri, (The Vampire, The Devil's Commandment, Lust of the Vampire), was the first such vehicle produced at a time when the country's film industry was exponentially booming, yet genre pictures such as this were not on the menu.  Freda and Bava, (the latter who acted as cinematographer, uncredited special effects supervisor, and director on the last two days of shooting), convinced Titanus Studios executive Goffredo Lombardo to let them make a horror film in less than two weeks and on the cheap once Freda produced a script in one day.  Set in the modern era to avoid period costumes and filmed on pre-existing sets, the results show both the rushed production and lack of budget.  Still, decrepit scenery and a mad scientist laboratory are atmospheric additions, the story borrows from familiar sources such as the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, and on the make-up effects side, it utilizes some of the same camera tricks that the legendary 1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde did.  A historically important milestone in European horror, but it lacks the mood and flair of the filmmaker's later works and is understandably a mediocre first attempt at Gothic Euro-horror.

THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED

(1958)

Dir - Mario Bava/Paolo Heusch

Overall: WOOF

 

Recognized as Italy's first science fiction film, The Day the Sky Exploded, (La morte viene dallo spazio, Death Comes From Space, Death Comes From Outer Space), is essentially a stock footage montage that is interjected with characters in a control room panicking.  A precursor to Michael Bay's blockbuster turkey Armageddon, the story concerns an incoming meteor shower that threatens the entire planet, causing apocalyptic destruction before scientists and astronauts figure out a way to stop it.  Completely sterile melodrama is haphazardly tossed in to provide it with some sort of human element, but a couple's heartfelt reunion, a ladies man trying to smooth over a woman, and one guy snapping under the pressure by proclaiming that mankind has doomed itself due to our building of nuclear missiles, it all come off as an afterthought just to have some more dialog exchanges to break up the recycled disaster footage.  Though Paolo Heusch was officially credited as director, various cast and crew members proclaimed that cinematographer/special effects man Mario Bava was mainly in charge of the proceedings.  Thankfully there are a few above-average camera angles and shots that are eerily lit due to Bava's always keen eye for visuals, but this is an inconsequential saving grace to a relentlessly boring movie with no other redeemable qualities.

CALTIKI - THE IMMORTAL MONSTER

(1959)

Dir - Riccardo Freda/Mario Bava

Overall: MEH

Riccardo Freda and again cinematographer turned co-director Mario Bava join forces to unofficially remake The Quartermass Xperiment for a European audience.  Caltiki - The Immortal Monster, (Caltiki, il mostro immortale), was another historically noteworthy film in Italian cinema, being one of the country's early sci-fi outings that gave the careers of both Freda and Bava another push into genre terrain.  Unfortunately though, the film itself is dull, mundane, and derivative of its Hammer source material.  Some of the dialog and one random car crash are laughable in a way that is likely not intended, plus the American dubbing does not help the accidental awkwardness any more than bad dubbing ever does.  Bava handles a number of special effect shots and though he is clearly working with unconvincing miniatures and a Doctor Who worthy monster, these scenes are cleverly shot in heavy shadows that, (along with being in black and white), do enough to hide the budget constraints.  It is also a nice touch that a Mayan curse element is brought in as a foundation, though plenty of "superstitions natives and greedy white men on jungle expeditions resulting in their doom" cliches are also present.

1960s Vincent Price Part Five

MASTER OF THE WORLD

(1961)

Dir - William Witney

Overall: GOOD

 

American International Picture's Master of the World was their ambitious attempt at an epic adventure film to stand toe-to-toe with any others that were based on the works of Jules Verne.  Written by Richard Matheson and taking elements from both Verne's novel of the same name and Robur the Conqueror, it is mostly admirable, if still unavoidably limited by its B-movie attributes.  There is an over abundance of obvious recycled footage from other movies thrown in to try and up the production value, plus the special effects are barely passable even for the standards of the time.  William Witney's direction is predominantly flat, but the set design is colorful and impressive, still making a striking visual impression at least.  Surprising to no one, Vincent Price is excellent as the Albatross captain Robur, remaining a sympathetic "villain" in the gray sense as his actions are far more diabolical than his commendable intentions.  In his first heroic lead, Charles Bronson is likewise a standout, turning in an unemotional and sound tough guy performance typical of many that he would give throughout his career.

CITY UNDER THE SEA

(1965)

Dir - Jacques Tourneur

Overall: MEH

 

Though it stars Vincent Price, was made by American International Pictures, kind of takes its title from an Edgar Allan Poe story and bookends the film with quotes from it, City Under the Sea, (War-Gods of the Deep, City in the Sea), is more of a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea knock-off than another proper Poe entry from the production company.  The final directorial effort from Jacques Tourneur, it makes use out of some fetching sets, but there is really nowhere to go with the monotonous story.  Basically, a few characters are captured by Price and spend a predominant amount of the running time standing in one room while talking to him, then sent to another room to talk about how to escape.  This repeats until we get a long, dialog-less underwater scene that shows off the cheap yet humorously harmless gill men monsters.  The biggest issue with the script though is how none of the characters are fleshed out, including Price's who is lazily smitten with a girl that looks like his dead wife, yet nothing is elaborated on and the two barely even have any scenes together.  It is rather forgettable all around and pretty much every other AIP film with similar components is at least far more interesting.

 

DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS

(1966)

Dir - Mario Bava

Overall: WOOF

Doubling as the worst movie that both Mario Bava and Vincent Price ever made, (and sadly the only one that the two men were involved in together), Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, (Le spie vengono dal semifreddo), is a certifiable waste of celluloid.  Put into production after the baffling success of the previous year's Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, the sequel was a joint production between American International Pictures and Italian International Film with Bava serving as director only because he was under contract to do so.  Two versions of the movie were shot and released for each country's markets and Bava was even less involved in the American edit, meaning not at all.  Amazingly, it is a worse abomination than the first Dr. Goldfoot debacle, largely due to the involvement of the Italian "comedy" team of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia who are about as funny as a plague of testicular cancer.  Price can do absolutely nothing with the wretched material, though he at least looks like he is making the best of a paycheck.  When that is the only remotely positive thing one can say about a movie, you know you have a problem.

1970s Mario Bava Part Two

HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON
(1970)
Overall: MEH

Following up the pretty lame giallo Five Dolls for an August Moon released the same year, Mario Bava's Hatchet for the Honeymoon, (Il rosso segno della follia), is yet another subpar affair from the usually excellent director.  While there is no mystery at all as to who the killer is this time, (this is explained in the opening narration by the main antagonist), the one we are presented with instead involving a childhood trauma never picks up any much-needed momentum.  We are shown slight, ghostly flashbacks at random times, but the bizarre and very specific type of madness that inflicts the dashingly handsome Stephen Forsyth is not given enough screen time to really become enthralling.  This leaves only a handful of murder scenes that come off as too mundane, despite Bava utilizing his trusted and true, nifty camera tricks here or there.  The added element of a murdered spouse who stubbornly insists on haunting him is clever yes, but her motivation for doing so is glossed over, ending up being just another somewhat messy ingredient to the whole.  There is certainly some merit to Hatchet, but it is still more on the unremarkable side for Bava who would often take such thriller cliches to much more exciting terrain than here.

A BAY OF BLOOD
(1971)
Overall: MEH

What essentially amounts to "Everybody is horrible, the end", Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood, (Ecologia del delitto, Reazione a catena, Twitch of the Death Nerve, Carnage, and Blood Bath), was another giallo that wound up being wildly influential on the slasher genre.  Motifs such as the murder of young, carefree attractive people being naked and having sex plus the overall brutality of the killings themselves would be routinely adapted later on and for that reason, one could argue that this is the goriest overall Bava film.  It is also one of the more convoluted and frustratingly paced.  While it is certainly an interesting and odd choice to have virtually no music accompany any scene, Bava ultimately spends TOO much time building suspense and especially by the last act when random characters are showing up while it becomes almost impossible to keep anyone's purpose let alone identity straight, it is downright aggravating to watch people very, very slowly walk around in the dark when we know they are just going to get a big hunk of something sliced into their head at any second.  Then with the actual ending being positively ridiculous as if to convey that the entire movie was one big joke, the film is more of a curious entry into Bava's catalog than a good one

LISA AND THE DEVIL
(1974)
Overall: MEH

For his penultimate film released during his lifetime, Mario Bava was rewarded free reign by producer Alfredo Leone, but the result Lisa and the Devil, (El diablo se lleva a los muertos), is only partially successful.  Telly Savalas is a joy as a fiendishly conniving butler, confidently going about most of his scenes either talking to himself, singing, or sucking on a lollipop while all sorts of supernatural shenanigans are taking place around, (and most likely because of), him.  Bava could not make a movie of his look bad if he tried and the ideally sprawling, Gothic mansion where most of the movie takes place is eye popping in nearly every scene.  There are also some great, macabre visuals such as an entire dinner table adorned with almost comically creepy corpses.  The "huh?" story line is where things really fall apart though.  There are sinister reveals and enough appropriately cliche melodrama for such fare, but good luck trying to piece everything together as the plot is steadily perplexing.  Add a rather uncomfortable rape scene, (are any such scenes ever not uncomfortable?), and there are assuredly some elements that could have been improved upon if not removed all together.  The film was later re-cut with new footage for a more explicit, Exorcist cash-in called The House of Exorcism, but the version here is confusing enough as it is without all of the awkwardly forced nudity and gore.

1970s Mario Bava Part One

FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON
(1970)
Overall: MEH

When going through the filmography of Mario Bava, one is inevitably bound to come across some of his rightfully forgotten works.  The giallo Five Dolls for an August Moon, (5 bambole per la luna d'agosto), was not even given an American release at the time and Bava himself allegedly saw no artistic merit in the finished product.  Proving that he could be hired to churn out a competently made if highly forgettable movie on a dime for a European studio though, (which countless other directors made a living doing), the result is probably one of the worst giallos ever or at the very least one of the dumbest.  Using the loose framework of Agatha Christi's And Then There Were None, the script here is baffling, boring, and moronic by film's end, leaving us with a barrage of uninteresting characters that allows it to be anything but engaging.  Bava of course does his best to make the film work at least from a visual standpoint which gives it a sole saving grace.  There are some flashy camera angles and stylized set design that he is able to make use out of, occasionally letting us forget how asinine the plot is.  Still, keep this one at the bottom of your list for such fare as there are oodles better out there.

BARON BLOOD
(1972)
Overall: MEH

Though it is fun at times due to its Gothic atmosphere and Mario Bava's usual, clever direction and cinematography which he once again mostly performed himself, Baron Blood, (Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga), cannot quite triumph over its volley of problems.  Even the gleefully macabre and enjoyable ending still cannot help but to present lazily bypassed plotholes which also show up on the regular for the entire running time.  All of these are there only to give the finished product a few more shocks as well as textbook, horror movie bullet points to check off, but the indifference to logic gets too laughably distracting.  As is confoundingly common, the musical score is either perfectly fitting or atrociously wrong for such a movie.  While there are too many similar offenders to count, you cannot possibly compose a more ridiculous theme for a work of horror that conveys the polar opposite mood than this.  Pacing wise, Bava drops the ball during the second half which is ironically where most of the murders take place, yet also where we are told about seven dozen times that a parchment was destroyed that cannot undue a curse.  Characters then walk from place to place occasionally acting cheerful and normal when so much murder is happening.  The good bits are pretty good as usual for a Bava movie, but such a thing is only as solid as its whole and Baron Blood just does not pull it all off.

RABID DOGS
(1974)
Overall: GOOD

Venturing into the poliziotteschi film genre for the first and only time in his long career, Mario Bava's Rabid Dogs, (Cani arrabbiati, Kidnapped), is a fascinating work for a numerous reasons.  The movie was left incomplete at the time it was shot due to its producer and funder Roberto Loyola declaring bankruptcy, with the rights to it being left almost permanently in limbo.  While Bava never lived to see it released, decades later through various efforts including those of the filmmaker's son Lamberto, Rabid Dogs, (also shown as Semaforo rosso and Kidnapped), finally saw the light of day and it is like nothing else in his catalog.  Intentionally forgoing his Gothic, stylized horror efforts, the film is shown in real time, in broad daylight, and presents a claustrophobic, high tension, vile crime  atmosphere that is more nihilistic than anything else the director would ever attempt.  It is the only of Bava's works that really has any kind of political commentary, portraying the Years of Lead period in Italy as a thoughtfully bleak one where no one is a good guy.  Though it is still a plenty dramatic enough yarn, (based off of Michael J. Carroll's short story "Man and Boy" that appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine), and has a twist that is one for the books, the realism and stripped-down presentation is ambitious in and of itself while it shows a dynamic side to Bava that is quite impressive.

1960s Mario Bava Part Two

HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD
(1961)
Overall: GOOD

With his only entry in the Hercules franchise, (once which numerous countries over numerous years indulged in), Mario Bava does commendable work once again on an air-tight budget whilst juggling a joyously silly, over-stuffed plot.  Hercules In the Haunted World, (Ercole al centro della terra), has one time Mr. Universe Reg Park in the title role, which was his second time appearing as such with Hercules Conquers Atlantis also coming out the same year.  To help bolster the proceedings, Christopher Lee is appropriately on board as the villainous King Lico.  Unfortunately Lee's voice is dubbed in the English language version of the film, but he still commands respect in a role that could have been far more forgettable in the hands of a lesser thespian.  The plot here combines as many desperate, hammy elements as can be such as generously tweaked Greek mythology, melodramatic love arcs, a stone monster, and even vampires.  Bava not only keeps up the pace rather frantically while racing from one story element to the next, but his usual, striking use of color gets a full workout as he gets to decorate the lens with scenes transpiring in otherworldly planes such as Hades and an underground crypt.  In the latter, a slew of undead rise from their tombs to attack Hercules while flying at him with visible strings attached.  It is quite a fun experience where you can laugh at how most people in it just stare at dangerous things approaching them without running away and how Hercules' answer to practically every problem is "just throw giant rocks at it until it goes away".

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE
(1964)
Overall: GOOD

On the rather long list of significant Mario Bava films that would have a profound impact on horror cinema overall, his prominent giallo offering Blood and Black Lace, (6 donne per l'assassino, Blutige Seide), could be chief among them.  A masked killer stalking and killing pretty girls who lack the common sense to not be all alone nor turn any lights on wherever they happen to be getting murdered was not anything particularly new when Bava made the film, but the style with which he does so was unique.  Having the murders themselves be particularly brutal, the movie revolving around a fashion house which offers up above average sex appeal, and of course the inventive way in which he stages the kills with primitive colors, darkness, tracking shots, and silence would all become benchmarks of Italian slashers.  Though even outside of that country, you cannot name enough other movies that leisurely borrowed from the rules Bava sets up here.  While this would ultimately be for the worst as the 80s in particular begat the most boring and uninspired slasher sub-genre that still unfortunately lingers today, just like Psycho or Halloween, Blood and Black Lace can still be viewed as quite an exceptional precursor to *sigh* later garbage.

KILL, BABY, KILL
(1966)
Overall: GOOD

The most celebrated Gothic horror work of Mario Bava's career along with Black Sunday, Kill, Baby, Kill, (Operazione paura), proved as influential as any other Italian film in pretty much any genre.  The contemporary "creepy kid + toy ball = scary" motif can be directly traced back to here and thankfully Bava still cannot make his movies look anything but extraordinary, even if he tried.  Shooting both on location in Calcutta and at Titanus Appia Studios, the overly-cobwebbed, eerily lit sets are endlessly effective, wholly benefiting the movie's illogical, dreamlike narrative.  The production ran out of money while filming which not only forced the cast and Bava to work unpaid for much of it, but also warranted that they improvise the allegedly unfinished script and resort to using stock music.  These budgetary elements present the only fair problems one can sight as the plot is a bit too underdeveloped and the nearly relentless, unremarkable musical score gets in the way more often than not.  It is still highly impressive that Bava was able to make such a still lauded work with all of the obstacles faced.  It is no less flawed than many other good to excellent Italian horror outings, especially many that would come in its wake and freely borrow from its groundwork.

1960s Mario Bava Part One

BLACK SUNDAY

(1960)

Overall: GOOD

 

Though Mario Bava's stylized use of color is one of the most lauded talents he brought to horror cinema, the black and white Black Sunday, (The Mask of Satan, Revenge of the Vampire, La Maschera del Demonio), still probably sits in most people's mind as his definitive film.  It is certainly one of the most atmospheric Gothic horror movies ever made and would prove largely influential across the globe, reestablishing Universal's monster movie tropes for more generations to come.  Particularly in Italy, logic and realism are rarely a concern and memorable visuals, gore, and moody evilness instead take center stage.  This is certainly the case here, where silly moments could become distracting if not for the near suffocatingly dreadful and sinister ambiance that oozes from every frame.  Shadows, darkness, crypts, spiderwebs, howlings, plus a thousand other horror staples are all exploited marvelously here, with the added element of gore and sexual tension.  The only shortcomings present are with the melodrama and lousy musical score, both of which are common drawbacks of the era more than anything else.  Still, this established both Bava's reputation as a master in in the genre as well as British actor Barbara Steele's place as arguably Europe's premier scream queen.

 

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
(1963)
Overall: GOOD

Serving as both Mario Bava's final film in black and white as well as one that is regularly regarded as the first official giallo, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, (La ragazza che sapeva troppo, The Evil Eye), is a historically important thriller from one of horror's most important filmmakers.  There are a couple of instances where Bava lets the flow drag a bit, failing to successfully ride that line of building tension where instead, some of the scenes become drawn-out and snore-inducing.  There are some tonal problems as well when the movie occasionally decides to be a comedy, though this almost happens enough to conclude that it was meant not to be taken all that seriously.  Bava himself was not that impressed with the senseless script or from working with American John Saxton who allegedly practiced his martial arts too much on set for the director's liking.  Issues aside, the film is photographed beautifully, with Bava doubling as cinematographer.  Shooting locations such as the Spanish Steps and the Trinità dei Monti in Rome are shown in expansive, shadow-drenched ways.  As a precursor to the giallo film which would begin to get made in growing abundance over the following years, Bava proves quite innovative not so much in the slasher aspects of the sub-genre but more in the film noir/crime mystery ones where a pretty girl sees "too much", gets threatened, and becomes hellbent on discovering her pursuer.

THE WHIP AND THE BODY
(1963)
Overall: MEH

Drastically flawed due to its arduous pacing, The Whip and the Body, (La frusta e il corpo, What!, Night Is the Phantom), is nearly recommendable as a high water mark for Mario Bava's fantastic, visual style at least.  The film was put together deliberately as an Italian answer to Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum and Bava was brought in to direct and act as cinematographer, (uncredited), while Christopher Lee was scored in a practically tailor-made part as a sadomasochistic, black sheep of a noble family.  From a pure optical standpoint, this is a triumph as Bava works his true strengths framing nearly every shot beautifully in expressive color pallets and shadows while staging some purely memorable scenes involving hands emerging out of blackness, eerily-lit crypts and hallways, and intense closeups of women's terrified eyes.  Lee is naturally menacing and brutish, and even though his screen time is rather minimal, the most is made out of his foreboding demeanor.  Sadly though, the movie is sloooooooooooooow as all hell.  It becomes cumbersome how so many shots linger on and on while the story itself has virtually nothing to it.  The whole thing succumbs to a boring game of people seeing and hearing things, screaming, and then other people running in to tell them it was all in their imagination.

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES
(1965)
Overall: MEH

Mario Bava did not dip his toes too frequently into sci-fi throughout his career, making Planet of the Vampires, (Terrore nello Spazio), a rather unique work.  Virtually all of its story elements are standard, familiar stuff with an alien force mysteriously overtaking a bunch of marooned astronauts.  Yet while the script is not the most ingeniously original of its kind, it has some merit for its creepy atmosphere and colorful look which is straight out of pulp science fiction comics.  The film was internationally financed by studios in American, Spain, and Italy and the ethnically diverse, (and post dubbed of course), cast are just as varied.  Being made cheaply as a double feature though, the lack of budget is charmingly noticeable and Bava works quite a few wonders drenching the small sets with enough vibrant, multi-colored fog to obscure the plastic rocks and clunky toy spaceship.  The big, giant alien skulls look pretty damn cool too.  The only problem really is a common one in that the movie drags and absolutely no investment is made to flesh out any of the characters.  This makes it problematic to care as everyone simply goes through the motions exploring their environment, trying to fix their ship to return to earth, and tediously discovering what is going on.

1960s Boris Karloff Part (Nineteen Sixty) Three

BLACK SABBATH
(1963)
Dir - Mario Bava
Overall: MEH 

Anthology horror almost always produces uneven results and two of the three tales in Mario Bava's Black Sabbath, (I tre volti della paura), indeed suffer greatly.  Not surprisingly, it is the two that were tweaked with by American International Pictures afterwards for the U.S. version.  "Telephone" is by far the weakest and also got the short end of the stick with the most editing against Bava's original.  Michèle Mercier's Rosy may be the most textbook "dumb broad" in all of horror cinema as a menacing guy keeps calling her, giving her play-by-play details as to clearly announce that he is watching her every move, and she just continues to get ready for bed, makes a drink, and of course answers the phone each and every time.  In other words never once calling the police or running to her neighbor screaming "There's a guy watching me who's gonna kill me!".  The most beloved segment here is Boris Karloff's sole-vampire portrayal in "The Wurdalak" but this one is botched up by laughable melodrama and further, typically stupid behavior from people in horror movies.  "The Drop of Water" on the other hand is Bava in peak form.  Short, almost comically creepy, and to the point, it is masterfully paced and uses a minimal soundtrack to wrack up the tension.

THE RAVEN
(1963)
Dir - Roger Corman
Overall: GREAT 

The previous year's anthology Tales of Terror had featured "The Black Cat" which went in a comedic direction and both Roger Corman and writer Richard Matheson fancied doing an entire film with a more funny tone.  Taking the title of Poe's most famous work The Raven, they rightly figured you could go anywhere with that for roughly ninety-minutes and a story of dueling sorcerers was born.  As good and funny as the script is and as wonderful as the final showdown between Price's Erasmus Craven and Boris Karloff's more diabolical Scarabus likewise is, the sets are truly exceptional.  They were later used in The Terror which was shot immediately afterwards to cash-in on production being wrapped-up early and everything from Craven's father's old layerd-in-dust work-shop to Scarabus's sprawling, main interior, (with an indoor, gargoyle-guarded fire pit no less), are just fascinating to look at.  When everything looks so goddamn good, you have Price and Karloff delivering nothing but class, Peter Lorre adlibbing hilarious silliness, Corman's effortlessly tight direction, and Matheson's splendid script, you simply cannot lose.

THE TERROR
(1963)
Dir - Roger Corman/Francis Ford Coppola/Jack Hill/Monte Hellman/Jack Nicholson
Overall: MEH

One of the strangest productions ever which involves a multitude of known talent, The Terror is quite the fascinating dull movie.  Roger Corman is as known for his haphazard and rushed production jobs as he is for anything else and this is more or less the benchmark example.  The far superior by ask-anyone's-standards The Raven was wrapped up early so instead of tearing down the impressive castle interior sets that were built for it, (as well as the same year's The Haunted Palace, likewise with Vincent Price and likewise a light-years-better film), Corman decided to shoot some scenes with Boris Karloff, Richard Miller, and a young Jack Nicholson of all people.  By the way, this was all done with no script.  Various other future filmmakers shot some scenes, (including Francis Ford Coppola), and really quickly and really cheaply, a sort-of-competent full-length movie was made.  If the results would have been a jumbled, ridiculous mess then it probably would endure as a laugh, but unfortunately it is just lousy.  There are some silly twists and one or two not-bad horror moments including face melting and eyeball pecking scenes, but the pacing bogs the mystery down considerably, said mystery reeking of being hammered out in about an hour or so on a typewriter.  Considering that that is probably exactly what happens, one can hardly be surprised.