LA FRUSTA E IL CORPO (THE WHIP AND THE BODY aka WHAT) 1963

 

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 It could be argued that Mario Bava reached his pinnacle as a director in 1963. There was the classic anthology I TRE VOLTI DELLA PAURA (BLACK SABBATH) and the early Giallo (and Bava's last B&W film) LARAGAZZA CHE SAPEVA TROPPO (THE EVIL EYE or THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH) and this lush gothic that while having all the trademarks of Italian horror & classic gothic ambiance also mixes in a healthy dollop of front & center sadomasochism. 

Along with Bava's trademark breathtaking direction and use of color, and gliding prowling camera there is also a very literate (and very adult-themed) script by Ernesto Gastaldi (THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH, and ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK plus countless other classics) and one of Christopher Lee's finest performances along with the gorgeous presence of Daliah Lavi (TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN). And there's Harriet Medin (THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE) as a sinister housekeeper. THE WHIP AND THE BODY has often been critiqued for being slow-moving but although it does move at a languid pace it allows the viewer to soak in its glorious gothic atmosphere and be drawn into the encroaching feeling of dread 

Like many Italian horror films of the period (and a theme in Bava's films) the plot centers on an upper-class aristocratic family with corruption and decadence threatening to destroy it from within. Because of its outright in-your-face themes of sex and sadomasochism (which Luis Buñuel's BELLE DE JOUR from 1967 perhaps drew some inspiration from), THE WHIP AND THE BODY ran into censor problems throughout the world. In the U.S. and Britain (released as WHAT or PHANTOM OF THE NIGHT) it was cut to 77 min. and had all the whipping sequences removed which made for an incomprehensible storyline.

Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) returns home to his family's seaside castle after being ostracized after an affair with a servant girl that led to her suicide. Kurt's return is meant with anger by his father Count Vladimir Menliff (Gustavo De Nardo BLACK SABBATH and a favorite character actor of Bava) and both anger and fear by his brother Christian ("Tony Kendall" -Luciano Stella RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD 1973) when it becomes obvious immediately that Kurt intends not only to reclaim his family title but also plans to reignite his S&M-tinged affair with Nevenka (Daliah Lavi) who is now newly-married to Christian. In a nice macabre touch, the housekeeper Giorgia (Harriet Medin) whose daughter was the ill-fated lover of Kurt's, keeps the dagger which she committed suicide with displayed in a glass case with roses.  

Soon after arriving Kurt comes across Nevenka reclining on the beach where she (rather meekly) tries to ward him off with her riding crop whereupon he tears the clothes off her back and begins to viciously whip her bareback and in one of the more weirdly perverse sequences in '60s Euro-horror she begins to enjoy the whipping as her expression changes from terror to sexual excitement. Soon after Kurt is killed by an unseen assailant using the same dagger that Giorgia's daughter used in her suicide. Then begins supernatural appearances which may be real or the result of Nevenka's deteriorating mental state.

Although dealing with sexual perversion this also stands as one of Bava's most lushly romantic films and one of his great troupes as a director was his ability to take traditional gothic horror themes and merge them with more adult themes which started with BLACK SUNDAY 1960 and would reach its apex with LISA AND THE DEVIL 1973. THE WHIP AND THE BODY has all the hallmarks of gothic horror and here all infused with the director's trademark beautiful almost hallucinatory lighting. For me along with HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD 1961 (which was Lee's only other work for Bava), this is his most beautiful film. The cinematographer of credit is Ulbaldo Terzano (who also worked with Bava on BLOOD AND BLACK LACE 1964, BLACK SABBATH 1963, and THE ROAD TO FT. ALAMO 1964) but Bava as usual was the major force behind the look of the film including several of his gorgeous glass paintings for background effects. 

Unlike other horror films of the era that crept gently around the subjects of sex and perversion here it is brought right to the forefront (and not subtly) that the plot's main driving force is sadomasochism (which is why in the heavily censored versions the motivations of the two main characters are left in the void). Bava's usual U.S. distributor A.I.P balked at releasing it because of the sexual overtones and it languished for a couple of years before being released in 1965 by the small Futuramic Releasing in a heavily censored incompressible version that bore the appropriate title of WHAT.

Lee is excellent here (although sadly his distinctive voice is dubbed) and although the aristocratic a-hole is a part he could play in his sleep he is magnificent here and even though he disappears for the most part 20 minutes in, his presence looms over the entire film. This was his favorite of his Italian productions. One of Lee's gifts was pantomime (which was why he was so great in his Hammer "non-speaking" roles such as the creatures in THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN or THE MUMMY) and he uses that talent wonderfully here especially with close-ups of his hands. The plot even manages to get him into a coffin at one point. 

Daliah Lavi's Nevenka is the main narrative focus and an exceedingly complex character in which Lavis conveys pity for and wonderfully shows her fragile mental state as she becomes more and more detached from reality. It is an extremely complex character and not the usual Gothic heroine and she seems to revel in the chance to show her acting chops. 

Carlo Rustichelli contributes a beautiful score, and the film's seaside location will be familiar to anyone who is seen Bava's filmography including 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON, SHOCK, and a barbarian-rampaging Cameron Mitchell in KNIVES OF THE AVENGER and ERIK THE CONQUEROR. Bava originally wanted Barbara Steele for the role of Nevenka but she was in one of her "no more horror roles" phases (probably from having just worked in Fellini's 8 1/2) but I think Lavi is perfect here. 

Lee and Bava were supposed to work again on a version of H.P. Lovecraft’s THE DUNWICH HORROR for A.I.P. which was also to star Boris Karloff. The project fell apart and eventually was made in 1970 and directed by Daniel Haller.

THE SKULL 1965

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"When The Skull Strikes, You'll Scream!!"

     Formed in 1962 by American producers/screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg as a UK based film company, Amicus was to compete in the what was then rapidly growing British horror industry which was initiated by Hammer with CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) and DRACULA (1958). In a pre-Amicus period, the duo collaborated on the magnificent THE CITY OF THE DEAD in 1960 and earlier in the '50s had proposed a Frankenstein script for American producers A.A.P. who in turn forwarded the script to Hammer and Subotsky went to his grave insisting he should be listed as a producer on CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

   Although most famous for their anthologies Amicus also released a fair number of stand-alone horrors which range from the ridiculously fun (THE DEADLY BEES 1966) to the wonderful Gothic overdrive of 1973's AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS! (which I really hope some fellow blogger will cover). 1965's THE SKULL was Amicus's second horror film after DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS and stands out as one their best efforts featuring the always welcome duo of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee along with a gaggle of British character actors and inventive direction by Freddie Francis. The film (however lightly) contains themes & relationships that are head and shoulders above what Hammer was tackling in their run of Gothic horrors and psychological thrillers.

    The script by Subotsky (based upon a short story by Robert Bloch) could have easily fit into one of Amicus's anthology works as after the initial story set up a not really happens but because of its strong cast and Francis direction, it never feels padded (although there are few instances of characters coming and going from the same location to complete a single task). This was also due to fact that Francis had to pad out the script, which only amounted to 52 minutes of running time, to which he also added fluid long tracking shots with stretches of no dialogue which was unheard in horror films of the time.
     Opening with a bit of preamble to the origins of the title "character" a trio of grave robbers led by Pierre (Maurice Good QUATERMASS AND THE PIT) are shown excavating the body of the Marquis De Sade. Chopping off the head Pierre scuttles back to his quarters where is surprised by the uninvited sight of his unnamed mistress (April Olrich) in the bathtub (with a surprising amount of backside nudity for a film from this era). Quickly dipping the head in acid he's interrupted by an unseen calamity which is mirrored in a closeup of his screaming mistress face (and Olrich is a great screamer by the way).
    Jumping ahead to contemporary times we're introduced to Christopher Maitland (Cushing) and Sir Matthew Phillips (Lee) fellow collectors of weird and satanic objects d'art who are at an auction presided over by the scenery-chewing Michael Gough (in a short cameo). Maitland is approached by the seedy Marco (Patrick Wymark THE BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW) a supplier of strange artifacts to the two men who ends selling Maitland a satanic book bound of human skin. Teasing him with the promise of a special piece he later returns to Maitland's with a skull purporting to be that of the Marquis de Sade (which also gives us the rest of the flashback story from the preamble). Deferring on the purchase he later finds out from Sir Matthew that the skull was stolen from him but he is reluctant to pursue its return as he claims he has a certain diabolical "power" over its owner.

     Soon Maitland comes to possess the skull and finds that it does indeed make for a disturbing piece in his collection. Although Lee and Cushing share only a few scenes together as Lee's role is just a cameo it's interesting to see them pitted against each other as rival-obsessed collectors (a trait familiar to many of my fellow video collectors I'm sure). Maitland claims that he's acquiring the items for "research" seems to be an excuse mealy for his character to revel in various he ignores everything around him us objects notorious past histories and shut out the duties of marriage & responsibilities. His obviously long-suffering wife (played by Jill Bennett from Hammer's THE NANNY in a sadly underused role) is resigned to the fact that she secondary to his collection as the couple sleep in separate rooms. Anna Palk who was a lead in THE FROZEN DEAD and TOWER OF EVIL has a small role as Cushing's housekeeper and one wonders if both roles were cut down at some point in production.
     Set up as the nominal hero (or even anti-hero) Maitland is not a very nice person, but it's to Cushing's credit that as an actor he enlists sympathy, as you feel for the character he begins to descend into evil. As I mentioned before his "collecting" mania enters his personality and the sleazy Marko knows exactly how to play him in to snag him into a deal while Lee even with his short screen time seems much more grounded and rational.
     Francis used a large skull apparatus on the front of the camera to give a pov view through the skull's eye sockets and as to be expected he makes great use of the scope compositions, plus you'll want to freeze the picture at certain points just to study all the creepy bric-a-brac displayed in Cushing's study. There's a terrific Kafka-like dream sequence that looks like something out of an Avengers TV show with a creepy set design.
    Peter Woodthrope (who had just co-starred with Cushing in THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN) shows up as Marco's shady landlord and there's Nigel Green (COUNTESS DRACULA) and Patrick Magee (DEMONS OF THE MIND) as the fact-based police inspectors.
   A very big thanks goes out to Cinematic Catharsis & Reelweegiemidget Reviews for hosting this blogatohn.