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Released by: Midnight Choir
Released on: 2/24/09
Directors: Mario Bava/Lucio Fulci
Cast: Christopher Lee, Daliah Lavia/Adrienne Larussa, Tomas Milian
Year: 1963/1969
The Movie:
Midnight Choir teams up an interesting pair of period thrillers from directors Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci respectively and while Bava's entry was released previously by VCI, the Fulci film appears on DVD in North America for the first time. Here's a peek:
The Whip And The Body
Mario Bava's 1963 thriller, The Whip And The Body, is set in the nineteenth century and stars Christopher Lee as Kurt Menliff, a nobleman who returns to the family castle after a long stint away from home where he soon finds himself in constant disagreement with his ailing father. Kurt's wimpy younger brother, Christian (Tony Kendall), is married to Kurt's ex-flame, Nevenka (Daliah Lavi), who also happens to be their cousin. The day after Kurt arrives home, he's lifeless body is found dead in the bedroom, the victim of an unseen assailant.
Shortly after Kurt's death, however, Nevenka starts seeing his ghost, or what she thinks is his ghost, roaming the halls of the castle and the lands that surround it, and this ghost is none too happy to be dead. But who killed Kurt? Everyone had a motive. He was a bit of an asshole, after all, and he had few friends in life thanks to his penchant for cruelty and his constant mistreatment of those around him. Is Kurt really back from the dead and looking for vengeance?
Beautifully shot and full of gorgeous visuals, The Whip And The Body is, according to the packaging at least, one of Lee's favorites out of the many roles that he's played over the years and it's easy to see why. He's given ample opportunity to 'play the bastard' in this one and he does do a fine job of it. Additionally, solid supporting efforts from the gorgeous Lavi and the enjoyable Tony Kendall do a good job of rounding out the cast nicely. Everyone looks their part, their features seemingly quite appropriate and fitting the characters, Lee especially who has a sour look on his face throughout much of the proceedings, one that works in his performance's favor. He looks as miserable as his character behaves!
Being a Bava film, it shouldn't surprise those who know his work that this is a film filled with beautiful cinematography, gorgeous color schemes and lush production values. The gothic atmosphere is complimented by the constant use of primary colors here, and the cinematography, courtesy of Bava and Ubaldo Terzano, does a great job of making use of the shadowy locales where the movie was shot. Carlo Rustichelli's score fits the film like a glove, enhancing the more atmospheric parts of the film and adding plenty of dramatic effect to the rest of it.
Conspiracy Of Torture
The second film is one of Fulci's more thematically interesting pictures. Better known as Beatrice Cenci, the film is set in the 1500s where the Ms. Cenci (Adrienne Larussa), the daughter of a wealthy local landowner named Francesco Cenci (Georges Wilson), is kept locked up in a dungeon by her cruel father. If that weren't bad enough, her father's also prone to beating her and periodically having his way with her against her will. Thankfully, Beatrice has a pair of allies in the form of her step-mother and the family servant, Olimpio (Tomas Milian) and together the three plot the murder of Beatrice's old man, with some welcome help from a local crook named Catalano (Ignazio Spalla).
After daddy's been put to death, you'd think all would be well for Beatrice, who has fallen for Olimpio, but there is the small matter of the blood on her hands, something that the local authorities would very much like to know more about. When the trio is found out, Olimpio and then Beatrice herself are brutally tortured.
Told through a series of flashbacks, Beatrice Cenci, like many of Fulci's films, is not particularly kind to the Catholic Church, painting many of its members as despotic and cruel. That said, Fulci's film is a remarkably engrossing one and far more than just a thinly veiled rant against The Vatican. While the film feels very personal at times because of its anti-Catholic slant, a recurring theme in his pictures (watch Don't Torture A Ducking for further proof that the man had no love for the Pope and his people), it's a fairly accessible work when compared to his harder edge 'gore' pictures, ironically the films that the late director remains best known for. Beautifully shot by Erico Mencer and making great use of its rural locations, the film is an interesting examination of right and wrong and a fine, introspective picture that makes you question established religious morality without ever ramming one specific ideology down the audience's throat.
The gorgeous Adrienne Larussa and the always enjoyable Tomas Milian make for a great pair of leads, and their doomed romance here is quite believable. They do a fine job with the material and their performances are strong throughout. While the film is more of a tragedy than a horror film, it's got an eerie atmosphere to it and enough nastiness to the torture scenes that genre fans won't feel alienated. The film is expertly directed and stands as one of the late director's most inspired works.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Whip And The Body is presented in a nice 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen progressive scan transfer as is Conspiracy Of Torture hits DVD. While it's entirely possible that these transfers were culled from European releases, the image quality is strong throughout despite some shimmering here and there. Colors look nice throughout and there aren't any problems with heavy print damage even if both films do show some minor wear and tear in some spots. A welcome coat of mild grain is present throughout but it's never overpowering while skin tones look lifelike and natural throughout. There are some mild compression artifacts in a couple of scenes that aren't particularly difficult to spot, but aside from that, the image quality is pretty strong across the board on this double feature release.
Both films are presented in English language Dolby Digital Mono dubs. Audio quality is about what you'd expect from a pair of older mono tracks in that the range is obviously limited and sometimes things sound a little bit on the flat side. That said, hiss and distortion are never a big problem and the levels are well balanced throughout.
Extras include the original theatrical trailer for The Whip And The Body and the German theatrical trailer for Conspiracy Of Torture - that's it.
The Final Word:
The extras are weak but the transfers are decent enough and both The Whip And The Body and Conspiracy Of Torture stand the test of time very well as sterling examples of what Bava and Fulci were capable of.