Il mostro dell'opera (1964) [f/1961]

... aka: Il vampiro dell'opera (The Vampire of the Opera)

... aka: L'orgie des vampires (The Vampire Orgy)

... aka: Monster of the Opera, The

Directed by:

Renato Polselli

Though predated a few years by I VAMPIRI (1957), the international hit BLACK SUNDAY (1960), itself prompted into existence by recent period-set, costume horror successes from UK's Hammer, is usually given credit for kick starting the gothic horror revival in Italy. Soon after, dozens of similar films were produced there over the next five or so years, many quite beautifully and atmospherically shot in black-and-white, though some were in color (and no less beautifully or atmospherically shot when in the hands of someone like Mario Bava). While most of these suffered from pacing, story and dialogue issues, often due to the horrendous dubbing they received and hack-job re-edits, others suffered more because they barely received much of a release at all. 

Case in point is The Monster of the Opera. This was shot all the way back in 1961 but not released until three years later. It never even made it over here to the U.S., nor to any other English-speaking country, and thus never received an English-friendly release until over half a century after the fact. That means the movie not only didn't play in theaters, but it also didn't turn up on late night TV nor in video rental shops and was never able to build up any kind of reputation whatsoever. I'm only aware of Italian and French theatrical releases and wasn't even able to find an old video release in either of those countries. Once you actually sit through the movie itself, it all starts making sense.

 

We're hit in the face with the film's true intentions right at the start, as a beautiful young woman in a see-through negligee (though wearing bra and panties - this was still the early 60s, after all!) is pursued through an abandoned theater and then outside by a vampire brandishing a HUGE pitchfork. That gives way to a bunch of voluptuous starlets stretching, gossiping, giggling and dancing around in their leotards. One gets the immediate impression that much more screen time is going to be dedicated to showcasing the charms of the female cast as it will be to the horror elements, and that's exactly what happens here. Something mildly refreshing starts taking shape after a few minutes, though. In a subgenre known for evil, duplicitous and / or depressive characters in dreary period settings, we're introduced to a bunch of bouncy and vibrant young folks who laugh, flirt, make jokes, play pranks and run around happily spouting witty dialogue in a modern day setting.

"Marc Maryan" / Marco Mariani (TOMB OF TORTURE) stars as aspiring theater director Sandro, who's filled with good spirits and enthusiasm after having purchased an old, run-down theater called Aquarius. OK, so the place is rumored to be haunted, former performers claim to have been trapped inside by "invisible walls," a handful of previous actresses who'd performed there vanished without a trace and were never seen again, psychics who tried to investigate were driven away by a "sinister presence" and the building's grumpy caretaker, Achille ("Albert Archet" / Alberto Archetti), tries in vain to steer him away from the purchase, but it's just too good of a deal to pass up! It's also the perfect place for Sandro to stage his new play, which has been rejected by all of the other theaters. Now he won't have to worry about any of that since he'll be calling all of the shots. Soon, the theater is overrun with high energy cast and crew; guys in skeleton costumes and girls in undies, babydoll nighties and short, short togas (part of the play seems to be set in Roman times).

Giulia (Barbara Hawards), the production's lead actress, and also Sandro's leading lady off stage, has a strange feeling she's been there before. She also has a strange feeling she's met Achille before. That's because both have been prominently featured in a recurring nightmare she's been having about a vampire. Said vampire, Stefano ("John McDouglas" / Giuseppe Addobbati), eventually shows up in the flesh (at the midway point!) and (nearly an hour into this 80-minute film) attempts to put the bite to dancer Rossana (Vittoria Prada) but she manages to get away, Who he really wants is Giulia, the reincarnation of Laura, a (married) lover from hundreds of years ago who betrayed him. 

One of the lone good ideas here is that lying in the vampire's coffin and closing the lid allows one to enter into the bloodsucker's fogbound hidden lair, which appears to be in some kind of alternate dimension. There, he keeps a half dozen vampire brides, who've all gone mad, chained to the walls.

From a strictly visual standpoint, this is decent. There's good-looking black-and-white photography, a wonderful shooting location inside the old theater, nice art direction, lighting and use of shadow and fog, and some surprisingly good camerawork. The premise holds promise, the general atmosphere is quite good and things start out fun, but that fun soon gives way to tedium. Things move at a snail's pace, the plot is virtually nonexistent, the vampire is treated almost as an afterthought and most of the time is spent alternating between showing the girls running around shrieking and doing either their choreographed dances or impromptu frantic ones. While cleaning up, the cast randomly break into the Charleston and this hilariously even has the cast forced into a dance-for-your-life situation to ward off the evil at the end, as if this didn't already have too many filler dance scenes! The large cast also ensures that no one is really given much of a personality.

In addition to being a leg and undies fest, this puts a lot of focus on PG lesbianism, with the girls longingly staring into each other's eyes, caressing each other's shoulders, rubbing each other's legs, embracing, getting right in each other's faces as if they're about to kiss and, after a few are turned into vamps, nibbling on each other's necks. "Don't you feel that a friendship between two women is pure?" one dancer tells another as she seductively runs her fingers through her friend's hair. Instead of acting horrified, several of the girls act like they're in ecstasy when they're "speared" with the pitchfork, which is used to pin people down, not kill them. Subtle this is not. These bits may also explain why this was barely released. That, and the fact it's all pretty nonsensical and boring.

Most of the names in the cast list have been Anglicized, so it's difficult to know the true identity of most of these folks, though many appear to have been real-life dancers. Lead Barbara Hawards (most likely a pseudonym; she's called "Barbara Howard" on the posters) is very lovely so it's a shame this may have been her only film. Lost in the sea of other dancers is Milena Vukotic (playing "Carlotta"), the only one of the ladies who went on to much of an acting career. A trained dancer / ballerina herself, Vukotic would later act for the likes of Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel and Andrei Tarkovsky and win most of Italy's top acting awards.

The director, who also co-wrote the script with Ernesto Gastaldi, had previously made THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA (1960), another entry in the 1960s Italian black-and-white Gothic cycle (also a much better film than this one), and would go on to work on some sleazier 70s genre films (usually utilizing the alias "Ralph Brown") like DELIRIUM (1972), MANIA (1974) and EROTIC GAMES OF A RESPECTABLE FAMILY (1975).

Discounting a French DVD release under the title L'orgie des vampires, which featured an English sub option but cobbled together a print from two different sources, the first English-friendly version was released by Sinister Cinema in 2020. That was followed by its inclusion in the 2023 Severin box set "Danza Macabra Volume One," which also included the forgettable THE SEVENTH GRAVE (1965), the mediocre SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER (1970) and, the most enjoyable of the lot by a fair margin, the minor cult classic Lady Frankenstein (1971).

★1/2

Mad Magician, The (1954)

... aka: El mago asesino (The Murderous Magician)

... aka: Il mostro delle nebbie (The Monster of the Mist)

... aka: La máscara siniestra (The Sinister Mask)

... aka: Le tueur porte un masque (The Killer Wears a Mask)

... aka: Magier des Schreckens (Mage of Dread)

Directed by:

John Brahm

Due to the monumental success of the 3D release House of Wax (1953), which was the highest-grossing horror film of the entire decade (also one of the highest grossing horror films of all time when adjusted for inflation), this project made perfect sense. Another 3D horror film starring Vincent Price from the same producer (Bryan Foy) and writer (Crane Wilbur), and released the same month almost exactly a year apart? Money in the bank, right? The only big change was in directors, with John Brahm subbing for André De Toth, but that in itself was promising. Brahm had a good track record with genre films, having already made The Undying Monster (1942), The Lodger (1944) and Hangover Square (1945); all very solid efforts. Seems like this was destined to be another big hit and yet... it somehow wasn't. 

Despite a pretty extensive PR campaign, The Mad Magician pretty much tanked. Based on the box office numbers I was able to drum up for 1954, it didn't even break the top 100 by the end of the year. That's quite a fall from grace considering Wax was the fourth largest North American box office draw just a year before, selling a whopping 39+ million tickets.

There are many reasons this likely happened. For starters, the film simply isn't as good as Wax, reviews were poor and back then word got around. Second, there were a number of major 3D horror releases that beat this one to theaters, including the hit Creature from the Black Lagoon, which was released just two months earlier. The tipping point of audience disinterest in 3D seemed to occur right after Creature when Phantom of the Rue Morgue, a March release from the same studio behind Wax (Warner Bros.) fell well below box office expectations. Magician landed a month after that. 

Other factors that potentially could have contributed was this one being shot in black-and-white (as opposed to the color Wax) and the fact there were a number of notable horror, sci-fi and suspense films released this same year. Alfred Hitchcock had two big hits alone: Dial M for Murder (another 3D release) and Rear Window (the second most popular film of the year). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Them!, The Naked Jungle and the aforementioned Creature were other high-performing films that audiences of the day apparently were more interested in.

Don Gallico (Price) has spent years coming up with showstopping magic tricks for other magicians. Now it's his time in the spotlight as "Gallico the Great." He puts together his own elaborate stage show that he hopes will wow audiences and eventually land him a lucrative gig on Broadway. Part of his act involves doing impersonations of other popular magicians (like a full prosthetic make-up job and curling his hair into little devil horns when he's imitating "The Great Rinaldi"), but the show mostly hinges on his one "prized shocker" of an illusion called "The Lady and the Buzzsaw." Though he's made it as fool proof as possible, there's still an outside chance for disaster. After all, it uses a REAL giant saw blade. He even bills it as "The most dangerous exhibition ever attempted."

Right before Gallico and his sweet / naïve assistant Karen Lee (the lovely Mary Murphy) can perform the trick, the curtain suddenly goes down and the show is canceled. Ross Ormond (Donald Randolph), who owns Illusion Inc., a company that makes tricks for magicians that Gallico works for, serves him with an injunction. Turns out that part of his contract stipulates that anything created by any of his employees is owned by him and cannot be used without his authorization. It doesn't even matter that Gallico made his contraption on his own time and using his own money, Ormond now has complete control over it and who uses it. He orders the saw be transported back to his workshop and then offers it to the REAL Great Rinaldi (John Emery - ROCKETSHIP X-M) to use in HIS show.

The greedy Ormond is using his leverage to advance the career of Rinaldi because he's part owner of his show and doesn't want any competition. Not only that, but Ormond has already stabbed Gallico in the back once already. Years earlier when he met the struggling aspiring magician working for peanuts in a carnival, he not only offered him a contract, he also stole his wife. Gallico's money-grubbing ex Claire (third-billed Eva Gabor, who's in just two scenes) decided to divorce him and marry Ormond instead because he had the means to provide the luxurious lifestyle she desired. After being hit with one too many blows, Gallico snaps, grabs Ormond, strangles him, punches him and then goes into a screaming fit ("Why don't ya laugh at me now? Go on, laugh! Laaaahh-yef!") as he decapitates him with the saw!

An expert sculptor and mask maker, Gallico crafts a very lifelike mask of Ormond, disposes of the body during a college bonfire and proceeds to impersonate him. He starts calling himself "Ward Jameson" and rents a room from (oops!) mystery novelist Alice Prentiss (Lenita Lane) and her husband Frank (Jay Novello), where he can come and go as he pleases and work on his "experiments." 

As he's trying to hide out and stay low key, various characters cause problems for him. Claire is now searching for her missing husband, and even attempts to seduce the same ex-husband she stabbed in the back to tide her over in the meantime. The Great Rinaldi is still snooping around and now wants dibs on Gallico's latest contraption, "The Crematorium." Karen happens to be dating Lt. Alan Bruce (Patrick O'Neal), who's put in charge of finding out what happened to Ormond and is employing a new (for the 19th century setting, that is!) policing method: fingerprinting suspects. And when Alice isn't writing books like "Murder Is a Must," she fancies herself an amateur sleuth and starts looking into Gallico herself. More murders follow.

Asking whether or not Price gives a fun performance is basically like asking if water is wet. Of course he does! This can even be seen as a dry run for his later The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Theater of Blood (1973), which also allowed the actor to don a succession of different disguises. His presence alone is enough to bump what is otherwise a 2 star / average movie up by half a point. That said, this is far from his best showing and probably the worst genre film he made in the 50s; "worst" being a relative term because the others are all quite good. Though the murders are almost entirely off-screen (bloodless and tame even for the time), the quirky side characters, sense of humor and production values at least partially make up for it.

After this failed at the box office, Price ventured away from the genre for a number of years until the likes of The Fly (1958) and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) put him back on top. His status as a genre icon was then solidified by his run of Roger Corman Poe films and a number of key titles (mostly British productions) from the late 60s through the 70s.

Corey Allen, who'd appear in Rebel Without a Cause the following year before becoming an Emmy-winning TV director, has a small uncredited role as Gus the stagehand. Lyle Talbot (Plan 9 from Outer Space) also has a small role as a program hawker at a Rinaldi show, as does Roy Engel as a detective and (supposedly) Conrad Brooks as an extra in the bonfire scene.

Obviously Columbia was in no big hurry to get this out to the masses as a home video release. It was one of the only Price genre films from the time to have never received a legit VHS release during the entire video era. In 2012, it finally made its DVD debut courtesy of Sony, which was followed by a Mill Creek release in 2015 and then a Blu-ray in 2017 from Twilight Time. The latter comes with 2D and 3D viewing options, a commentary track (with David Del Valle) and the 20-minute featurette Master of Fright: Conjuring the Mad Magician.

★★1/2