Mr. Sardonicus (1961)

... aka: A Máscara do Horror (A Mask of Horror)

... aka: Der unheimliche Mr. Sardonicus (The Scary Mr. Sardonicus)

... aka: El barón Sardonicus (Baron Sardonicus)

... aka: Sardonicus

Directed by:
William Castle

"It's good to see you again, my homicidal fiends!" Director William Castle opens the film with an amusing prologue to let us know we're in for "...an old-fashioned story, full of gallantry and graciousness and ghouls!" Things begin in a very hazy London circa 1880, where a strange, one-eyed man drops off an important letter for brilliant young doctor Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis). The urgent letter asks him to return to a (fictional) Central European town called Gorslava. Since it was written by his lost love Maude (Audrey Dalton), who was forced into an arranged marriage to the very wealthy, much older nobleman Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) by her father years earlier, Robert decides to cancel all of his appointments indefinitely, postpone being one of the first to make use of a brand new invention (the hypodermic needle) and boards a train toward Gorslava. Upon arrival, Robert is met by at the station by the one-eyed man who dropped off the letter - gruff slow-wit Krull (Oscar Homolka), a faithful servant of the Baron's - and heads to the castle to find out why he's been summoned there.

As soon as he enters the castle doors, Robert is greeted with the sight of the leech-covered maid tied down to a chair, or as Krull refers to her, a "guinea pig." Empty frames adorn the castle walls, no mirrors are to be found anywhere in the castle, there's a special padlocked room the servant refer to as "The Chamber of Horrors" and all of the vegetation outside is dead. Robert is soon reunited with his old flame Maude and confesses to her that he's had no other woman since her and has immersed himself in his studies and work instead. He also meets up with the Baron, whose face is covered with an expressionless waxen mask. The Baron doesn't mind flaunting his infidelities in front of his wife and has his trusty servant gather together five village girls, promising them food, wine and gold for their services. He selects the fairest of them all, but she makes the mistake of removing his mask. Mr. Sardonicus also wants his wife to persuade Robert to help him in his schemes, even if means seducing him.

Sardonicus relates a flashback to explain his current predicament. He was once a peasant named Marik Toleslawski, whose father (Vladimir Sokoloff) had given him a lottery ticket right before passing on. Eventually, Marik and his demanding wife Elenka (Erika Peters) discovered that they have the winning ticket. The problem? It was in the pocket of a vest the father was buried in. Elenka coerces Marik to dig up the grave and, in doing so, Marik emerges with the same ghastly permanent grin as the his father's corpse. It may be punishment from God, a hellish curse or just the psychological effects of a terrible shock, but either way, Sardonicus is sick of feeling like a freak and wants Robert to restore his face. Robert spends all day using heated damp towels and massage, but to no avail. All he has left are untried, experimental techniques, which he refuses to do for any amount of money. Sardonicus threatens to disfigure Maude's face unless he complies with his wishes, so Robert cooks up a clever scheme utilizing the poison of a rare, powerful plant that's said to permanently relax muscles...

After a plot twist at the end, Castle shows up again to introduce his patented interactive gimmick. This time it's the "Punishment Poll," a small glow-in-the-dark card that was handed out to viewers with a Thumb's Up and Thumb's Down picture. If audiences thought Sardonicus had suffered enough up to that point, they do a Thumb's Down for Mercy, but if they think he deserves even more punishment that he has received, it's a Thumb's Up for No Mercy. Castle knew his audience well enough to know that he didn't even have to bother shooting the "merciful" ending!

It's a fun enough minor, set-bound Gothic tale with lots of fog and appropriate costuming, black-and-white-photography and art direction. The cast is quite good, with Lewis just fine in the lead and Rolfe a suitably arrogant and loathsome dashing villain. Best of the lot though is Homolka as the sometimes sadistic, sometimes pitiful and always hilarious disfigured servant. The Sardonicus make-up design by Ben Lane is excellent and was clearly influenced by Conrad Veidt's character in the silent classic THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (1928). It was based on a novella by Ray Russell, which had previously been published in Playboy magazine.

The DVD comes with a 7-minute mini-documentary called Taking the Punishment Poll, which features interviews with film historian David Del Valle, Columbia Pictures rep Michael Schlesinger, director and film historian Donald F. Glut, monster enthusiast Bob Burns and director Fred Olen Ray.

★★1/2

Arcana (1971)

... aka: Arcane

Directed by:
Giulio Questi

First off, let me apologize for the lousy screen caps. The copy for this very obscure film I had to view - which had been recorded off the Italian TV channel Teleitialia sometime in the 1980s - was in dreadful shape. Someone was kind enough to create English subtitles for this copy, and that was the only way I was able to see it in English. Things begin with a gathering of people all looking for the apartment of a widowed clairvoyant named Rose Tarantino (Lucia Bosé). Rose conducts sessions with multiple patients in which they all sit in a healing circle, are hypnotized and then reveal all of their problems and unfulfilled desires, at which point she uses "magnetic waves" and the magical touch of her son (Maurizio Degli Esposti) to help them. Rose also conducts private sessions with clients, including palm-readings and tarot card readings. Each time, she leaves a little information obscured and encourages the client to return many more times. You know, cause more visits equals more money. A hoax? Yep. Rose even mocks her clientele behind their backs over dinner. Rose's son / helper (who is never named) is getting a bit fed up with the arrangement and his mother's frivolous spending of the money. He'd prefer to just live off of his deceased father's retirement checks.

Over dinner, Rose's son informs her that many clients who've stopped by their place are "doomed" and seems to know the fates of many of them. She warns him not to interfere with their lives, but he doesn't listen. The disturbed young man has already been dabbling in witchcraft and steals pictures from client's pockets and purses to cast spells on them. During one scene, he makes scary faces in front of the mirror then puts on a dress and pantyhose over his face. And things just get weirder and more perverse from there. When the son goes into town to cash his father's check, he witnesses both an armless man and a legless man get hauled off by the authorities for being crooks. He then visits a beach, which is littered with trash and animal bones and pulls some teeth out of a donkey skull, which are rumored to have special powers. When he returns home, he strips off his clothes and walks around in mom's high heels naked while she sniffs his dirty laundry (!) The son is so spoiled that he makes his mother bathe him, dry him off and then dress him. And when he gets scared, he comes and snuggles with mommy in bed. Seems the two are rather... close.

We learn that Rose's mother had been a powerful witch. Dishes levitate and circle around in the kitchen, cards flip over and move by themselves and flowers starting rapidly wilting. Rose has a nightmare where her son comes after her with a knife, which turns out to be a premonition. The son gets a crush on one of their clients, Marisa (Tina Aumont), who's engaged to be married to Mario. The son gouges out the eyes on a photo of Marisa's fiance, then sneaks into his mother's room that night, ties her to the bed and starts slicing her nipple with a butcher knife, demanding she tell him how to make a talisman that will make Marisa fall under his spell. She eventually relents and her son uses a charm to have his way with Marisa while she's having a seizure. It doesn't quite make her fall in love with him, though. She's still in love with Mario and is planning on moving in with him and marrying him. I suppose because of the spell, she keeps coming back to have her cards read, which keep spelling death.

This film has a fairly strong and intriguing first half before collapsing under the director's senseless "surreal" indulgences. The son sneaks a snake into one of his client's homes, which causes the family to have incest. A guy wanders through a field playing a violin. Peasants tie a donkey up and pull it up into the air. A family dances and sticks pins into a voodoo doll made of bread. A woman spits up frogs. The son starts stringing up common household items around town and make an army of obedient children bite a guy. There are constant incest overtones and a flashback of the father getting his legs cut off in a subway accident. And during the big WTF anti-climactic finale, the Tarantino home fills up with clients while Rose keeps busy in the kitchen giving Marisa an abortion. At least that's what I think she's doing. The clients start acting weird, start rubbing themselves, lick the walls and then die. A skipping female dwarf (!) arrives to deliver Marisa's wedding gown and starring naming off internal organs and body parts (?!) Gunshots are heard, a mob fills the streets and then a black dog appears. Ummm, yeah, OK...

It's quite easy to see why this was barely released in Europe and was never released in America. There's no real market anywhere in the world for this confusing, frustrating film. Bosé and Degli Esposti give effective performances under the circumstances and there's interesting use of stop motion photography for a few of the effects. The original run time is 111 minutes, but some versions have been cut down by as much as 25 minutes. The version I watched was 103.

Questi also made DEATH LAID AN EGG (1967), which has its fans. Arcana was apparently released on DVD by Video Search of Miami in 2011. Though I can't vouch for the quality of their print, it HAS to be better than the one I just watched.

★★

Devil Inside Her, The (1977)

... aka: Devil Within Her, The
... aka: Metamorphoses

Directed by:
Zebedy Colt

Planning a Zebedy Colt double feature, I'd just finished SEX WISH (1976) and was going to top that off with a viewing of UNWILLING LOVERS (1977), since it's supposed to feature another great nutso performance from Colt, but sadly I couldn't get my Lovers disc to work. Thankfully, I also happened to have a copy of Devil on hand, so I just watched it instead and still got my double feature after all. Like many Roger Corman movies from the 60s, the opening credits are over swirls of different colored paint and it has a period setting; 1826, in this case. Redhead Jody Maxwell and brunette Terri Hall star as repressed, virginal sisters Hope and Faith, who live on a farm somewhere in New England with their abusive religious fanatic father (Colt) and weak, passive mother Rebecca (Nancy Dare). Faith has fallen in love with a young man named Joseph (Dean Tait), but her father doesn't approve of the union because he claims he's not a good enough Christian. When Pa catches the two lovebirds kissing, he chases Joseph off and then punishes Faith by making her strip ("Stand naked in the eyes of God!") before whipping her with a switch.

Not one to let a few lashings get in the way of true love, Faith immediately runs off to be with Joseph, whom she wants to marry. Hope, who is jealous of her sister and the relationship, prays to whoever out there is listening and offers up her soul in exchange for Joseph's love. Satan (Rod Dumont), basically a guy with a painted face and spiked collar and wrist bands, immediately materializes in the woods buck naked. He takes on the appearance of Joseph and then sets out to corrupt both of the sisters. He first crosses paths with the innocent and chaste Faith, whom he bends over and rapes while wagging his tongue. She says she never wants to see him again but he informs her she has no choice: she now belongs to him. Meanwhile, Hope runs into a cackling backwoods witch (Renee Sanz), who offers to make a love potion for her. Want one of your own? Just gather up some bat's eyes, a lizard's tongue, sweat from a goat, blood from a toad, pulverized bones, "puss from a dying virgin," "the menstral fluid from a Persian halot" and a little demon semen and you're good to go. You might actually have to get your hand's dirty to maintain the latter if this movie is any indication.

Thanks to a contribution from the flamboyant Nicodemus (Chad Lambert), who appears in the trees in a cloud of blue smoke and disappears just as quickly, the potion is complete. Hope drinks it and then has sex with Satan (whom she thinks is Joseph). Not content with just that, she then writhes on the ground with a collection of vegetables. And no, she's doesn't eat them. Satan then transforms himself into Faith to seduce and have sex with Joseph. Taking this further into the realm of distasteful, Satan also passes himself off as both parents for a little father-daughter and mother-daughter incest. Eventually, both girls disappear to attend a Witch's Sabbath where a devil cult plots to sacrifice Faith. Pa must put his irrational hatred of Joseph aside to find and rescue his girls. The Sabbath is a strange event that looks like the crew invaded John Waters' wardrobe department and have all manner of kinky sex, including some pretty 'extreme' stuff like Annie Sprinkle being pissed on and Ms. Maxwell taking on what appears to be three guys at the same time. Amazingly enough, it all ends on a happy note for the farm family, with lessons learned and Faith and Joseph finally getting the father's wedding blessing. Well actually now that I think about it, it didn't end quite so well for Hope, but she's the one who started the mess to begin with, so I guess that's fitting.

Saddled with some pretty bad acting (though the entire cast at least seems to be trying) and rough around the edges, this is still several notches above your usual porn fare. Hell, it's actually more interesting than many R-rated Satanism themed features from this time. I'm still not sure they had some of the clothing shown here back in 1826 and I didn't really understand why it kept changing from night to day back to night again throughout the whole finale, but at least some attention is paid to the photography, score and plot. Yes, this sometimes-sick flick does indeed have a plot. It even has a point apart from all the sex (of which there's a lot - and it's safe to say many out there aren't going to find much of it the least bit erotic). "A God can not be so oppressive that one forgets pure love and honest desire."

In recent years, this and several other Colt titles have been rediscovered by fans of the odd. This one has been released on DVD no less that four times, including as recently as 2008 on the After Hours label. Alpha Blue Archives includes it in their box set "Satanic Sickies Vol. 2" along with 11 other rare titles.

★★1/2