El cuerpo y el látigo

This unrelentingly-creepy tale of obsession and perversion plays like a more-horrific version of _Wuthering Heights_: cobwebbed crypts, dark castles with secret passages, rotting bodies, muddy footprints, pale faces scowling through windows, love-hate relationships that continue beyond the grave, sea cliffs, turbulent ocean, sunsets, and a very haunting music score. The sets are rich and the direction is moody, with lots of brilliantly-composed photography and a convincingly-cruel performance by Christopher Lee. This one does require some patience, but it's one of Bava's greatest masterpieces and deserves to be saved from obscurity.

As I slowly get to watch more Mario Bava movies my enthusiasm for his extraordinary body of work grows and grows. I was already hooked after watching 'Black Sunday' for the first time, but after subsequently seeing 'Kill, Baby...Kill!', 'Planet Of The Vampires', 'Black Sabbath', 'Diabolik' and 'Lisa And The Devil' (and others) I was convinced that he's THE most underrated director of the Fantastic. Now I've watched 'The Whip And The Body' three times and listened to Tim Lucas' informative DVD commentary I'm almost ready to bow down and worship Bava like a god! This is such a fascinating movie... Visually it's stunning, as to be expected, Bava being a top cinematographer before turning to directing. The subject matter is still provocative, but forty years ago it must have been scandalous! In fact the movie was heavily censored and when eventually released in America given the lousy title 'What'. Christopher Lee counts this among his favourite roles and it is essential viewing for his fans. He plays Kurt Menliff, an evil sadistic nobleman returning to his family home after hearing his younger brother has wed. Lee's family has disowned him after a scandal concerning a servant girl he seduced who subsequently suicided. His father the Count despises him, the dead girl's mother, who still works for the Count, curses him, and his brother's new bride Nevenka (Daliah Lavi) fears him. Kurt and Nevenka have a past, not only that, a complicated sadomasochistic relationship. The whipping scenes between the two actors were a bit too much for the censors to handle back in the day, and while they aren't all that explicit, they are still unsettling even today. Lee and the stunning Lavi (best know to most people for her later appearance in the star-studded Bond spoof 'Casino Royale') make a truly unforgettable couple. Many people regard 'The Whip And The Body' as Bava's single best movie. I wouldn't go that far myself, but it's definitely one of his very best films, and is sure to impress anyone who has enjoyed his other pictures. Ghost story, murder mystery, psychosexual character study, whatever you want to call it, it's a highly original movie that will stay with you for a long time. Newcomers to Bava are still best to start with 'Black Sunday' in my opinion, but this movie comes with my highest recommendation.

After the announcement of the servant Losat (Alan Collins), the nobleman Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) returns to the castle of his family at the seaside to congratulate his brother Christian Menliff (Tony Kendall) for his marriage with his former lover Nevenka (Daliah Lavi). Kurt feels the hatred and the fear of his father Count Menliff (Dean Ardow) and the servant Giorgia (Harriet White), who blames him for seducing and killing her daughter, and indifference from his cousin Katia (Isli Oberon). On the next afternoon, the sadistic Kurt meets Nevenka riding a horse alone on the beach and whips the masochistic woman and makes love with her. Late night, Nevenka is missing and everybody is seeking her while Kurt is stabbed in the neck with the same dagger that Giorgia's daughter was murdered. On the next days, the members of the family suspects of each other while Nevenka is haunted by the ghost of Kurt.

"The Whip and the Body" is a stylish and one of the best features of Mario Bava that uses a magnificent cinematography, lighting and shadows and a classy soundtrack. The acting is great and the only problem is that the Ámerican DVD is awfully dubbed in English, without the synchrony of the movements of the lips with the speech. However, I have just watched this movie again in a Brazilian DVD spoken in Italian. The truth about the supernatural story is not difficult to be guessed what is happening by an attentive viewer. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Chicote e o Corpo" ("The Whip and the Body")

Note: On 01 October 2014 I saw this movie again.

Sadistic scoundrel Kurt (Christopher lee), black sheep of the family, returns home to find that absence hasn't exactly made the heart grow fonder: his father (Gustavo De Nardo), brother Christian (Tony Kendall), ex-lover Nevenka (Daliah Lavi) and housemaid Giorgia (Harriet Medin) still find him utterly loathsome. Unsurprisingly, Kurt winds up being murdered, but even death cannot stop his cruelty...

In keeping with its Sadean theme, The Whip and the Body is both a pleasure to behold and a pain to endure: aesthetically, the film cannot be rivalled, with excellent costume and set design, and exquisite direction from Mario Bava, whose camera glides gracefully through pools of coloured light and ominous swathes of shadow to great effect; the story, however, is less impressive, a trite exercise in Gothic cliché, replete with a creepy cliff-top castle continually battered by strong winds and thunderstorms, a raft of morbid characters, all of whom harbour dark secrets, loads of tiresome symbolism, and some ridiculous psychological claptrap.

The sado-masochistic nature of the central relationship between Kurt and Navenka (which is surprisingly way ahead of its time) prevents the film from attaining coma-inducing levels, but with extremely long periods where nothing much of interest happens, the film is far from the perfect perverted and poetic love story that its ardent supporters claim it to be.

8 out of 10 for the lovely imagery, but 4/10 for the story—so that's an average rating of 6/10.

A Gothic tale of depravity and horror with some exquisite scenery to enjoy along with perfectly selected music.

Kurt Menliff (Cristopher Lee) has been banished from home, and when he returns, fear sets in everywhere. As it should, given that his fiancé (Daliah Lavi) married his brother (Tony Kendall) and is sleeping with his father (Gustavo De Nardo). He has some unusual sexual tastes and preferences, which Nevenka (Lavi) shares.

A classic ghost story in a spooky setting with some very good performances. An expected ending did not diminish the enjoyment of the film one bit.