La encadenada

La Encadenada aka Diary of an Erotic Murderess(1975) Manuel Mur Oti

Alexander (Richard Conte)a very wealthy widower wants to hire a young woman to take care of his troubled son Mark, who is prone to fits of violence ever since the death of his mother left him mute. Gina (Marisa Mell, Seven blood stained orchids,One on top of the other) introduces herself as a writer looking for a job that will allow her time to write her book about the local Galician Witches, she is also a psychologist and with such qualifications she is hired. Gina however is a charlatan and a confidence trickster with a lengthy criminal record out to gain what she can from a man with too much money. She learns very quickly the troubles that torment Mark and immediately she is calling him "Mon petit cherie" the term of endearment used by his mother towards him, this has the effect of getting her into his confidence, Mark however is soon just as infatuated with her as he was his mother and forcefully tries to cement their relationship. Alexander also falls for the charms of the new employee and Gina sees her chance to play one against the other. Gina finds a diary from the deceased mother that is full of tales of her husbands abuse and her virtual position of being a sex slave to her master,also there in is her plans to kill him off in gruesome ways so that her and her son could enjoy the tyrants wealth at their leisure. Gina's plans are interrupted though when her own abusive husband Richard (Antonio De Teffè,Crimes of the Black Cat, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave) turns up,he knows what she's up to and threatens to reveal all to her new employer and to the authorities unless she can provide him with just a little of the wealth he knows is inside the Manor, she agrees, Richard however tries to sell the jewels he is given to the same vendor that sold them originally to Alexander, he confronts her and tells her to leave,but his true feelings towards her can not let her leave. Alexander is soon dispatched in his bathtub, but before Gina and Mark can enjoy their new found wealth after the demise of Alex, a stranger turns up called Charles who introduces himself as the bastard son of Alex and as such the beneficiary of half his father's estate, he then astounds her by saying he has been investigating her on his father behalf and recounts to her all the details of her seedy past, his demands are clear she has to become his sexual slave, she agrees, but its not long however before old Charles is dispatched in the the same way as his father, Gina suspects Mark, but then the final shocking twist of the diary becomes very evident.

Diary of an Erotic Murderess reminded me a little of the Conte/Fenech film Secrets of a Call Girl in that both have an underused Conte, a female icon of Italian cinema and very misleading titles, of course the film did originally have plenty of sex scenes but they were all sadly removed, the sight of the exotic Mell in a state of undress would truly have been a highpoint of the film.The film is a hybrid of many Italian genres and is hard to define, the stately manor which also boasts a former Templar monastery on its grounds adds sufficiently to the mood and would suggest a Gothic origin, but it is also firmly in the bloodless giallo realm too. Mell with her catlike features is a delight and her performance is excellent, Conte, one of my favorite actors is good too although the voice which I'm pretty sure wasn't his is a little off putting.Carlo Savina's very romantic score is very sumptuous and reminiscent of many a Morricone opus. It's a good little thriller though and recommended to all fans of Italian Giallo/Mystery thriller films.

This seems to have a kind of cult following due to Marisa Mell being in it, but to me the whole thing was kind of a drag that we've all seen before. I did read on the IMDB that it's missing a lot of nudity and such like, so that would have held my attention a bit better if that was included.

You have Richard Conte as the old millionaire who shares a huge manor with his crazy son, who has turned mute ever since finding his mother's body following her suicide. This kid had a rather unhealthy fixation on his mother, which riled Conte, as he can only see people as objects to be bought and owned. The son, Mark, is a bit of a handful for his carers and after the last one quits, mysterious strange Marisa Mell volunteers to help, while giving Conte the glad eye.

Of course, all is not what it seems as Marisa is a gold digging thief with designs on all that groovy jewellery that Conte has collected over the years (including one that he's nicked from a local nunnery that looks like the holy grail and comes with a Raiders of The Lost Ark-type crescendo on the soundtrack - what's happening?). Marisa also has a husband (Anthony Steffen) who is even more twisted and crooked than her. Can Marisa play everyone off each other and get the goodies? Once she finds Conte's dead wife's diary, she starts to formulate a plan...

Maybe it would have worked better with the sleaze added in, although it's bad enough watching sixty-five year old Conte snog Mell, so I'm not speculating on what I'm missing. I don't know, I just didn't engage with it all, at least until the last fifteen minutes where a few twists finally enter the plot. I'll give it one thing - the ending was appropriately sick.

A young female thief (played by Euro-beauty Marisa Mell) trying to escape from her former life and her thuggish, pimp-like ex-boyfriend takes a job as a nurse for the mute, disturbed son of a cold-hearted industrialist. Both the father and son quickly fall in love with her, not surprising since she looks exactly like the father's first dead wife who he hated but his son adored. Then she finds the deceased women's diary and gets an idea how she can turn the situation to her advantage through murder. But things go very awry when the man's other illegitimate son and her old boyfriend show up. . .

Only the Americans or the British would take a Spanish-Italian co-production innocuously title "La Ecadenada" and change the title to "Diary of Erotic Murderess" while at the same time cutting all the sex and nudity out! (To be fair though, the snipping could have been done by the old Franco regime who were even more prudish than the Brits and Yanks combined). What is left is not quite a giallo. It's one of Italian co-productions like "Top Sensation" or "So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious" that has suspense elements but lacks the combination of heady stylization, lurid content, and over-the-top hysteria to really make it as a giallo. The beginning is unforgivably slow--the "erotic" is non-existent, the "murders" don't occur until an hour in, so what you have left is a lot of shots of Mell reading from the "diary" in voice-over, which naturally does not good cinema make. The second half of the movie is much better and it ends with a pleasantly nasty surprise (which also, however, makes the English title a cheat in more ways than one).

Marisa Mell is very good in supporting roles in movies like "Diabolik" and "One on Top of the Other", but she's a little at sea here in a role that requires her to be alternatively evil and sympathetic. Mell just LOOKS too much like a voracious maneater to play sympathetic (you might as well ask the shark in "Jaws" to be sympathetic). She handles evil a lot better, but I couldn't help but wonder what a stronger actress like Rosalba Neri or Erika Blanc could have done with this role. Still it is not a BAD movie. Maybe if it ever appears on DVD unedited and in better condition, it will be appreciated more.

Despite its seen-it-a-million-times plot concerning a sexy con artist (Marisa Mell) who inveigles herself into a wealthy old man's morbid household, this Euro psycho-thriller is just creepy enough to be absorbing for most of its running time. The old guy (played by the moribund Richard Conte, whose huge earlobes dominate his scenes) has a mute son prone to violent fits whenever reminded of his deceased mama (whom the crook, naturally, resembles). To complicate matters, there's a bastard son and an ex-husband looking for a piece of the action. Most outrageous, though, is that fact that the mansion's most valuable asset is the Holy Grail itself -- a point which is stated so matter-of-factly that one wonders about the accuracy of the translation. The plot features a few neat twists, including a final sting in its tail that will revive you if you've given up on the picture. Of course, the main reason for watching is the dissolute but utterly luscious Mell (best known for her role in Bava's Diabolik), who dominates proceedings with her intelligent grace, knockout looks and subtle ruthlessness. Unfortunately, several nude scenes have obviously been shown from the American print with equal ruthlessness.

Normally I'd have given this movie 5 out of 10, but Miss Mell does so fabulously in this solid Euro-thriller that I had to add three more...

"Diary of an Erotic Murderess" is a sexy mystery drama about a woman who murders a millionaire (Conte) to marry his mentally retarded son (lovely but mute: Juan Ribó). Mur Oti, the director, chose a slow-moving climax which might be considered a little boring by most viewers, but I liked it quite a lot. The interestingly atmospheric score was a great plus for me as well.

Whether you like the plot, the direction, the music etc., or not, after all, this is Marisa Mell's film, and she is just wonderful in it! She steals the movie and is prettier than ever.

Marisa was born Marlies Moitzi in Graz, Austria, went to the renowned Max Reinhard Seminar in Vienna and did a couple of less-than-memorable appearances in German and Austrian movies before, in 1963, she went abroad to star in movies like "French Dressing" (by Ken Russell) or "Masquerade", but her career never quite took off. The multi-lingual (fluent in French, English, Spanish, Italian, and German) Mell did excellent in Bava's pop art extravaganza "Danger: Diabolik" and Fulci's "One on Top of the Other" before, in the 1970s, her movies became more and more obscure. The died of cancer in 1992. She was only 53 and had spent her last few years in poverty. She died as she had lived: alone.

Unfortunately, the American distributor cut about 15 minutes from the film, so that the film lacks both, gore and nudity. The dubbing is also quite poor.

P.S.: If you look closely, you can see Carmen Maura, Almodóvar's leading lady of the 1980s, in one of her first movie appearances.