Le Corps et le Fouet

Whip and the Body, The (1963)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Christopher Lee plays a sadistic nobleman who returns home to terrorize his family after leaving home years earlier after forcing his girlfriend to commit suicide. Soon he is found dead with his throat slit and soon after he ghost begins to appear as more bodies start to pile up. All the praise thrown on director Bava is certainly needed because it's obvious he could take some mud and make it look wonderful but that doesn't mean all his films turn out great. I think the biggest flaw with this film is the rather weak story, which doesn't really contain any shocks and it's fairly simple to figure out what's going on so in the end, when the climax happens, there's no real shocks. Christopher Lee turns in a terrific performance, even though, for some reason, his voice is dubbed in the English language version. That fantastic look that Lee brings says all we need to know about his character. The supporting cast isn't as impressive but they fit their roles just fine. The cinematography is top notch and the use of lighting is also what makes this film stand apart from others in this era.

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.

Irresistible and genuine Gothic scares, combined with atmospheric camera-work and breath-taking scenery… Welcome to yet another visual masterpiece directed by the greatest horror genius of all time: Mario Bava! "The Whip and the Body" isn't the man's most mentioned achievement, it's not even in my personal Bava-top 3 and yet I still rated it a solid 9 out of 10. That should give you somewhat an idea of how excellent his total repertoire in fact is. "The Whip and the Body" is a unique film in many ways, but particularly because of the controversial substance it dared to bring forward. Don't forget that the year of release was 1963 and Mario Bava unscrupulously introduces characters with taboo-fetishes like S & M. The story is terrifically set in the 19th century, where Kurt Menliff returns to his eminent family after being banished for several years. The family's hate towards Kurt's vile behavior is only surpassed by their fear and only the gorgeous Nevenka has a secret desire towards his wicked sexual preferences. In a particularly astonishing sequence, he whips her repeatedly (and roughly...) before continuing with making love. Terror overcomes the Menliff family when Kurt is found murdered in his room and when the tormented Nevenka begins to see his appearance in nearly every chamber of the castle. As it usually is the case in Bava's films, the plot contains quite a few holes and illogical moments, but they're totally forgivable if you acknowledge the intensity and power of the wholesome. Especially praiseworthy is Mario Bava's unequaled talent to turn totally natural things into terrifying atmosphere-elements… Blowing wind, pouring rain, footprints covered in mud...all these ordinary things turn into suspicious omens in the hands of this masterful filmmaker. With his skilled cinematographic eye, Bava perfectly knows how to raise an unbearable tension that grabs you by the neck immediately and it doesn't let go until the very last scene fades away. All the other typical Bava-trademarks are clearly present as well, namely an authentically creepy score, a minimum of stylish gore (burning, rotting corpses!!) and – last but not least – a stunning use of color shades. Mario plays with colors like he invented them and this emphasizes the spook-effect even more. "The Whip and the Body" is a more than just a shocking horror film. It's an offbeat love-story, a Gothic poem AND an unsettling horror tale all in one! If you love beautiful cinema, don't miss "The Whip and the Body".

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.

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.