Une hache pour la lune de miel

The wedding dress designer John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) has a stylish studio and is unhappily married with the wealthy Mildred Harrington (Laura Betti). His mother was murdered in the studio when he was a boy and he has a childhood trauma with her death. John is a madman and serial-killer, who murders brides-to-be with a hatchet and uses an incinerator to get rid of their bodies is his greenhouse. When John kills Mildred, her ghost haunts him and his madness gets worse. Inspector Russell (Jesus Puente) is investigating the murders and John Harrington is his prime suspect. Will John escape from the smart inspector?

"Il rosso segno della follia", a.k.a. "Hatchet for the Honeymoon", is a different giallo from Mario Bava since the viewer knows who the serial-killer is since the beginning. The cinematography, camera work and locations are magnificent and supported by a great music score. The profile of the serial-killer is interesting and his duel with the intelligent inspector is a good part of the film. Laura Betti in the role of John's wife is top-notch. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Alerta Vermelho da Loucura" ("The Red Alert of Madness")

1969's "Hatchet for the Honeymoon" remains under the radar in regard to the work of Italian director Mario Bava, familiar Hitchcock plot devices utilized quite differently and accompanied by a deceptively lush, romantic score. Not an obvious rip like "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" but a more subtle, first person take on "Psycho" scripted by Santiago Moncada ("Bell from Hell"), kicking off with the revelation that Stephen Forsyth's John Harrington is an admitted paranoiac going about the business of murdering newlywed brides by a compulsion to decipher a mystery from his childhood. His wife Mildred (Laura Betti) berates him for failing to live up to his duties as a husband, unable to make love to her on their wedding night because of 'those footsteps,' and using her wealth to rebuild the fashion business he inherited from his late mother (shades of "Blood and Black Lace"). With his handsome looks and muscular physique women are attracted to Harrington, outwardly charming yet still very much a child in his mind, carefully preserving his boyhood playroom for occasional visits. He also frequents a secret room inhabited by mannikins clad in all kinds of wedding gowns, where he produces the cleaver needed to commit each murder, another victim to inch closer to a terrible secret that he cannot remember. When Mildred goes too far with her insults and patent refusal to allow for a divorce, he does what any self respecting maniac would do, puts on a wedding veil himself to claim her as another piece to the puzzle, just as the nosy police inspector (Jesus Puente) arrives moments too late to catch his slippery quarry in the act. This doesn't free our hero from persecution, for his wife was a practitioner of spiritism and the occult, proceeding to haunt him by appearing at his side for all to see, all eyes but his, in a twist that finally pushes him over the edge for one last killing to end his trauma. Stephen Forsyth was a Canadian actor whose on screen career ended with this role, not an easy one to play or to earn any measure of sympathy, but we are allowed access to the character's thoughts (and shown the killer's perspective through his eyes), telling the tale in his own way and coolly disregarding his persistent enemies. For once credited as his own cinematographer, Bava delivers a rich tapestry of beauty underlying the depraved actions of a psychopath, covering his tracks almost too easily even as the blood dripping corpse of his hacked wife (with cleaver still embedded in her back) can be seen reflected on a tabletop right in front of the frustrated inspector. In this sequence, Harrington is shown watching a horror film on television, in fact Bava's own "Black Sabbath," as Boris Karloff advances on a screaming young woman, a self reflective yet heartfelt tribute following the actor's recent death in February 1969. Shooting in Barcelona commenced in Sept. 1968, budgetary problems preventing completion for nearly an entire year, still a relaxing period for the director who proclaimed this his favorite non-Karloff film.

In the late sixties Bava began reinventing the murder mystery formula he single-handedly created with films like THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. In this film you know from the start who the killer is and so this film becomes a look into the crazed mind of a guy with childhood trauma who kills women. There's a great experimental score, cool fashions and a dance nightclub sequence for all you Sixties kitsch fans out there. Stephen Forsyth gives a great wide-eyed psycho performance and Bava forsakes his usual stylishly colored lighting for dreamy surreal imagery during the murder scenes. Bava even sticks in scenes from his earlier films on a TV as an in-joke for his fans.

It's sort of like Psycho, only not, and it's sort of like any number of other serial-killer movies, except you know who the bad guy is from literally the first scene. But we don't watch Mario Bava movies for the intricate plots or, as in this case, for the strong acting. We watch them for the grisly visuals! Man's a maestro of mayhem when it comes to presenting blood. Very stylish movie, very well shot. Forsyth is positively wooden, though.

The man who brought you such successful chillers as "5 Dolls for an August Moon" , ¨Operazione Paura¨ ,¨Black Sabbath¨ , "Six Women for the Murderer" , ¨The Evil Eye¨ goes back in this nice film that packs great cinematography , impressive spectacle and well staged killings . It begins developing an elaborate animated collage for the film opening credits , being originally created by the great Mario Bava . The flick deals with a respected fashion mogul who runs a house of style where happens several bloody murders and gruesome executions . As a bridal design shop owner called John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) kills various young brides-to-be (Femi Benussi) in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma that's causing him to commit murder . John contracts a new fashion model , that person ultimately being Helen Wood (Dagmar Lassander) , who eventually gets a little too close for his comfort . Harrington is facing further torment in the mutually unsatisfying marriage to Mildred (Laura Betti , originally the script didn't include the role , it was only after expressed interest in working with Bava that the director re-wrote the script so that Betti could have a suitable starring) who subsequently to return to haunt him as a ghost . Meanwhile , a police inspector named Russell (Jesus Puente) investigates the strange killings , being his prime suspect Harrington . When Russel enters Carrington's home , the latter tells the screams heard are caused by the television set (the TV show that Harrington refers to in an attempt to fool Inspector is a clip from Mario Bava's own Black Sabbath (1963) - specifically the "Wurdalak" sequence featuring Boris Karloff) .

Mario Bava strikes again in this mysterious and grisly picture with haunting atmosphere , colorful photography and strange musical score . Bava's great success (the first was ¨Black Sunday¨ or ¨Mask of Demon¨)is compellingly directed with startling visual content . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results . Interesting screenplay filled with twists , turns and rare situations by prolific Santiago Moncada , an usual playwright . This is a classic slasher where the intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior . Nice as well as twisted acting by Stephen Forsyth as a psychotic killer who manages a model house . This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by the same Mario Bava with magenta shades of ochre , translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red . Filmed on location in Barcelona , Harrington's villa , Rome , Paris and studios Alfonso Balcazar . The Spanish villa that the majority of the film was shot at was formerly the touristic home of Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco .

The movie well produced by Manuel Caño belongs to Italian Giallo genre , Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) along with Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) are the fundamental creators . In fact , both of whom collaborated deeply among them , as Bava finished two Fedra's films ¨Il Vampiri¨ and ¨Caltiki¨ . These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color in shining red blood , usual zooms and utilization of images-shock . Later on , there appears Dario Argento (¨Deep red¨, ¨Suspiria¨,¨Inferno¨), another essential filmmaker of classic Latino terror films . Rating : Good, this is one more imaginative slasher pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.