Un bianco vestito per Marialé

This is one of those gialli I probably wouldn't recommend to those unfamiliar with the Italian genre, but committed giallo fans will certainly enjoy it. A young girl witnesses her father shotgun her mother ( Evelyn Stewart) and male lover to death before turning the gun on himself. The little girl naturally grows into a pretty maladjusted adult (also played by Stewart) who is kept drugged and isolated in a remote castle by her over-protective husband (Luigi Pistilli) and his brutish butler. Still she manages to invite a group of her decadent bourgeois "friends" to the castle for a kind of weird masked orgy. It's a bad sign though when the hostess herself comes dressed in the white gown in which her mother was killed (which you would would think would be covered in blood and riddled with buckshot, but oh well). Naturally, it isn't long before the guests are dropping off like flies.

It takes a little time for the murders to get going, but they come fast and thick when they do. And the early going is spent with lots of surreal Gothic touches. A great eerie setting and superb visual style and music make this film similar to other heavy-duty bizarro gialli like "Sex of the Witch" and "Crazy Desires of a Murderer", even if--like with those--the plot rarely makes a lick of sense. There are only really two possible perpetrators of the killings, but even by the end of the movie I wasn't sure which of them was responsible. The victims are certainly worthy though. There is a bickering young, interracial couple--the guy derides the girl as a "slave" while she belittles him by calling him "white master" (yet another sensitive, politically correct portrayal of black people in Italian genre films). Spanish actress Pilar Velasquez plays a character after my own heart--a raving nympho who responds to nearly getting raped by a male guest by going to the black woman's room and (for no apparent reason beyond the obvious) stripping off for some hot, interracial lesbian action! I was quite impressed with Velasquez--not just her body (which can also be seen in "Naked Girl killed in Park"), but also her acting--it can't be easy to play such a preposterously motivated character. The real acting honors, however, go to the two great character actors, Luigi Pistilli and Ivan Rassimov. It's a sublime joy to watch these two devour scenery together.

Director Roman Scavoli was later responsible for the film "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain", one of those films that was banned in Britain, but completely ignored in America. I haven't seen that one yet, but it's probably safe to say this is better. Newcomers to the giallo genre will probably be left scratching their heads, but long-time fans will definitely enjoy this.

The enigmatic wife of a moody Marquis invites a motley group of people to their sinister stronghold where a long ago crime is re-lived...

Here's a strange and unsettling giallo that borrows much from the maestro of the macabre, Mario Bava. The film is set entirely on an eerie, isolated estate and, like 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON and BAY OF BLOOD, has an ambiguous plot centering around murder and mayhem which provides director/cinematographer Romano Scavolini with ample opportunity for a number of unusual set-pieces. A pre-credit sequence has a young girl watch as her father finds her mother with a lover (a nude Gianni Dei) and shoots them both before turning the gun on himself. The story shifts to the present with Mariele (the beautiful Evelyn Stewart) inviting a hedonistic, unpleasant assortment of friends (which include Ivan Rassimov and Pilar Velazquez) to her husband's (Luigi Pistilli) crumbling castle for some fun and games ...but she seems to have an ulterior motive. Is she being held prisoner by her husband and his manservant or is she locked up for her own good? For the festivities, Mariele dons the white dress her mother was murdered in and there's some brief nudity, lesbianism, whipping, and bitch-slapping at a Felliniesque feast before the party guests get dispatched in rapid succession. These seemingly senseless killings are brief but brutal and the identity of the killer ultimately depends on which version of events the viewer chooses to believe. It's an unusual and disturbing twist but only part of a "take no prisoners" nihilistic ending which has fate coming full circle. The striking use of color, a somber score by Fiorenzo Carpi & Bruno Nicolai, and a capable genre cast all help to create a decadent atmosphere that gives the movie a near-surreal aura. For example, at one point the cast grabs candelabra and goes down to explore the castle's catacombs (just because they're there) when a veritable windstorm kicks up out of nowhere and goes on for quite a while. This does absolutely nothing to advance the plot but it does make for an eerie tableau. In many ways, the whole film is like that.

This classic "style over substance" thriller from the Golden Age Of The Giallo comes letter-boxed, in Italian with English subtitles, and highly recommended for aficionados of the genre.

I've rarely been as disappointed as I was after watching this "A White Dress for Marialé". I spent years looking for a decent copy of this film, and all this time remained under the assumption that it was one of the last great gialli that I hadn't seen yet. Alas, after the derivative but nevertheless atmospheric and promising opening sequences, the film turns into a bizarre smorgasbord of trash, sleaze and murder, but ... not the good kind! Six people are invited into the remote gothic castle of a married couple, much against the will of the husband and the eerie house servant. The oppressed wife - Marialé - takes them to the cellars where she has an odd collection of mannequin dolls with medieval costumes, and shortly after, the whole group indulges into an extended and dreadfully boring orgy without sex but with crazy role-plays instead. These masquerade sequences are overlong, implausible and utterly senseless. Only in the last half hour, the guests are being murdered one by one and shortly after another, but the outcome (as in: the identity of the culprit) is so incredibly obvious that you wonder what the point of the whole masquerade was. The murders are unimaginative and as good as bloodless, with the notable exception of one person being bludgeoned to death in a pool. To finish off with at least a few positive words, the soundtrack is sublime, the women are beautiful, and there are some good performances by respectable Italian genre veterans (Ivan Rassimov, Luigi Pastili, ...)

(1974) A White Dress For Marialé/ Un bianco vestito per Marialé (In Italian with English subtitles)

Cinematography and directed by Romano Scavolini that opens with a father stopping his car and instructing his little daughter to stay in the car while he goes out and does something. The daughter of course does not listen and follows him anyway, and upon approaching his wife and her lover. He then pulls out a gun and he shoots and kills them both before he turns the gun on to himself. The movie then shows the credits and it is the current time, and apparently several people are offered to stay at a manor/ castle. And as soon as Massimo (Ivan Rassimov) shows up, he is then turned away by the creepy servant, Osvaldo (Gengher Gatti), but he hangs around long enough until others have shown up. We then find out that that Marialé (Ida Galli) was that little girl at the opening and that her husband, Paolo (Luigi Pistilli) is planning something on her viewers are unable to figure out what for it is most likely be her fortune.

Another unheralded horror gem from Italy! I'm actually surprised it's directed by Romano Scavolini, since he's the one responsible for "Nightmare in a Damaged Brain", and this one seems like the total opposite of that one. "Mariale" is one hell of an elegant, sexy and disturbing chiller, that really stands out from most gialli that were being made at around the same time. The story centers around Mariale, a young woman who is kept locked up in her family castle by her own husband and his servant. As a child, she witnessed the brutal murder of her mother, by the hands of her own father who then proceed to commit suicide. She secretly invites a group of old friends to gather at the castle for a costume party, and when Mariale decides to wear the same dress her mother wore on the day of her death, all Hell breaks loose. What follows is a grotesque, nightmarish orgy right out of a Fellini film, with a little extra gore and sleaze, that in many ways predates Ken Russell's "Gothic". Scavolini firmly directs this one with style and flair, as well as providing the gorgeous cinematography, that takes full advantage of it's amazing setting, and is beautifully accompanied by the Fiorenzo Carpi's haunting score. The film also benefits from strong performances from a great cast of giallo stars, which includes Evelyn Stewart in the title role, Luigi Pistilli, Gianni Dei and Ivan Rassimov (playing against the type in the 'good guy' role). In spite of these great elements, the film does have flaws, mostly regarding the pace. The opening scene is a bang, literally, as young Mariale witnesses the brutal demise of her mother and her lover. From then on, it works quite well until the bodies start piling up. The film suddenly takes a more routine and rather dull Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, specially when compared to it's unique first 40 minutes or so. Thankfully, the great ending puts the film back on it's tracks, and will certainly stay your mind for a while once you finished watching it. Overall, an excellent and sadly obscure giallo, with a very distinctive style. 8/10. If only the middle part was slightly more gripping, it would certainly get a 10/10 for me.