Inquisición

I believe this is available in English now, but the version I saw was a Spanish language one off a full-screen PAL tape I bought in Buenos Aires. Judging from the rampant nudity, graphic violence, and general depravity it wasn't cut at least. This is Spanish actor Paul Naschy's strangely belated directorial debut. It is another entry into the 1970's "witch-hunter" genre inspired by such films as Michael Reeve's "The Conqueror Worm", Ken Russell's "The Devils", and the godawful but very seminal German film "Mark of Devil". This was a rather extreme genre which allowed for a lot of exploitative scenes of beautiful naked women being tortured, but also permitted filmmakers to at least pretend to criticize the real historical abuses of the Catholic Church. The latter would be especially resonant in Spain where in very recent times the Church had been a big supporter of the repressive Franco regime.

This movie is every bit as depraved and exploitative as any of its British, Italian, or German models, but it was interesting in that its victim (played by Italian actress Daniela Giordano)actually DOES sell her soul to the Devil, but only in order to take a supernatural (and, of course decidedly sexual) revenge on the corrupt witchfinder/inquisitioner played by Paul Naschy. The injection of actual supernatural elements (which was a peculiar characteristic of both the Spanish and Mexican versions of these films)kind of muddies the moral waters (not to mention the perceived historical accuracy) quite a bit.

As always, Naschy makes an interesting protagonist. He has always been one of the few actors brave enough to play characters that are not only despicable but also often pretty pathetic (and he's never been afraid to kill his character off early if it serves the plot), but he always somehow gets the audience on his side, and this movie is no exception--you end feeling sorry for his corrupt and wrongheaded inquisitioner by the end.

One weakness of Naschy movies though has been his leading actresses. He always casts pretty women who are willing to do rampant nude scenes, but they are usually pretty obscure actresses and not always very talented (with the exception of Erica Blanc, Patty Shepherd, and maybe Helga Line). It's good to see that he has a strong co-lead here in Daniela Giordana, a gorgeous former Miss Italy who showed a lot of promise in the Mario Bava sex comedy "Four Times that Night" but was pretty much wasted after that in throwaway parts in second-rate Italian gialli. Good movie. Check it out

XVI Century, France, three members (Paul Naschy, Tony Isbert, Ricardo Merino) of the Inquisition travel throughout country judging, torturing and condemning suspicious of witchery. At a village stay in the house of the Mayor(Antonio Casas) and the inquisitor judge named Bernard De Fossey (Naschy) falls in love for his daughter Catherine(Daniela Giordano). She suspects that death her lover (Juan Luis Galiardo) has been planned by Bernard for the reason of jealousy and then Catherine deals with witchery arts by means of two sorceresses (Tota Alba, Monica Randall) because she seeks revenge.

This is a good first effort Jacinto Molina as director and is lavishly produced for Naschy standards. Although Molina initially thought in Torquemada , he met the prestigious writer Julio Caro Baroja who explained him the Spanish Inquisition is less interesting and did not pursue witches as happened in France or Germany. As Jacinto wrote the screenplay and subsequently directed this co-production Spanish-Italian set in France.

Naschy gives his knowledges about Inquistion and witchery as he explains about the ¨Fornicarius¨and the ¨Garden of flowers ¨ by Torquemada that the devil and Sabbath are the same. And accusing Inquisition publishes what may be the most blood-soaked book in human history: ¨The Malleus Malleficarum¨, the witches' hammer,it is instructed the clergy on how to locate,torture and kill all freethinking women,during witch-hunt , history tells, fifty thousand are captured ,burned alive at the stake. Also Paul Naschy/Bernard De Fossey tells : 72 infernal princes command over 7.000 demons as ¨Satanas¨ the Grand General and Emperor, ¨Belcebu¨, prince of demons , ¨Asmodeo¨, superintendent of inferno, ¨Astaroth¨ Grand duke of occident, infernal treasurer, and ¨Beltegor¨ who rules over 70 legions of devils.

It's a B series entertainment with abundant sensationalistic scenes and a Naif style.The movie has a bit of ridiculous gore and is an engaging horror story full of witchery, tortures, burning poles and several other things. This time Paul Nashy/Jacinto Molina exhibits little breast but he was European weightlifting champion .Pretty slow going, but hang in there for the Inquisitors versus witches , colorful Aquelarres and astonishing devils. Good cinematography by Miguel Mila and Julio Burgos is accompanied by a correct remastering. Eerie and atmospheric musical score by Barratas .The motion picture is professionally directed and played by Jacinto Molina , a slick craftsman though regular actor.The flick will appeal to Paul Naschy fans and terror genre enthusiasts. Rating : 6, Acceptable and entertaining.

Paul Naschy's directorial debut amazingly emerged to be superior to most of his work for other film-makers. Thematically, it amalgamates WITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968) with THE DEVILS (1971): Naschy is the appointed Inquisitor who falls under the spell of a local girl (Italian starlet Daniela Giordano from Mario Bava's atypical FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT [1969] and who, in a recent interview for the "Stracult" TV program, singled out the Naschy film as her personal favorite!). He has her lover killed (intermittently depicted as in a Sergio Leone picture, with harmonica accompaniment intact!) – though, in an online review, it is stated that he was not responsible after all?! – but is eventually brought before the court himself for associating with a sorceress. In fact, Giordano has sold her soul to the Devil (seen in effectively grotesque make-up not unlike that of a villain from some contemporaneous anime[!] and, reportedly, played by the star himself) and deliberately given in to her leading man's advances in order to bring him down!! At one point, he is haunted by the vision of a scythe-wielding Death but, since she ends up sharing his fate, one supposes the girl is ultimately disillusioned by her twisted beliefs – while, ironically enough, Naschy acquires grace through martyrdom!

The period ambiance is splendidly evoked, there is discreet use of gore (notably a nipple torn off by a huge pair of pliers!) and a surprising amount of nudity (gratuitous perhaps but not really exploitative). Of course, the "Malleus Maleficarum" tome and the plague (which, again, it is stated elsewhere to be the handiwork of the Devil himself!) never seem to be too far away in this type of film. Still, Naschy's script offers reasonable subtext: his character's position is coveted by the second-in-command (who proceeds to gleefully supervise the Inquisitor's own subsequent trial), a local blind-man is constantly snitching on the usually-innocent townsfolk (though he takes inordinately long to report the real witch who schools the heroine in the Black Arts!) to the relevant authorities until he predictably gets his just desserts, while Giordano – for whom, with her true love gone, life has lost its meaning – gradually comes to realize the power of Darkness and willingly becomes its servant and vessel. Incidentally, I was under the impression that INQUISITION was one of two efforts about which the writer/director/star felt the proudest (the other being THE TRAVELER [1979], which followed this viewing in quick succession) as per "The Mark Of Naschy" website – but, having double-checked, it transpired that that film was the serial-killer thriller THE FRENCHMAN'S GARDEN (1978) which, however, seems to be rather hard to come by...

In the end of the Sixteenth Century, in France, the cruel witchfinders Bernard de Fossey (Paul Naschy), Nicolas Rodier (Ricardo Merino) and Pierre Burgot (Tony Isbert) arrive at the house of a wealthy man that has two daughters and one stepdaughter. His older daughter, Catherine (Daniela Giordano), is in love with Jean Duprat (Juan Luis Galiardo), who travels to Marseille to ask for permission to his uncle to marry Catherine. However, in the return, he is murdered by thieves on the road and Catherine fall in depression. Bernard, who has put his eyes on Catherine since he met her, hits on her. Meanwhile, the one-eye servant Rénover (Antonio Iranzo) denounces young women that has reject him as if they were witches, and they are tortured and killed. When Catherine has a dream with Jean, she believes that her beloved lover was murdered by men hired to kill him and she becomes obsessed to lean by whom.

"Inquisition" is a good exploitation movie based on the inquisition in the Dark Ages. Paul Naschy is perfect in the role of a cruel and sadistic magistrate that sentences women to be tortured and murdered in the name of the church. The romance is good and the unnecessary torture scenes and naked women was common in Euro movies in the 70's. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Iinquisição" ("Inquisition")

Inquisición was written by, directed and stars Paul Naschy. I would imagine that he was starting to get tired of starring in the often less than brilliant Spanish horror films that he made a lot of prior to 1976 and decided to make something a bit more serious; probably taking influence from Vincent Price in the excellent Witchfinder General, and this film is the result. While the film is of a higher quality in terms of acting and content than most of Naschy's filmography; it's also rather dull and unfortunately has nothing on the earlier Vincent Price film. The film takes on a period setting and, as the title suggests, focuses on the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition is out hunting witches; and Bernard de Fossey is leading the hunt. However, a local girl takes offence at him and his compatriots hunting down the local townsfolk and decides to take action by hooking up with Satan himself to make the leader of the Inquisition fall in love with her, and thus leaving the leader with a personal crisis to negotiate.

As mentioned, Paul Naschy takes the lead role; and as usual, he is one of the best things about the film. Naschy obviously enjoys playing the lead role in his own film (actually this is the first one he wrote and directed) and the role is somewhat different and more involving than his previous ones. One of my main problems with the film is that the style of it is very bland; Spanish horror is more famous for its stunning Gothic locales and this film is severely lacking in this area. The plot moves very slowly and there is little in the way of distractions from the lead character's plight; which in truth is not all that interesting. To the film's credit, it does feature some very good torture scenes, some of which are quite nasty; a nipple removal scene is a highlight in that respect. Naschy does take tentative steps to lift the film by showing us pictures of some of Satan's minions (apparently the Dark Lord has quite a hierarchy set up!) but not enough is made of it. Overall, this film might be of interest to Spanish horror or Naschy completists; but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to track it down.