Encontro no Inferno

In every Halloween challenge I participate in, I like to embellish the popular or, if you like, obvious choices with some very obscure stuff (even to me) – so, after the mix of swashbuckling and horror that was UNA SPADA PER BRANDO (1970), here we have a caper/crime movie that becomes a ghost story! While it is no lost classic, this unlikely hybrid plays much more successfully here; that said, the supernatural events are given a twist which might be considered a cop-out (though I predicted something to that effect much earlier). The film starts off immediately with the robbery or, rather, the ingenious idea to sound the alarm of the targeted establishment beforehand so that the police arrive on the scene in vain and the caretaker, almost in shame, turns it off for the rest of the night. No sooner has he done this that the criminals pounce on him and, typically, he ends up killed in the ensuing fracas – but, no, he is not the ghost in question. When the gang meets to divide the proceeds (a cache' of diamonds), their true natures emerge and soon start bickering, with one of them eventually drowning in the nearby swamp! The other two decide to lie low in the country but do not really trust each other – especially since the leader (an intense John Drew Barrymore) is obviously a psycho. His partner (Massimo Serato) is actually a respectable businessman who, on the night of the job, even creates a solid alibi for himself by literally bumping into the Police Commissioner at a nightclub! At this point, a girl (Eva Bartok) enters into the picture; soon after, Barrymore starts being haunted by his dead associate (in the form of whispered calls, writings and even the planting of a photo among his killer's things)! The catch is that this female 'intruder' is not as naïve as she lets on and, to complicate matters, Serato falls for her while the misogynistic Barrymore attempts to rape the girl! Anyway, it all concludes with a return to the fateful swamps and another drowning (guess who gets to go under this time around?). The boggy atmosphere and level of suspense are adequate for a clearly low-budget effort – though, in the end, it is the bearded Barrymore's histrionics which make the film worthwhile. For the record, director Regnoli had co-scripted the seminal I VAMPIRI (1957) and, among his other credits in this capacity, are two which I will be checking out presently as part of the Halloween Horror Challenge i.e. THE THIRD EYE (1966) and OBSCENE DESIRE (1978). By the way, the literal English translation of the film's original Italian title is I'LL WAIT FOR YOU IN HELL.

John Drew Barrymore, Massimo Serato, and Antonio Pierfederici have stolen a satchel full of diamonds. The police are closing in, so they decide to hole up in a nowhere town. They kill Perfederici, and are settling in, when up pops Eva Bartok. She's broke but proud. So Barryore and Serato start to fight over her.

Barrymore looks like a beatnik Kirk Douglas in his beard, long hair, and sweater. Miss Bartok is alluring. It's hard to comment on the performances, since they were in Italian, and I looked at a copy that was dubbed in English, but the physical performances are good, aided by Luciano Trasatti's stark black & white photography. Giuseppe Piccillo jazz score -- with bongo drums! -- is largely annoying.

John Drew Barrymore plays a really vicious part in this, but he does it well and almost over-convincing in all his reckless cruelty, psychosis running wild and abominable brutality, while his two accessories in the diamond heist both become his victims. The story is actually too revolting to stand scrutiny, its exaggerations make it impossible, but it is well made, and with small effects you scare the wits not only out of John Drew Barrymore but the audience as well. Eva Bartok turns up for a change, so much needed, and she actually gets the better of them all, while no one can suspect what she really is up to, least of all the audience. It's an efficient thriller although a little too overdone to go for a noir, but it is all actually a lesson of how karma works. When Sam comes to haunt Walter for his death, it is perfectly logical, and Eva Bartok doesn't really have to help much, although she provides the right music. You actually hope for Sam to be still alive and almost expect him to turn up at any minute, but he doesn't have to. Karma will blow them all to hell.

This is an absorbing Italian crime thriller with horror overtones from writer/director Piero Regnoli (or Pierre King, as he's called on the American tv print), who is best known to genre fans for the kitschy but effective "The Playgirls and the Vampire". The plot concerns three young hoods who conspire to rob a jewelry store, killing a guard in the process. Walter (John Drew Barrymore, at the beginning of his Eurotrash period) is a hotheaded beatnik, Al is the debonair brains behind the heist, and Sam is a dreamer who wants to buy a plot of land in Israel with his share. They high-tail it to a wilderness cabin where they plan to lay low and divvy up the take, but after Walter taunts Sam with anti-semitic remarks, they start to tussle, and Sam falls into quicksand and succumbs. Later, a sexy drifter (Eva Bartok) who is looking for work shows up, causing tension between the two remaining gang members. At the same time, subtle clues begin to convince the increasingly paranoid Walter that Sam is haunting him.

Although the horror elements are not presented with much conviction, Regnoli holds the viewer's interest with admirable camera work and clever editing, and eventually there's a nice twist to the story. Although most of the film is done in the typical realist style of the time, he manages to insert a couple of sexy dance numbers (which seem to be his trademark), and the murky swamp scenes are suitably creepy. As the mentally unstable Walter, Barrymore emotes with enough flair and intensity to do his name proud -- his technique is a lot more "method" than his ancestors, but he's just as hammy, and his hatchet face is lit to great effect. The underlying racial tensions are reminiscent of the tough noir "Odds Against Tomorrow", and the haunted crook plot is quite similar to the clever contemporaneous British programmer "The Man in the Back Seat".