Cimetière pour morts vivants

Quintessential spaghetti horror film; it even stars Barbara Steele, the queen of such films. Every is there, the over-blown scenery including a medieval castle, a cast of delectable victims, the couple in love, and lots mysterious, unexplainable deaths, and as a bonus a memorable soundtrack. Is it the work of a maniacal killer(of course) or something more?

Even my third generation, dubbed copy of this Italian made creature feature can't obscure the fact that this is a prime slice of Gothic cinema. Walter Brandi (Playgirls and the Vampire) stars as a lawyer sent to a gloomy castle to meet a client...who turns out to have been dead for a year! Barbara Steele is here as the widow of the deceased, and there's a plentiful supply of red herrings, gruesome make-up (all the more suggestive in black and white), thunder and lightning, and terrific atmosphere. The English language print seems to have suffered some cuts (though it is, surprisingly, letterboxed correctly), so I await a DVD restoration.

Having been in a kind of Barbara Steele mood, i decided to throw in the version i have had collecting dust on my video shelf for some time now. Deciding to compare my version to other information that might be listed about this films, i was saddened to find out that the ALPHA VIDEO version listed it's version as a mere 61 minutes, informing me that there was some 24 minutes missing from this release. Saddened i shall now search out the full film and do hope it is a lot better than this well worked over copy i have now. This film deserves to be remastered in a official version that contains everything cut as do all movies being released on to any personal format. ...... Happy Viewing.

Another of those Barbara Steele Italian horror movies. I guess it's the dark black hair that always gets her cast as a heavy. She is always quite striking and a pretty good actress. This one is full of revenge, plague, and pestilence. Apparently, the lord of the manor has been mistreated or privy to the shenanigans of about five people and seeks revenge from the grave on them. One is his unfaithful wife, Steele. Each murder is set up in some bizarre way, each person murdered in an ugly, undignified way. There's always something in me that says, "Did they really deserve to die, or could he have cast them into some legal trap, like the Count of Monte Cristo. But death it is. Some of the people who die are not horrible people, but it doesn't matter. This guy has powers in the great beyond. What about his soul, one full of vengeance. Why have the spirits allowed him to be so heartless and venomous. The two good people, are a young lawyer and the daughter of the castle's former resident. She is tiresome and rather insipid. He is mostly confused. Nobody in his right mind should still be in that castle. But it is quite scary and visually impressive. It's worth an hour and a half.

An attorney (Walter Brandi) arrives at a castle to settle the estate of its recently deceased owner. The owner's wife (Barbara Steele) and daughter reveal that he was someone who was able to summon the souls of ancient plague victims and, in fact, his spirit was roaming the castle at that very moment.

Not surprisingly for an Italian film of 1965, the quality (at least in the copy released by Mill Creek) is of average or below average quality. And unlike Mario Bava's "Planet of the Vampires", which came out the same year, this film is in black and white. Hopefully some day a company will invest in cleaning up an original print. (Dark Sky Films would be perfect for this, if we use their version of "She-Beast" as a template. Comparing the Mill Creek version of that film with Dark Sky's is the difference between trash and treasure.)

The most redeeming element of this film is Barbara Steele, who steals the show with her large, mesmerizing eyes. Walter Brandi, who plays the attorney Albert Kovac, is a formidable lead, and it is a shame I am not better acquainted with him. He appeared in other horror gems of the era: "Bloody Pit of Horror" and "Curse of the Blood Ghouls", and acts as sort of a poor man's Giacomo Rossi-Stuart. Interestingly, the actress who showed the most potential -- Tilde Till, who played the maid -- never acted in anything else.

Director Massimo Pupillo gave producer Ralph Zucker the directing credit, despite Zucker having no directing responsibilities at all. Why Pupillo found this film not worthy of carrying his name is beyond me... it is a solid story, allegedly based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe (though I do not know which story and rather doubt the source). To say Pupillo was a rival of Bava would give him too much credit, but he is an important figure in the early Italian horror scene.

Perhaps, in fact, Pupillo was a colleague of Bava's. The film's writer, Romano Migliorini, also wrote the Bava classics "Kill Baby Kill" and "Lisa and the Devil"... not to mention the original "Inglorious Bastards". So maybe they were all within the same circle? Yet, Bava now has the glory while this atmospheric Gothic horror -- easily on par with Roger Corman's Poe films -- is left forgotten.

Luca Palmerini's review consists of two words: "good stuff". Ignoring the occasional audio problems and lackluster video quality, this is a fair statement. The plot, acting and directing are all superb, and any fan of classic film will really enjoy it. Again, I hope a better copy surfaces, but until then there is still enough to appreciate here.