La Vengeance de Lady Morgan

What a shame! Long lost 1965 film from Massimo Pupillo turns up with wonderful print with stunning b/w cinematography and is such a let down. Starts well enough as the tale is set up but then seems to take forever to inform us of the terrible tale that will eventually unfold. As it happens, very average though the main bulk of the film is, when we finally get to the actual 'vengeance' it is another drawn out sequence but more akin to US TV's 'Bewitched' with puffs of smoke, comedic falling about and appearances and disappearances. All the more shame because Barbara Nelli and Erica Blanc are stunning throughout (if a little over dressed) and there are some decent scenes that really should have been developed. As it is we have a film with great potential, just thrown away because nobody could decide if it was to be a Gothic horror, a tale of revenge, high drama or a comedy.

While the modern, streaming copy of this old film is crystal clear and available in Italian with subtitles, that is probably the best thing I can say about it. Lady Morgans Vengeance is trite, boring and too much like a hundred other movies with the same themes.

This is some bizarre Italian attempt to combine Wuthering Heights with the 1940s classic film Gaslight. I was hoping that would be elegant and interesting but this flick is most notable for its sheer dull mediocrity. Scheming gold diggers drive a young heiress mad (I mean, I cannot understand for the life of me how she didn't figure out that they were whispering to her through the wall) and she comes back to haunt them with a series of unimpressive 1960s special effects.

If it were a better movie overall, I would complain about the spoon-feeding of the narrative in the last twenty minutes or so, but somehow it was unsurprising within the lame confines of this lazy attempt at gothic horror.

I first became aware of this rare example of Gothic Horror all' Italiana last Summer, via a late-night program dealing with Italian genre cinema in which Erika Blanc and Rosalba Neri were the guests of honor; in fact, the poor-quality copy I acquired was culled from a probably 30-year old TV broadcast on some obscure Sicilian channel! To be honest, I found the film's initial half to be merely average – but it was considerably redeemed by the latter stages (depicting the titular event), which were quite splendid. Interestingly, the premise of a group of schemers after an innocent young girl's legacy would see ample service within the giallo genre a few years on; with this in mind, the trio of villains (Paul Muller, Erika Blanc and Gordon Mitchell) are more interesting than the romantic leads (though, in all fairness, the male protagonist spends much of the running-time in a foreign country as a bed-ridden amnesiac!). In fact, not too long after he is pushed overboard during an ocean voyage, the heroine accepts the seemingly devoted Muller's proposal of marriage but, later still, is hypnotized(!) by sinister housekeeper Blanc into throwing herself off the family castle's walls; meanwhile, brawny groom Mitchell has imprisoned the girl's uncle in the dungeons below. Soon, however, the tables are turned as not only does the hero recover but, when he finally turns up at the estate, is met by the ghost of his loved one who brings him up to date. The couple then proceed to disrupt the villains' premature triumph – this is done via numerous tricks (a few of them supernatural) intended to bewilder but also cause dissent within the group. One unexpected touch towards the end sees the lot (who all turn up dead eventually) being able to materialize upon drinking the blood of the living i.e. the heroine's poor chained uncle! Despite the general low-key nature of THE VENGEANCE OF LADY MORGAN, it proves a surprisingly satisfactory entry within a prolific yet most popular genre.

After losing her boyfriend Lady Morgan(Barbara Nelli)marries Sir Harold Morgan.Harold is having an affair with a sinister housekeeper Lilian(Erica Blanc)and they both plan to murder Lady Morgan.But after she dies Lady Morgan becomes a ghost keen on supernatural revenge...Pretty slow-moving Italian mood piece with remarkable acting and plenty of spooky atmosphere.The film is obviously inspired by Antonio Margheriti's "La Danza Macabra" from 1964.Erica Blanc is hypnotic as Lilian and there are some creepy processions of ghosts.Fans of Italian horror will certainly appreciate this extremely obscure film.8 out of 10.Where the hell is DVD?

Buxom beauty Barbara Nelli's ill-fated lady Susan is undeserving of her ghastly fate at the scheming hands of Vulpine vamp Erika Blank's hypnotically horrid governess, her evilly Gaslighting husband Harold (Paul Muller), and sizzlingly statuesque bad boy butler (George Mitchell). Massimo Pupillo's atmospheric, beautifully shot, crisply paced, seductively spooky melodrama has an especially tragic heroine, oodles of Machiavellian menace, and concludes bloodthirstily in a memorably macabre fashion! Ghostly Gothic terror treat La Vendetta Di Lady Morgan remains an absolute must for lovers of moody Italianate B-Movie baroque. With such a conspicuous flair for invention, it's a very great shame that maestro Pupillo never made another horror film. I must hereby happily confess that I had the greatest sympathy for lady Morgan's vengeance!