26/01/2011

Un Bianco Vestito per Marialé/Spirits Of Death - 1972 Italy d: Romano Scavolini



A second rung Giallo that is nevertheless not without a fair amount of interest.  In best Agatha tradition a bunch of people are summoned to a remote castle and bumped off in different ways. Central to it all is Marialé, hostess and a troubled woman who in her childhood watched her father murder her mother and her lover before killing himself (shown in a superb pre-titles sequence).

The story is as slight as that, so Scavolini - as director and cinematographer - makes up for it with style. And this is a very stylish film indeed, reminiscent of Mario Bava's Five Dolls For An August Moon from the previous year in its use of bright colours against drab or monochrome backings and contrasting dark scenes with very light scenes...the basics of the storylines are not dissimilar either!  For all this style, there are moments of clumsiness in the framing - you wonder why everyone is gasping in shock at someone else, only for it to be revealed he is brandishing a gun when the camera is pointed properly! There is also a truly dreadfully done "death by dogs" scene in which a few clearly happy and friendly dogs play with the single most unconvincing dummy I have ever seen on film in an attempt to make it look like they are savaging one of the character!s.

Flaws aside though, the film holds the interest, primarily through the performances.  In particular, cult favourites Ivan Rassimov and Luigi Pistilli are magnificent, with Rassimov especially giving a superb performance. Evelyn Stewart/Ida Galli is perfect as Marialé too, bringing the right combination of frustration, paranoia and distance to a difficult part.  The whole ensemble are very good, and lift the film above itself.

Whilst not as weird and left-field as something like The Perfume Of The Lady in Black, this is the same kind of unusual curio that would probably find an audience if reissued today*.  I am not sure if an English dub was ever made for the film (it, rather unusually, appears to have been shot in Italian), certainly in Surf Film's catalogue it only mentions Italian and French versions.

Whilst I don't think it close to the quality of The Perfume Of The Lady In Black or Don't Torture A Duckling or The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, this Giallo is worth seeing (if you can!). That it is an early film by the director of Nightmares In A Damaged Brain and Dogtags surely adds more appeal to it.



*Although one brief and essentially unnecessary scene (it's merely there to set the weird mood, straight after the titles) features a caged monkey assaulting a finch or similar small songbird - could cause BBFC hassles.

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