‘The world is a stage, but sometimes it isn’t.’
A theatre group about to disband after finishing an engagement is invited by a mysterious Count to his private island. However, the leading lady resembles the nobleman’s late wife, and a deadly family curse leads to murder…
Threadbare Gothic horror with a splash of Giallo from French writer-director Alfredo Rizzo. Leading players Femi Benussi, Giacomo Rossi Stuart and Luciano Pigozzi probably didn’t know what they were getting into; at least you have to hope so.
The final curtain has fallen on a touring theatrical troupe in provincial Ireland in 1902. There’s no work on the horizon, and the cast is preparing to split up and go their separate ways. Enter the handsome Count Richard Marnack (Giacomo Rossi Stuart), who invites them to stay at his castle on an island lying just off the coast. Although they have reservations about the idea, the Count is so charming that Evelyn (Patrizia Webley), Cora (Krista Nell), Rosalind (Marzia Damon) and Penny (Lidia Olizzi) agree, dragging the troupe’s gopher, Samuel (Leo Valeriano) along for the ride.
Once installed at the castle, it becomes evident that Rossi Stuart is besotted with leading lady Webley. She happens to look exactly like his wife, who went missing several years earlier and is presumed dead. There’s also a family curse, which began when Stuart’s grandfather decapitated his wife after finding out she was unfaithful. Not to be outdone, his father did the same thing many years later, finishing off by flinging himself from the castle tower into the sea. The troupe settle into their new home, unaware that further episodes will be added to the castle’s bloody history.
This is a pretty woeful production all around, bearing the distinct signs of a rushed, low-effort enterprise. There isn’t enough story for a 90-minute feature with a deadly second act that gets bogged down in a series of dreary sex scenes more suited to the adult entertainment market. Either side of those is a dull, lifeless setup, followed by a series of offscreen killings and a ridiculously flat climax that is 99 parts an exposition dump. So little effort seems to have been made that even the storm and raging seas that strand our protagonists on the island arrive courtesy of mismatched stock footage, which is presented in glorious black and white!
Perhaps recognising the futility of the entire enterprise, the cast operates mainly on autopilot, with the only members trying to bring some life to the proceedings being Nell and Mario De Rosa, who plays butler Jefferson. Unfortunately, both overcompensate, although it’s fair to say that Nell’s horny flirt and De Rosa’s fire and brimstone servant are nothing more than poorly written caricatures. Nominal lead Benussi gets almost nothing to do as housekeeper Sybil except stand around looking sour-faced and then deliver the afore-mentioned exposition to Police Inspector Luigi Batzella, who turns up from somewhere or other in the last ten minutes. Unfortunately, this is supposed to be the film’s dramatic climax. Old reliable Luciano Pigozzi is appropriately slimy as the estate’s combination handyman/gardener/Peeping Tom but, unfortunately, gets minimal screen time and makes no lasting impression.
It doesn’t help with the performances, but the ham-fisted English dub track does deliver some welcome laughs. The voice cast all affect frightfully posh English accents and deliver some wonderfully terrible examples of bad dialogue. These conversational zingers include such gems as: ‘Which is the dagger he used to behead your mother?’ and ‘This room has been so empty…just like my life.’ It’s also clear that many of the characters are just here for the sex scenes and no other purpose. Damon and Olizzi are the token lesbians providing the girl-on-girl action, Pigozzi’s son Mike Monty is a convenient diversion for Nell in his fisherman’s hut and castle maids Mary (Barbara Marzano) and Carol (Susette Nadalutti) feel each other up in a hilariously pointless scene.
In related silliness, Rossi Stuart keeps the dagger used to decapitate his female ancestors hanging on the wall of the dining room. It does look like a nasty weapon, but I’m guessing a killer would need something a little more substantial to behead someone. Perhaps Rizzo’s budget didn’t stretch to an axe or another decent-sized weapon. The killer also helpfully leaves big white footprints on the scarlet carpets of the castle corridors, and the heavy-handed Gothic score from Marcello Giombini turns up in all the wrong places. The film ran into censorship problems in certain territories where the sex scenes were heavily cut. However, in France, they were not only retained but hardcore porn footage was inserted as well! This was almost certainly from another source, but you can’t help but wonder if the unfortunate cast became aware of it.
Rizzo was primarily an actor whose early career was derailed by the Second World War before he worked up a string of minor bits in Italian films after the conflict. He later appeared as a hairdresser in MGM’s epic ‘Quo Vadis’ (1951) and as a Taxi Driver in the Oscar-winning ‘Roman Holiday’ (1953), both of which were shot in Italy. More substantial roles followed in the horror arena with ‘The Playgirls and the Vampire/L’ultima preda del vampiro’ (1960), the ‘Slaughter of the Vampires/La strage dei vampiri/Curse of the Blood Ghouls’ (1962) and ‘Terror Creatures from the Grave/5 tombe per un medium’ (1965). He even turns up in Federico Fellini’s segment of the portmanteau horror ‘Spirits of the Dead/Histoires extraordinaires/Tre passi nel delirio’ (1968). As a director, he was less prolific, with only eight features to his name, although he did work with Pigozzi and Benussi again.
Sadly, this film was a swansong for Nell, born in Austria in 1946. Appearing in films from the age of 19, she debuted in an uncredited role in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Pierrot le Fou’ (1965) but snagged leading lady status for serious-minded Eurospy ‘The Beckett Affair/L’affare Beckett’ (1966). She also featured as one of Shirley Eaton’s slave girls in producer Harry Alan Towers’ ‘The Million Eyes of Sumuru’ (1967) and in the all but forgotten ‘Tarzan in the Golden Grotto/Tarzán en la gruta del oro’ (1969). Crime drama ‘Paid in Blood/Quelle sporche anime dannate’ (1970) found her sharing supporting duties with Rizzo, but by the time they reunited for this film, she was seriously ill with leukaemia. Forced to take a lesser role than initially planned, this was her last film. She died just over a month after the film was released at the age of 29.
This film is a train wreck. Please make it stop.
Mark David Welsh 
I’ve never gotten around to watch this. Rossi Stuart was more the square jawed hero than this character.
Rossi Stuart was a capable actor who had the looks and he did a few leads but somehow he just seems to lack that certain something. I watched Spaghetti Western ‘Degueyo’ (1966) recently and he’s the nominal star and hero, but every other actor and character in the movie is more interesting than him. Nothing wrong with his performance, he just kind of disappears into the scenery! The 1960s Euro equivalent of Paul Rudd perhaps (or is that unfair?!)
Not unfair. Rudd has no spark or maybe he hasn’t found a role that has energy. Stuart’s best was Operation Fear.