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Italy
- France / 1960
Directed by Giorgio Ferroni
Starring
Pierre Brice
Scilla Gabel
Wolfgang Preiss
Color
/ 94 Minutes / Not Rated
Format: DVD / R0 - NTSC
Mondo
Macabro
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10
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In
1890s Holland, handsome young researcher Hans
von Arnam (Pierre Brice) travels to a rural village
to collect data on a most unusual tourist attraction:
the Carousel of Stone Women, a mechanical diorama
featuring life-size moving figures of famous female
martyrs and murderers. Built inside an old windmill
along a gloomy, fog-shrouded dike, the macabre
machine is operated by a complicated arrangement
of cogs and gears. Hans, who's working for an
academician preparing a monograph on the century-old
carousel, is welcomed by the mill's owner, eccentric
Gregorius Wahl (Herbert Böhme), esteemed
sculptor and art professor. Wahl gives Hans a
quick tour of the machinery and access to the
papers and diagrams of his long-dead father, the
carousel's creator. Though seemingly accommodating,
Wahl tells his guest that he'll have only five
days to complete the research instead of the ten
Hans thought he'd been allotted.
Despite his truncated stay Hans finds time
to rekindle a romance with an old flame, Liselotte
(Dany Carrel), one of Wahl's students. But their
renewed relationship is complicated when, in the
mill that night, Hans encounters the professor's
beautiful, mysterious daughter Elfy (Scilla Gabel)
— a daughter Wahl never spoke of. Elfy's cryptic
words and behavior leave him unsure whether she's
mentally disturbed or being confined against her
will. Her come-on, however, is anything but ambiguous.
Hans is unable to resist — how could he? (Italian-born
Gabel is a voluptuous cross between Sophia Loren
and Black Sunday's
Barbara Steele.) So he sleeps with her. Next day
the subject of Elfy is awkwardly broached by Prof.
Wahl, who explains that his daughter suffers from
a strange, potentially fatal illness, the same
malady that claimed her mother years before. The
slightest emotional distress could cause Elfy's
death. It is for her own well-being that she's
kept a virtual prisoner within the mill. This
is also why a physician, the rather shady Dr.
Bolem (Wolfgang Preiss of the Dr. Mabuse films),
lives at the mill full-time, with Elfy as his
sole patient. Wahl more or less warns his handsome
guest to stay clear of her to avoid any potential
upset. Smartly, Hans doesn't mention that he and
Elfy have already shagged.
After sleeping with Elfy, Hans has realized
that he truly loves Liselotte and wants to marry
her. How, then, to end his fling with Wahl's 'delicate'
daughter? He calmly breaks it to her during a
late-night rendezvous. Elfy doesn't take the news
very well. She has a spasm and collapses on the
spot — dead. Hans freaks out, then sneaks
her body back to her room. For the moment he keeps
quiet about Elfy's sudden demise. Later he encounters
Dr. Bolem, who provides him with a sedative to
help him sleep. Instead he experiences a real
acid-trip of a nightmare (a surprisingly long
but well-mounted sequence accentuated by Bava-style
lighting) which obfuscates the boundaries of reality
and dreams. When Elfy shows up alive and quite
well the next day, Hans suffers a nervous breakdown.
Has he completely lost his mind?
Part
House Of Wax, part
Awful Dr. Orlof,
Giorgio Ferroni's Mill Of
The Stone Women (Il Mulino Delle Donne
Di Pietra) is a stately, slow-paced Eurochiller
that relies on macabre visuals and strong gothic
atmosphere rather than shocks or thrills. As a
consequence some viewers may get a bit restless.
(If you're looking for sleaze, nudity and/or gore
then forget it. This flick's not for you.) The
mystery behind the carousel and Elfy's strange
death and resurrection will have been deciphered
quite early on, so the fact that it takes almost
an hour for the film to catch up with the audience
isn't exactly a positive. Fortunately —
unlike Antonio Margheriti's Castle
Of Blood —
Stone Women manages
to keep us interested until we get there. The
scenes leading to the plot's revelation and fiery
climax, while at times lethargic, do advance
the story. (The Margheriti film, in contrast,
is padded with interminably boring shots of the
protagonist wandering up and down seemingly endless,
candlelit corridors.) Among the cast, raven-haired
Gabel is fittingly bewitching as the mystery woman
around whom the plot pivots, while Preiss, as
the sinister cigar-smoking doctor, is as reliable
as always (even though voiced by a different actor).
The dilapidated windmill certainly makes an intriguing
gothic setting; Ferroni uses the interior sets
to excellent effect. (The same can't be said of
the rather cheesy model sometimes used for exteriors.)
The life-like figures of the carousel are undeniably
creepy.
So
if you've a proclivity for old-fashioned gothic
horrors —
handsomely mounted, leisurely paced, heavy on
atmosphere —
Mill Of The Stone Women
should prove entertaining. If you're the type
of cult movie fan who finds films such as The
Whip And The Body or Corman's Poe Cycle too
tedious and tame, then steer clear.
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Mondo
Macabro's 'All' Region DVD edition of Mill
Of The Stone Women (compiled from various
international sources)
presents the film uncut and anamorphically letterboxed,
in the finest condition possible. There are instances
of print damage but these are so few and infrequent
as to be inconsequential. Three mono audio tracks
are offered: British Dub, U.S. Dub and French
(with optional English subtitles). The dubbed
British and American tracks actually share many
of the same voice actors. Prof. Wahl's voice is
performed substantially better (and the dubbing
far superior in terms of timing) in the U.K. version,
however. I recommend either this British track
or the French one with subs.
Extras
include: the English-language theatrical trailer;
three
alternate scenes; production notes and talent
bios of Pierre Brice, Dany Carrel, Wolfgang Preiss,
and Scilla Gabel written by Pete Tombs (the one
for Gabel contains six nude glamor shots of the
bodacious actress in her prime); and 8 mini-galleries
of production stills and promotional materials.
There's also a fun trailer reel of current and
upcoming Mondo Macabro releases. NOTE: The packaging
text proclaims that Mondo's DVD version "restores
all the scenes cut from its original U.S. release
including the notorious topless shots of sexy
French star Dany Carrel." This is true,
but be aware that these "notorious"
shots are but a brief glimpse of a sliver of nipple...
That's it. 3/26/04
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