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6
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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A
word to the ladies... If you happen to marry a
handsome rich aristocrat with a dark family history,
and he moves you to a creepy gothic castle complete
with sinister servants and medieval torture chamber,
do yourself a favor —
get a divorce lawyer.
American-born Mary von Hunter
(Rossana Podestà) has come to Germany with
husband Max to stay at his ancestral home for
a few weeks while he attends to business matters.
On a stormy night soon after their arrival, with
Max away, Mary is awakened by the agonized cries
of a woman coming from somewhere within the castle.
Following the sounds leads her to the torture
chamber of one of Max's infamous ancestors, now
maintained as a museum. Here she discovers blood
flowing into the collection bowl beneath the "Virgin
of Nuremberg", a fabled iron maiden that
is the museum's main attraction. Opening the spiked
door, Mary is horrified to see the body of a freshly
dead woman inside. The corpse's eyes have been
gouged out, leaving ragged, bloody sockets. (Doubtless
a shocking gore scene back in the early '60s.)
Awakening from a faint, Mary is assured by Max
(Georges Rivière) that what she saw was merely
the result of a bad dream. His tales of "The Punisher",
the deranged ancestor who tortured women to death
in the castle some 300 years ago, had obviously
upset her. But Mary isn't so eager to doubt her
own senses. She begins snooping around while Max
is away (he frequently departs at odd hours) and
isn't calmed by her discoveries. There's the odd
behavior of the servants, for one thing. The crazy
housekeeper speaks as if The Punisher has come
back from beyond the grave; Max's dour, black-clad
assistant Erich (Christopher Lee) keeps a case
of lovingly polished surgical instruments at hand
even though he isn't a doctor. It turns out hubby's
deceased father was a Nazi general accused of
atrocities during the war. And Mary spots a caped,
hooded figure lurking about the castle in the
dead of night...
Like 1964's Castle
Of Blood, a significant portion of this film
involves the protagonist exploring shadowy corridors
and crypts by candlelight. I managed to stay awake
this time, though, due to somewhat better
pacing (and perhaps because this one's in color).
Director Antonio Margheriti again proves himself
a master of the gothic aesthetic. Not as flamboyant
as Mario Bava in the use of colored lighting gels
to create an otherworldly, dreamlike vibe, Margheriti
nevertheless fills every corner and crevice with
inky black shadows, pierced only by the glow of
a flickering torch or flash of lightning. Thus
the look of the film never approaches the surreal,
instead remaining much more grounded in realism.
For example, you won't find yourself wondering
why one wall of a mausoleum happens to
be bathed in green light... Sometimes directors
go overboard trying to make a scene look cool,
logic be damned, leaving certain folks in the
audience (like me) pondering just where
said light source is supposed to be coming from
within the 'reality' of the film. Margheriti avoids
these pitfalls with The
Virgin
Of Nuremberg. In doing so he makes
marvelous use of the huge, sprawling castle set,
which puts to shame the comparatively modest abode
of Count Dracula in the Hammer films from this
period.
He also
has a plucky heroine in Podestà, who, while
not the ravishing beauty one typically sees in
such European horror flicks, is engaging enough
for us to want to follow along and root for her.
She's very much the central focus of the plot
and appears in 95% of the scenes. Horror icon
Christopher Lee is of course effortlessly menacing
as the mysterious Erich. He cuts a sinister figure
indeed with his scarred face and black chauffeur's
tunic, which looks a lot like a Nazi SS uniform
stripped of insignia and silver piping. As with
Bava's The Whip And The
Body Lee did not loop his own dialog for the
English version of Virgin,
so it's disappointing that we don't get to hear
his distinctive voice. (It should be noted, however,
that the character has relatively few speaking
lines.)
Apart from a couple of red herrings that seem
forced, the film's only glaring missteps are the
cheesy model shots in some of the special effects
scenes and composer Riz Ortolani's (Mondo
Cane) overwrought score. While I found it
interesting — certainly
a change of pace —
for a gothic horror film to use a soundtrack dominated
by snappy, up-tempo jazz, the 'shock' and 'fright'
scenes are so regularly punctuated by loud, strident
horn blasts that it becomes counterproductive.
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Media
Blasters' Shriek Show label has done a commendable
job with Virgin Of Nuremberg.
While the DVD isn't packed with extras like some
of the most recent SS titles (1990:
Bronx Warriors, Faceless),
audio/visual quality is generally first-rate.
Colors are rich and bold, boasting deep, solid
blacks; print damage is negligible. (The transfer
is letterboxed at 1.85:1 and enhanced for 16x9
TVs.) The disc's English mono audio track doesn't
fare quite as well — dialog sounds a tad too low
during the first half-hour — but is in better
shape than most of Shriek Show's offerings. There
are no distracting pops or crackles to mar the
experience. (Unfortunately we don't get the original
Italian language track with subtitles as an option.)
As mentioned, the DVD
is pretty light in the extras department. Aside
from a slate of Shriek Show trailers (including
the Italian theatrical promo for Virgin)
there's only a 4-minute slideshow gallery of posters
and lobby cards, mostly from Germany. This runs
totally silent; typically music from the film
is used for accompaniment, but not here. (A poster
for Slaughter
Hotel ["La Bestia Uccide A Sangue
Freddo"] is mistakenly included.) It's too
bad they either couldn't or wouldn't secure Christopher
Lee for at least a short interview.
4/12/04
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