WHIP AND THE BODY, THE

1963
Italy
aka La frusta e il corpo (I), Le corps et le fouet (Fr), Der Dämon und die Jungfrau (WG), Night is the Phantom (GB), What! (US)
Leone Film, Vox Film, Francinor (Paris), Paris International Productions
Director: Mario Bava
screenplay: Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra, Luciano Martino
cinematography: Ubaldo Terzano
music: Carlo Rustichelli
Cast: Daliah Lavi (Nevenka), Christopher Lee (Kurt Menliff), Luciano Stella [Tony Kendall] (Christian Menliff), Isli Oberon [Ida Galli] (Katia), Harriet White Medin (Giorgia), Gustavo De Nardo [Dean Ardrow] (Count Vladimir), Luciano Pigozzi [aka Alan Collins] (manservant), Jacques Herlin (priest)

This title is available from AMAZON on DVD

Bava's follow up to Black Sunday (Maschera del demonio, 60), this plays like a giallo with gothic trappings, more similar, maybe to Antonio Margheriti's disappointing Seven Death's in a Cat's Eye (Morte negli occhi del gatto, 74). Of course, the year before he had made The Evil Eye (La Ragazza che sapeva troppo, 64), a pretty straight Hitchcockian whodunit, but it is also probably worth noting the presence of Luciano Martino's name amongst the scriptwriting credits. Martino, as well as being the brother of capable director Sergio, apparently made it his mission to introduce the thriller to Italian shores, producing such influential titles as Romolo Guerrieri's Sweet Body of Deborah (Il Dolce corpo di Deborah, 69) and Umberto Lenzi's So Sweet... So Perverse (Così dolce... così perversa, 69). This was an early example of the genre, of course, and makes much of the supernatural overtones associated with the director, but on the whole these act as a MacGuffin in that they are simply an entrance point in a mystery which has much deeper lying roots.

The film opens with the return of Kurt Menliff to his ancestral home. He is evidently a pretty unpopular character. Not only does his father hate him, but his younger brother, Christian, is now married to his ex-fiancée, Nevenka. Heck, even the housemaid, Giorgia, despises this cat, her already sour face turning even more vitriolic every time it catches sight of him. Turns out that he'd had an affair with a serving girl - Giorgia's daughter - who had killed herself when he abandoned her.

Not everyone is entirely disappointed to see him, however. You see, he knows a secret. A secret that is subtly hinted at by the way in which Nevenka likes trailing horsewhips through the sand whilst staring out to see. And by the way that her conjugal life would seem to be less than satisfactory. Yep, our lassie is a good old-fashioned sado-masochist who needs to be whupped senseless before she can enjoy a good shag, and Kurt is only to willing to oblige.

It's not such a huge surprise, therefore, when he is found dead. After all, everyone would appear to have a motive for killing him. Even those who don't act so suspiciously that they can't help but incriminate themselves (namely Al Collins, here picking a clubfoot from his resume of physical deformities and popping up at the most inappropriate moments). What is odd is that he persists with his pursuit of the pain-loving bride even from his grave. Muddy footprints lead from the crypt into her bedroom, there is the sound of echoed laughter and whips are loudly lashed in the depths of the castle. And more bodies keep appearing...

For Bava, this must have been a halfway house film. It takes bits from his past - the rising dead, the aristocratic family (that bears a more than passing resemblance to the Vajda clan from Black Sunday), the deadly dark haired female - and attempts to shape them into the format of his future, the murder mystery. There would also appear to be a smidgen of Robert Wise's superb The Haunting (63) floating around in there, what with the heightened sound effects and the supernatural events leading to madness for the repressed character.

Unsurprisingly, it demonstrates several of his predilections: the sea is again a prominent feature, crypts and secret passageways are commonplace (that which lies hidden beneath the surface) and things are repeatedly not what they appear to be. This is true of both characters as well as locations (such as fireplaces that are in fact doorways), and indeed the whole storyline can be said to be an elaborate deception in that we are fed what appears to be in a way that deliberately distracts from what actually is. There are also his customarily rich atmosphere of gothic romanticism and odd surreal touches that appear to force through the veneer of reality.

Eminently watchable, this is an effective film, but one that appears to be treading water somehow. The visual flair is requisite, but not as abundant as in some of his other productions. It fits in well with the better range of Italian gothic - Night of the Doomed (Amanti d'oltretomba, 65) by Mario Caiano or Camillo Mastrocinque's Crypt of Horror (La Maldición de los Karnstein, 63), for instance - without scaling to the same peaks as his best work.

Performances are all okay. Chris Lee doesn't actually have that large a role, despite his primary billing, but seems to quite enjoy playing a character who isn't actually dead (or, not for a while, anyways). Tony Kendall is a bit odd in the romantic lead role (a problem he shares with Giorgio Ardisson from Hercules in the Haunted World (Ercole al centro della terra, 61)) and would find a more suitable outlet for his talents in the extremely silly Kommissar X spy series. Daliah Lavi takes the 'is Barbara Steele available at the moment' role and does all she can with it, namely writhe around a lot looking terrified and display a suitable amount of cleavage. Cool.

Something must be said, finally, about the sub plot of masochism on display here. Considering it was 1963, this must have been pretty risqué. There are whipping scenes that are evidently supposed to demonstrate the way in which the participants enjoy the act of receiving or enacting punishment. Admittedly, those involved are revealed to be nutzoid to a greater and lesser degree, but it is still pretty up-front for it's time.

Matt Blake