DVD

Skin

1963
Directed by: Mario Bava (as John M. Old)
Written by: Ernesto Gastaldi (as Julian Berry), Ugo Guerra (as Robert Hugo), Luciano Martino (as Martin Hardy)
Produced by: Ferdinando Baldi (as Free Baldwin), Elio Scardamaglia (as Tom Rhodes)
Studio: Francinor-PIP, Leone Film

Starring:
Daliah Lavi .... Nevenka Menliff
Christopher Lee .... Kurt Menliff
Tony Kendall .... Christian Menliff
Ida Galli .... Katia (as Isli Oberon)
Harriet Medin .... Giorgia (as Harriet White)
Gustavo De Nardo .... Count Menliff (as Dean Ardow)
Luciano Pigozzi .... Losat (as Alan Collins)
Jacques Herlin .... Priest

This is another beautifully filmed gothic horror film from the master of the macabre, Mario Bava. Unfortunately, I found it a little short on excitement and thrills. A little erotic granted, and the atmosphere and story are fine, but it reminded me very much of a soap opera from the early sixties. Perhaps it was the hugely melodramatic musical score that seemed to overwhelm a lot of the scenes.

The story starts out with Christopher Lee as Kurt Menliff, returning to the cliffside castle of his father, Count Menliff (Gistavo De Nardo). He left home some years earlier and was presumed dead. The movie doesn't really go into exactly why he left, but it was his decision and the others he left behind eventually assumed him dead, in part because of his disappearance, and in part for their revulsion of him. He was a mean guy and his absence hasn't helped his demeanor any. He has a brother, Christian Menliff (Tony Kendall), who lives at the castle with his wife, Nevenka (Daliah Lavi). Nevenka was before Kurt's disappearance, his fiance. But after awhile the Count talked the brother, Christian, into marrying Nevenka.

There is another woman in the house, Katia, who Christian is really in love with, and she ,with him. Christian is a good guy though and will not betray his wife Nevenka. She, on the other hand, has a meeting with Kurt on the beach wherein he starts out by kissing her, and then immediately goes into whipping her with a handy, dandy whip that he just happens to have. He tears the cloths off her with his whipping and at first she is in pain, but that soon turns into rapture. When he stops she is waiting for him. He climbs on top of her and the scene cuts away.

Back at the castle Kurt enters the drawing room with an anguished Christian demanding to know where Nevenka is. Kurt claims to know nothing and goes to his room. That evening after a search of the grounds she is found unconscious on the beach. Except for welts on her backside, she seems fine. Kurt is in his room and a mysterious thing happens: He is stabbed in the throat by an unknown assailant!

He is found the next morning and everyone pretends to be sad. Shortly thereafter there is a funeral for poor, departed Kurt. The funeral scene is quite interesting and is fairly elaborate and beautifully photographed by Bava.

One night after the funeral the Count is murdered in his bed. Now Christian wants to know what is going on and searches the grounds and questions servants. WHile this is going on, Nevenka starts seeing ghostly images of Kurt and even gets whipped some more by him in his ghostly state.

This is where I cut out from telling how the film ends. As I stated before, it is a very beautiful film. Bava lights each scene with colored lights on different walls and different shades of color on each actor. But the film did make me a little impatient. I was kind of glad that it was over and I was restless while it was playing. Not a good sign as I really like Bava. Perhaps the next time I see it I will be more into it. And perhaps watching it during the day was the problem. Most Bava movies are better watched after the sun has gone down (Planet of the Vampires being a notable exception).

So why did all Italian horror movies have dubbed voices, even if the actor spoke the language the movie was shot in? And why was it always done badly? Using either the Italian or English tracks the voices did not match the mouths very well. But besides that, the sound is fine in Dolby Digital Mono. And there must be some people who like the soundtrack more than I, as there is a separate option to play just the soundtrack in the special features section.

The picture on the dvd is excellent. VCI Entertainment www.vcientertainment.com) really did a very good job of making a spotless print with rich, deep color. The special features are also a big bonus as there is a commentary by noted horror film writer and Mario Bava biographer, Tim Lucas, and also three trailers (Whip and the Body, Planet of the Vampires and Blood and Black Lace) detailed biographies, and an alternate opening sequence for the U.S. release that had the curious title of "What". One interesting item from the well done and informative commentary by Tim Lucas is that the distributors wanted all anglo sounding names for the U.S. release. So Mario Bava became John M. Old and all of the other Italians had to come up with fake names.

Overall, this is an excellent dvd package for a so-so movie from an great filmmaker, Mario Bava. I own a couple other titles from VCI Entertainment and they did a very good job on those dvd's as well. I am glad that I own this disk because I really like Mario Bava's work, but I am also glad that I got this one on sale.