Castle Of The Living Dead

Villainous Preserve

Castle Of The Living Dead
aka Il castello dei morti vivi
Directed by Warren Kiefer & Luciano Ricci
Italy/France 1964 Severin Blu Ray Zone A

Castle Of The Living Dead has, it seems, a troubled production history. Warren Kiefer was definitely involved to some extent but the film may, or may not, have had a few directors and also, apparently, involved future director Michael Reeves in the crew in some capacity. There has been some rumours that this is one of the many films that Mario Bava helped out on with the special effects but, again, nothing has actually been confirmed and the scene on which he is supposed to have worked doesn’t seem to appear in the movie. Also, the dialogue was not recorded on paper so, when the various actors had to do the dubbing of their lines afterwards, as many films of this nature in Italian cinema are shot without sound, they had to more or less remember or make up what they had been saying. 

However, for all that, the film was quite a joy to watch and it’s an interesting gothic thriller, set just after the Napoleonic wars, when Napoleon was in prison. I thought I’d seen this one already but it turns out I hadn’t so, I was very happy to give this one a play. The film is shot in a crisp black and white (as evidenced by Severin’s masterful restoration/transfer of this thing) and concerns a travelling troupe of performers who are invited to Count Drago’s castle to give a private performance. The two main actors in this troupe, one a very recent recruit after some conflict at the start of the film, are Philippe Leroy as Eric, who was so brilliant in movies like Without Knowing Anything About Her (reviewed here) and who has a fairly good screen presence for a main, male protagonist... and Gaia Germani as Laura. 

Count Drago, as played by Christopher Lee (this is one of the films in the magnificent Blu Ray box set put out from Severin Films... The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Volume 1), is a mad scientist with requisite henchman to do his bidding. He has invented a formula which, when introduced into a live subject either by injection or in a spiked drink, brings instant paralysis and rigidity... an advanced, instant embalming fluid which preserves the subject instantly and forever. This is wonderfully demonstrated, not just by the collection of frozen human beings in the Count’s own collection but, also in a wonderful scene where a cat licks up Laura’s spilled drink and instantly freezes... that is to say, the shot is held in a freeze frame and then goes about cutting to and from Laura’s reaction to save on any unnecessary special effects. 

The film then becomes a kind of cat and mouse game around the castle, as the troupe try and avoid death at the hands of Drago but also try to stay out of trouble with the local law enforcement, in the guise of a very young, almost his first feature film role, Donald Sutherland. Sutherland actually has three roles in this film... Sgt. Paul/The Witch and The Old Man. Frankly, I only spotted him as the Sergeant and again in drag several times as the old witch but, I guess he might have been an old man in the opening sequence and I somehow missed him in a crowd. I’m guessing it’s no coincidence that writer/director Warren Kiefer’s last name is the same forename as Sutherland’s famous acting son? 

The actors in this are all turning in a pretty decent performance, with Lee in excellent form (although the black make up around the eyes looks a little fake while succeeding in changing the look of his face somewhat) and with Sutherland hamming it up good, I would say. I’m assuming his role here somehow landed him a part in his next feature, Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors (reviewed by me here). Since Christopher Lee is also in that movie, one wonders if Sutherland and Lee got on so well in this one that Lee perhaps recommended he be included in that little gem also?

And it’s a bit of a romp but has a very chilled atmosphere... a bit like one of Roger Corman’s Poe cycle of films... and it’s all shot in a beautiful castle and grounds called Castello Orsini-Odescalchi (where Tom Cruise would later marry Katie Holmes, apparently) and in a wonderful set of grounds called The Park Of Monsters in Bomarzo. These grounds include big statues and architectural features such as a main walkway in the shape of a screaming face with the mouth as the opening. I recognised this last architectural feature straight away as being included on the cover photograph of the 1995 Michael Nyman album Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs. That being said, because of the skilful way in which the film has been cut together, the fact that the grounds were mostly shot somewhere else was a surprise to me, as it looks like they are in the same location in this and that the park dovetails straight into the castle. 

 And all this with a fairly typical, creaky old gothic style score by Italian maestro Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. I actually already had this score on a nice CD issue from Digitmovies from some years ago but, if you missed that release, Severin include the score on a separate CD as an extra feature in this boxed edition. Which is always a big draw for me on sets like this (although I wish the majority of the scores Severin decide to include weren’t already ones that have already been issued). 

All in all, this movie really wouldn’t set anyone on fire but, I think it holds its own and has a fascinating kind of DNA shared with those old 1960s Corman flicks and, also, maybe, a kind of specific Gold Key comics atmosphere to the whole thing (which I can’t really explain in words that would necessarily make sense to anybody else but, yeah, that means something to me). By that I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that people go out of their way to see Castle Of The Living Dead but, boxed up with others in a similar vein (such as Crypt Of The Vampire, which I reviewed in an old DVD edition here years ago), it’s certainly an interesting addition and, certainly, one of the hidden gems of the box.