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Mario Bava’s The Whip and the Body is a Technicolor fever dream of violent, unquenchable desire that extends beyond the grave. It’s also a gothic tale steeped in murder and revenge, with added elements of sadomasochistic eroticism and just a whiff of necrophilia. Wedged between Black Sabbath and Blood and Black Lace in Bava’s canon, The Whip and the Body shares those films’ consummate use of color cinematography to refine mood and convey disturbing shades of atmosphere. Acting as his own cinematographer, with credited Dp Ubaldo Terzano working as de facto camera operator, Bava revels in a riotous palette of sickly greens, otherworldly purples, and sanguine reds.

The opening of The Whip and the Body brings to mind Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, an equally disturbing tale of mad love that was celebrated by the surrealists. Heathcliffe stand-in Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) returns to his seaside castle...

Whilst many older horror fans will swoon at the notion of Christopher Lee starring in a film directed by Mario Bava, this high Gothic drama, which was pulled from cinemas by Italian censors following its original release in 1963, remains surprisingly little known. It has been a pleasure to see it retrieved from the vaults for Abertoir 2022 by a team whose dedication to resurrecting older horror classics is consistently impressive. Here you will find that combination of style, charisma and viciousness which made Lee unforgettable as Hammer’s Dracula, but several shades darker, whilst Bava contributes his trademark lush visuals and love of noir, but probes a part of the human psyche usually far off limits.

The film is set in an imposing, isolated castle – where else? – ruled over by an ageing count (Gustavo de Nardo). The count has two sons: the imposing, cruel Kurt (Lee) and the...

Richard Fleischer’s Biblical epic is a class act all the way, and one of producer Dino De Laurentiis’s greatest accomplishments. Anthony Quinn’s guilty, perplexed bandit survives and subsists but never understands the importance of the man crucified in his place; the view of early Christianity is respectful and free of pious clichés. It’s an excellent image of the ancient world, with gladiator scenes that are possibly the best ever. Fleisher does exceedingly well with the enormous sets and a well-chosen international cast: Ernest Borgnine, Valentina Cortese, Vittorio Gassman, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Silvana Mangano, Jack Palance.

Barabbas

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 132

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Arnoldo Foa’, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Payne, Douglas Fowley, Robert Hall, Joe Robinson, Friedrich von Ledebur,...

Stars: Boris Karloff, Michèle Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi, Jacqueline Pierreux, Gustavo De Nardo, Mark Damon, Susy Andersen, Massimo Righi | Written by Mario Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Marcello Fondato | Directed by Mario Bava

Mario Bava had been steadily working away in Italian cinema before he hit it big with 1960s Black Sunday, a film which introduced many to both his work and to Italian horror cinema in general. In fact his 1960 opus was such as success that a horror follow-up was eagerly demanded. An so came Black Sabbath, a three-part horror anthology blending modern and period stories, featuring the iconic Boris Karloff as host and star of one of the segments.

Black Sabbath opens with the Victorian-era ‘The Drop of Water’, in which a nurse steals a ring from the corpse of a dead spiritualist, who naturally tries to get it back. This is swiftly followed by the giallo-style ‘The Telephone’, where a...

Now this is how to celebrate the holidays -- with a whip and a body! Oh, what? We're not talking about Uncle Creepy's and my family traditions? Nope -- we're talking Mario Bava's 1963 kinky little ghost story entitled La frusta e il corpo (The Whip and the Body).

Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) is a ruthless and sadistic 19th Century nobleman who returns to his seafront castle home after years of wandering. He finds himself immediately at odds with his invalid father, a Count (Dean Ardow), as well as Kurt's spineless younger brother, Christian (Tony Kendall), who is married to Kurt's cousin and former lover Nevenka (Daliah Lavi). When Kurt is found in his room on the next night, murdered, suspicion falls on everyone, which gets more complicated when Nevenka begins seeing his ghost (real or imaginary?) haunting the castle, supposedly wanting revenge against his killers.

"Don’t doublethink the kink!