Friday, December 11, 2009

NELLA STRETTA MORSA DEL RAGNO - Riz Ortolani - "Web Of The Spider" (1971)

Well, as we head on into the holiday season, you gotta admit, nothing quite screams X-mas like Klaus Kinski, so let's get that yuletide ball spinning with "Web Of The Spider"!!!

Dungeon stalwart Klaus Kinski appears here as Edgar Allen Poe himself, and the film begins with Edgar telling one of his stories in the local pub and a sweat drenched frenzy! Although this is really just a bit part, Klaus plays it up to the hilt!

American Anthony Franciosa shows up just in time to be invited to spend the night in a haunted castle! This is a pretty strange role for Tony, who rarely appeared in scary or foreign films. Tony also went on to reprise Dean Martin's Matt Helm role for 13 TV epsodes in the mid 70's!

Riz The Season, So.....Here we go again, the music is composed by Riz Ortolani, and Riz has literally amped it up this time with lots of cool distorted single guitar riffs that really set the mood. Most period pieces choose to use the music of the time, but, as you will hear, this works a lot better!! This is the castle where Alan ends up spending the night alone!

Well, he thought he was going to be alone, or at least that's what he was told!!

So after bumping around in the dark, and hearing lots of weird sounds, Alan finds out that he's not alone after all. First, he meets Michèle Mercier as Elisabeth Blackwood, who he really goes for!

And some of the people who reside here, like Karin Field as Julia have an eerie resemblance to the paintings on the walls!

Oh, yeah, and don't forget about ole Peter Carsten as the Übercreepy Dr. Carmus, who you might remember from one of his many roles in films and TV shows like "Dud" or "Slom" or "Tren" or "SOKO 5113" or maybe not!

Talk about Creepy, director Antonio Margheriti wasn't messin' around!! Working frequently under the name of Anthony Dawson, he directed too many films we've featured here in both Horror and Sci-Fi like "Spacemen," "Castle Of Blood," "Wild, Wild Planet" and "Lightning Bolt" and is currently working on a film about Genghis Khan!!

Alan is not having that great of a time any more as he goes in circles from one death to another murder and back to more death again, and a bunch of sorry explanations from Dr. Carmus and the girls!!

Then he gets the Really bad news, not only are all the people in the house dead, but they are also all vampires and ghouls!! Shit! No wonder nobody ever made it through one night before!!

Alan somehow manages to make it to the dawn, and is all ready to get Elizabeth out of there so they can live happily ever after when.......

Something goes terribly wrong........and.....

Edgar has yet one more ghastly, but true story to tell, that nobody is ever going to believe!!!

6 comments:

  1. I actually like this a little better than Castle of Blood the first time around..Even tho he looks nothing like Poe,casting Kinski in the part was a clever idea..

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  2. Klaus !baby!.take it easy!..relax.....don't do it..

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  3. This movie is on TV in Melbourne right now on Channel 31. Classic early 70's stuff!!

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  4. I actually just watched an uncut print of this from what i believe was a French broadcast, in French with English subs, by a fan I guess. I liked that version a lot better than the cut up one we usually see from PD houses like Sinister.

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