Wednesday, November 27, 2019

LA BAMBOLA DI SATANA - "The Doll Of Satan" (1969)

I hope everybody's thankful that they get to know about movies like tonight's Wacked-Out Wednesday Feature from Italy!

This movie is called "La Bambola Di Satana," and it's English title was "The Doll Of Satan!" 
If they changed the title to "La Bombola Di Satana," they could have called it "The Cylinder Of Satan" which would have been a more interesting choice, and just as informative!
An even sillier literal translation is from the German "Der Satan Ohne Gesicht" to
"Satan Without Face." Just for the record, Satan is not in this movie, unless you count the male lead, whose name was Jack Seaton!

 I kept wanting to say that this film is more Krimmi than it is Giallo, but now as I think about it, it's kind of a pretty cool combination of the two!

The basic premise is an olde rich guy dies, and leaves everything including his castle to his pretty blonde niece, but other nefarious people are wanting the castle because it's secretly sitting on a big pile of Uranium that is worth a fortune!

 So stuff some more Lira in the Silver-Vox, and let's get this party started!

 The older dude in the box by himself looks pretty suspicious I must admit!

 This film has an incredible soundtrack that varies from these rockin' club scenes to what sounds like outtakes from possibly a Ornette Coleman/Charles Lloyd/Sun-Ra free jazz horror set, all courtesy of Maestro Franco Potenza!

Erna (Carnal Revenge, Les Lesbiennes) Schurer is Elizabeth! They're trying to drive her krazy so she'll sell the castle cheap and fast!

The crazy girl in the next room doesn't have as much to do with anything as you would think!

Do women still use those eyelash curlers?

The dog's role is more important than the girl in the wheel chair!

They are having a big slumber party and are trying to do everything in their power to make Elizabeth think there's a ghost that was also named Elizabeth haunting the joint!

They keep drugging Elizabeth to make her have krazy dreams and hallucinations!

There's a fair share of nakedness like this, but not much actual nudity, and for some reason, it's all done very conservatively!

I'm taking a guess that at least 15% or more of the movie is Elizabeth in bed!

A couple of people get killed and/or tortured, but it's mostly all just a bad dream!
Miss Elizabeth is in a heap of trouble. Where's The Macho Man when you need him?

Hooded characters like this are always freaky!

Meanwhile, back in bed...............
Elizabeth is starting to wake up to the idea of selling the place!

 He's asking the dog, what does that tell you??

For my money, "La Bambola Di Satana" has a lot more in common with a film like say "House On Haunted Hill" than it does with countless Giallo flicks. Maybe it's the lack of stabbings or detectives that make it different, or maybe it's the fact that it was the only film that Director Ferruccio Casapinta's ever worked on in any capacity. Either way, it's worth watching just to hear the music if nothing else. Now somebody just needs to release the soundtrack!

1 comment:

  1. "Bambola", not "Bombola"! It means exactly "Doll". The English title is literal. But you should ask why is it even called that, since there's neither dolls nor Satanism in the film. Even if we consider Elizabeth as the "doll" (in the old-timey, semi-derogatory sense of "pretty girl"), she's not the villain, so there's no reason to call her "of Satan". It's a completely random, baffling title.

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