Tonight's special feature is brought to you courtesy of our good pal over at the Angels In Distress Blog, Mr. Greg Goodsell, and is entitled "Eye Of The Devil!" This is THE movie that should actually be our flagship title, because just like this blog, it's original title is
"13!" Evil is as evil does!!
Okay, so let's get this party rockin'.......Uh, Oh, Houston, I'm seeing a problem already!! The original score for "13" was written by the sensational jazz vibraphonist Gary McFarland whose real-life story is probably more exciting than this movie! Gary worked with some of the greatest names in jazz, like Bill Evans, Johnny Hodges, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, and was an early exponent of 'orchestral jazz!' On November 3, 1971, Gary McFarland was poisoned by a drink spiked with methadone at the 55 Bar!! WTF!? Like, Weirdsville!!
Does this look like a freakin' barrel of monkeys worth of maximum fun or what?
Getting drunk and necking never seemed like a better idea! The host and hostess of this out of control affair are David Niven and Deborah Kerr as Philippe de Montfaucon and his lovely wife Catherine de Montfaucon! For me, David Niven wins the award for the most perfect looking man to have a martini in his hand! Runner-ups of course would be Frankie and Dino! Deborah Kerr was coming off of a fine film from a few years earlier called
"The Innocents"!
The Marquis Montfaucon has been called back to his ancestral home, because there is a major league problem, the grape harvest has failed again, and his people are depending on him to do something about it! What a pad!!
It's not long at all before his old lady packs up the kids and follows him to find out what is at the root of all this sudden mystery!
Here's some cool info from Greg's review in "SCREEM" #22, "Based on the novel “The Day of the Arrow” by Robin Estridge, "Eye of the Devil" is essentially the familiar story of "normal" people trapped in an irrational, threatening environment. Evil towns protecting nasty secrets, a trope used by H. P. Lovecraft and in such fright film fare as "Horror Hotel" in 1960, and "2000 Maniacs" in 1964!"
Here are two more reasons to love "13," the sister and brother team of evil, Odile and Christian de Caray played by cult faves Sharon Tate and David Hemmings! "13" was Sharon Tate's first role ever, while David Hemmings had been acting for 12 years already!
Robert Duncan as Jacques de Montfaucon admires Odile's necklace and pendant! Robert had a total of four acting roles, "Rasputin: The Mad Monk," "The Uncle," "13" and the TV series "Out of the Unknown!" I think I'm starting to see a pattern!
Catherine doesn't understand why Odile and Christian are allowed to roam the estate and shoot doves, and after she confronts them on the issue, Christian aims his bow at her back as she exits the scene!
When Catherine tells Philippe what happened, he explains to her that Christian is way too good of a bowman to ever accidently shoot her! He also tries to convey to her that anything and everything she could ever possibly worry about is trivial compared to the big picture of what's really going on!
Sorry Philippe, but dude, it's too late to start praying now!!
Here's yet another awesome cat we've seen a lot of around here lately, Donald Pleasence as Pere Dominic, the local priest!
Not just because of what happened, but just because it's obvious by the way she photographs, Sharon Tate was something special!
First it was the kids, and then Catherine who had to learn the hard way that "Up On The Roof" was not the place to be, when you're in the company of Odile!
The Marquis has got a lot of responsibility on his hands, and centuries of family history has got the whole community expecting him, no, requiring him, to do something about it, post haste!
Seeking more information about what in the name of Hades is going on, Catherine goes to the family mausoleum searching in vain for answers, but all she finds are more questions!
Rhetorical Questions like "Who, or what in the Hell are you? "Who, who, who?"
"Eye Of The Devil" has a lot going on for it, like an all-star cast, and beautiful cinematography by Erwin Hillier, and yet it is clearly missing something intangible that you just can't quite put your finger on!
Irony, it's one of the damnedest concepts ever conceived of!
"Eye Of The Devil" is a film that deserves to be seen for a number of reasons, just don't get
too excited about it, or you're apt to be disappointed!!
I recently watched Mario Bava's "La Frusta e il Corpo" and even though everybody else in the world swoons over it, I didn't think it was all that, and I'll be letting you know about it real soon, but this film, "The Evil Eye" is a different story, it's a story I like a lot, and one of my favourite Mario Bava films!!!
Letícia Román is Nora Davis, and Nora's on her way to Rome! Nora likes to read mystery novels! Letícia Román's next role was as Fanny Hill in Russ Meyer's "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," then she would do a couple more movies, and wound up her career on American TV shows like "I Spy," "The Andy Griffith Show," and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." At one point, she was engaged to Aaron Spelling!
Nora makes casual contact with a stranger on the plane, who seems to be looking out for her best interest! This two-faced character De Vico/Paccini is played by Milo Quesada. If Milo has a sleazy but familiar face, it's because he was in some pretty cool flicks like "Black Sabbath," "The 10th Victim" and "Night Of The Blood Monster!"
De Vico/Paccini seems like a right nice feller all right, except for the fact that he's a drug smuggler of some notoriety! Oops, Nora's vacation isn't getting off to such a good start!
Nora realizes that the pack of cigarettes De Vico/Paccini gave her on the plane is laced with ganja, and tries to casually dispose of it to no avail!!
When Nora finally gets to her destination, Ethel Windell Batocci's house, a dear old friend of her Mother, she finds out the old lady is very sick, in fact she's so sick, she dies that very night! Things are just not going very well for Nora, and you don't get the idea that it's going to get any better any time soon!! Chana Coubert puts in her first and last movie career credit as Ethel Windell Batocci!
Nora needs to clear her head, so she goes out to find Ethel's Doctor, when she is attacked by a filthy little purse snatcher who knocks her out!!
When Nora comes to, she witnesses a horrible murder, and blacks out again!!
The next time she comes to, she's in the hospital and she's faced with this sight!! What a wild ride, and basically, the movie just got started!
Now here's some solid advice from the local authorities after Nora tells them what has happened to her so far!! 
John Saxon plays the lead of Marcello Bassi, the Doctor that was taking care of Ethel Windell Batocci, before she passed away!! John Saxon is still working today, and has almost 200 acting credits to his name! What an incredible career! Thanx John!!
The music for "The Evil Eye" was composed by Roberto Nicolosi who besides composing the music for "Black Sabbath" and a score of Barbarian and Amazon flicks was also a practicing dentist!! The theme song is entitled "Furore" and it was sung and composed by Italian Pop star Adriano Celentano!! Adriano was also in a bunch of low budget Italian comedic movie roles, and was a very popular actor in the 70's and 80's! 
Almost overnight, Nora's life has turned into a living Hell, and now she's getting anonymous phone calls from some freak, so she comes up with an elaborate way to protect herself from intruders at night!
I must confess, I'm feeling a little guilty myself!!
Headfirst into a morass of despair, and even more deaths, how much more can this young lady take? I'm not tellin'!!
I find it incredulous that nobody smelled the pot laced in with the tobacco when she was smoking it on the plane, everything else made sense!! To confound things even more, if you want to try and rent or buy "The Evil Eye" in the U.S., you will have better luck searching for the title "The Girl Who Knew Too Much." And remember kids, Don't take cigarettes from strangers!!
