Another Iberian gem from the Golden era of Spanish filmmaking, the 1970's,
a Gothic murder mystery with some living dead horror added to the mix.
Shot in some old Spanish mountain village (some say western Cataluña,
in the Pyrenees) by cinematographer Modesto Razzolo it has tons of atmo-
sphere, two gorgeous actresses in Maria Pia Conte and Dyanik Zurakowska,
an interestingly odd story and Paul Naschy as a necrophiliac gravedigger.
That's what's good in the film OK, but it's low budget and with some
bad acting and with somewhat incompetent direction from Merino. A Spanish
trash film director with many paella westerns, adventure and war movies
under his belt, and perhaps best known for his co-direction (with Eugenio
Martin) of the 1968 Paella western "Requiem for a Gringo"
(read more about this film on my Cult & Classics Page 2), or for
this strange horror.
So .... bad acting and bad direction, and an unlikeable
smug "hero" in Stelvio Rosi are the minuses, but the
pluses wins, with:
1. Gorgeous Maria Pia Conte, the red-headed Italian
actress and ditto lovely blonde Dyanik Zurakowska (born 1947 in Belgian
Congo) who acted in i.a.
Paul Naschy's first Werewolf movie, the 1968 "La marca del hombre
Lobo" and the awful Spanish 1973 giallo "Sexy Cat" (maybe
the only 1970's
Spanish genre film that i haven't liked). 2. The very atmospherical
Cinematography from a wintry and windy mountain village with it's cemetery
and
underground crypts, 3. the unusual story with by electricity re-animated
living dead slowly moving around with unseing eyes and decomposing
bodies, and with great looking make-up effects as the corpses really
looks nasty, 4. Paul Naschy in a small but great part as the demented
henchman.
The film supposedly takes place somewhere in Eastern
Europe, maybe in the Carpathian mountains as the names sound Slavic
and the text seen on
the coffins in the crypt are in some ditto Slavic Balkan language, and
the time should be .... maybe 1912 as that could be seen on the Counts
coffin.
There's also some talk about a telephone call, so the early 20th century
it is.
The
2009 US Troma Retro DVD
In the intro of the film we see the Count Mihaly being
buried in the family crypt, and how a red-headed woman, Mary Mihaly
(Aurora de Alba)
gets the key to the tomb by the gravedigger Igor (Paul
Naschy) and enters it looking for a document on her father's body.
A man, Serge Chechov (Stelvio Rosi under alias Stan
Cooper) arrives to the mountain village of Sköpje to take part
in the execution of the will
after his Uncle, the Count Mihaly. On his way passing the cemetery he
bumps into a dead hanging woman, it's his cousin Mary the main in-
heritor of the Count's estate. In the Mihaly mansion lives the beautiful
widow Nadia Mihaly (Maria Pia Conte), the Count's business
partner
Professor Leon (Gerard Tichy) and his daughter Doris
(Dyanik Zurakowska) and the servant Ivan (Charles Quiney).
Smug and pompuos Serge is now the main inheritor and
suspected by the local policeman (Pasquale Basile). Nadia is worried
over getting nothing
and she's also horny and dabbling with black magic. The Professor has
a laboratory where he experiments in re-animating dead animals with
electricity and he's worried over losing the lab if Serge sells the
house. Igor worries over being caught by the police after having been
exposed
of taking pictures of female corpses, stealing their underwear and caressing
the decomposing bodies. Who's the killer ?
The Bluray presents the re-mastered film in 2.35:1 widescreen
with an english dub mono audio, region All.
Extra: Alternate "Return of the Zombies" Wizard Video release,
a trailer for The Hanging Woman and some Euro Exploitation Trash trailers.
(Not much of extras and i couldn't see any differences between the versions
besides the fine crisp clear picture of the bluray)
....................................................................
The Troma 2009 DVD looked awful but had some
great extras
Troma released this obscure Spanish horror on a lowpriced DVD in 2009
as "The Hanging Woman" in widescreen and with the english
dub.
It had some great extras as a commentary audio with director José
Luis Merino and a Diego López (in spanish with english subtitles),
and with
an interview with Jacinto Molina (14 minutes, in spanish
with english subtitles) where he talks about his much beloved horror
film genre and
about how happy he is that these films have been saved to the medium
of DVD (and bluray). He was heavily marked by his cancer and he died
in December of 2009, and this interview could be one of the last interviews
he gave.
Also, an interview with direcror J.L. Merino (21 minutes, in spanish
with english subtitles), an interview with american Ben Tatar (12 minutes)
who tells us about his career in Spanish film dubbing between 1967 and
1977, the Golden Era of Spanish horror and gialli, a Paul Naschy
featurette by a Shane Dallman about his film career, an original theatrical
trailer and a gallery of vintage lobby cards
