The Long Hair of Death (1964)

After watching Terror-Creatures from the Grave last night,I got set to continue exploring the Barbara Steele box set. Recently seeing his very good Euro Spy movie Operazione Goldman,I was pleased to find a title which had Steele team-up with director Antonio Margheriti,which led to me cutting the hairs of death.View on the film:Displaying his eye for attention-grabbing openings by surrounding the viewer with flickering flames that place them in the middle of the burning, director Antonio Margheriti reunites with his regular cinematographer collaborator Riccardo Pallottini to brew an icy Gothic Horror vibe via stylishly shooting tracking shots from the ground up that place a bewitching "floating" expression on Karnstein. Appearing to visibly lose interest during the romantic mid-section,Margheriti and Pallottini re-gain their footing in the slithering ending, with ghostly dissolves being triggered by zoom-ins over rats and bugs running along the decaying practical effects.Stamped with the mark by Margheriti (who did un-credited re-writes) that he found the script poor quality, the writers Ernesto Gastaldi and Tonino Valerii appear undecided over what the film should be,as the beginning and the ending offers a lively Gothic Horror revenge tale of the Karnstein,that is toned down in the middle for an ill-fitting attempt at costume drama romance. Arrogantly snarling at the Karnstein's,George Ardisson gives a very good performance as Baron Kurt Humboldt,who stands out by Ardisson allowing a level of fear to be cast across his face. Playing two roles again, Barbara Steele gives a transfixing performance as the Karnstein's,whose ambiguities Steele turns into starling screams as the long hair of death grows.

The Long Hair of Death opens at the end of the 15th Century, with Helen Karnstein (horror icon Barbara Steele) begging Count Humboldt for mercy regarding her mother Adele Karnstein, who is to be tried as a witch (trial by fire), having wrongly been accused of killing the count's brother. As the Count takes advantage of Helen, promising that nothing will happen to her mother until he is present at her trial, his son Kurt (George Ardisson) goes ahead and burns Adele in front of her youngest daughter Lizabeth. As she goes up in flames, Adele curses the count and his son. Later, the Count disposes of troublesome Helen by pushing her over a waterfall, but allows Lizabeth to live, the girl growing up on his estate.Years later, the now adult Lizabeth (lovely Halina Zalewska) attracts the attention of loathesome Kurt, who pressurises her into marrying him. What he doesn't know is that Helen has returned from the grave and, with Lizabeth's help, is out for revenge. Despite stylish direction from Antonio Margheriti and impressive black and white cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini, Italian gothic horror The Long Hair of Death is a dull affair, with a deathly slow pace and a hum-drum plot that delivers clichés by the creaky cart-load: a creepy castle complete with secret passageways, vengeful descendants of a woman wrongly executed for witchcraft, a plague laying waste to the population, and a murderous aristocrat with designs on a beautiful but unwilling maiden. While such tried and tested horror ingredients can equal a lot of fun, here it proves boring and disappointing, Margheriti failing to bring much life to proceedings. The director did the whole gothic thing much better the very same year with Castle of Blood.

"A woman is put to death after bring accused of witchcraft. Her daughter confronts the man who accused her mother of the crime, and discovers the true reason for the accusation, but loses her life in doing so. The youngest daughter is taken in by the man's family and raised by them, with the intent to marry her off to the man's son. When the girl comes of age, her decreased sister returns to exact her revenge upon the family," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis."This story takes place at the end of the fifteenth century," we are advised. Director Antonio Margheriti and the crew give it a great look. That, an attractive cast, and the moody atmosphere can't make up for the fact that the film plays itself out very slowly, and winds up nowhere special. Barbara Steele (as Mary / Helen Karnstein) looks particularly stunning; probably, she inspired the US title: "The Long Hair of Death" (but, what a way to go). Strange how drastically Halina Zalewska (as Elizabeth Karnstein) changes her mind about George Ardisson (as Kurt Humboldt), after Ms. Steele (re)emerges on the scene.**** I lunghi capelli della morte (1964) Antonio Margheriti ~ Barbara Steele, George Ardisson, Halina Zalewska

"I lunghi capelli della morte" by Antonio Margheriti is a classic b/w Gothic movie. Take a flickering candle, go down into the crypt, past the spider webs - and you wouldn't be surprised if Bela Lugosi was lurking in the shadow. Actually it's Barbara Steele which you can't complain about, either. Giorgio Ardisson plays Kurt, the son of a Count, who commits a murder, blames it on a witch, the witch is burnt and leaves a terrible curse behind - maybe the story is not something new, but it matters most in this movie to show how a man is slowly trapped in a revenge plan - so slowly that for most of the running time, he doesn't even realize the torment already began. That not much is happening, as sometimes reviewers do say, is done on purpose: Kurt would like to move, but he is becoming aware more and more of his helplessness, his inability to hide. "I lunghi capelli della morte" is a movie with intensity, atmosphere and beauty in its black and white imagery, and while I just wanted to check out the first chapter for the disc quality when the DVD arrived in the mail, I ended up watching it till the end - it was mesmerizing and really that good. Fans of the genre, don't miss it!