Italy, 1964
96m
35mm film, black and white, 1.85:1
mono (Westrex Recording System), Italian
Reviewed at The EOFFTV Review
An Italian horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti using his usual pseudonym, Anthony Dawson.
Plot Summary
Adele Karnstein is sentenced to the pyre for acts of witchcraft. Her eldest daughter Helen knows that her mother was falsely accused after she refused the advances of the lecherous Count Franz Humboldt. The Count murders Helen and her younger sister, Lisabeth, is taken into Humboldt’s household. Many years later, as Lisabeth is doomed to marry the count’s shifty nephew, Kurt, a virulent plague grips the land. At the height of a storm, a woman named Mary, who bears a striking resemblance to Helen, stumbles into the church and starts to take her revenge of Adele’s persecutors.
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Anthony Dawson [real name: Antonio Margheriti]
© [not given on screen]
Cinegay s.p.a.
Produced by: F. Testa Gay [real name: Felice Testa Gay]
Screenplay: Robert Bohr [real name: Tonino Valerii]
English Version: Renato Caldonazzo
Original Story by: Julian Berry [real name: Ernesto Gastaldi]
Director of Photography: Richard Thierry [real name: Riccardo Pallottini]
Editor: Mark Sirandrews [real name: Mario Serandrei]
Music: Evirust [real name: Carlo Rustichelli]
Sound: John Tamblyn [real name: Giulio Tagliacozzo]
Costume Designer: Humphrey Patterson [real name: Ugo Pericoli]
Make up: Edmund Stroll [real name: Euclide Santoli]
Hairstyles: Florence Clark [real name: Italia Cambi]
Art Director: George Greenwood [real name: Giorgio Giovannini]
Cast
Barbara Steele (Mary Karnstein)
George Ardisson [real name: Giorgio Ardisson] (Baron Kurt Sebastian Weil)
Halina Zalewska (Lizabeth Karnstein)
Robert Rains [real name: Umberto Raho] (Von Klage)
Laureen Nuyen [real name: Laura Nucci] (Grumalda)
Jean Rafferty [real name: Giuliano Raffaelli] (Count Humbolt)
John Carey [real name: Nello Pazzafini] (friar)
Jeffrey Darcey (Messo)
Alternative Titles
De bloedige heks – Belgium (Flemish)
Hævnens flammer – Denmark
La larga cabellera de la muerte – Spain
Los largos cabellos de la muerte – Spain, USA (Spanish)
The Long Hair of Death – Canada, India, Ireland, UK, USA
A Máscara do Demônio – Brazil
La sorcière sanglante – Belgium (French), Canada (French), France
Der Todesfluch der brennenden Hexe – Germany
Длинные волосы смерти – Russia
References
Periodicals
- The Daily Cinema no.9407 (11 August 1967) p.6
- Intermezzo vol.20 no.14-15 (15 August 1965) p.12
- Kine Weekly no.3124 (26 August 1967) p.15
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.34 no.404 (September 1967) p.142
Books
- 500 Essential Cult Movies: The Ultimate Guide by Jennifer Eiss with J.P. Rutter and Steve White p.249 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror by Phil Hardy (ed.) p.164
- Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby pp.146-48, 189, 275
- Feature Films, 1960-1969: A Filmography of English-language and Major Foreign-language United States Releases by Harris M. Lentz III p.258
- Frightfest Guide to Ghost Movies by Axelle Carolyn p.88
- The Ghost of One’s Self: Doppelgangers in Mystery, Horror and Science Fiction Films by Paul Meehan pp.107-108, 110, 134, 212
- Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957-1969 by Roberto Curti pp.124-125
- Italian Horror Films of the 1960s by Lawrence McCallum pp.147-150 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- Italian Horror Films of the 1960s by Lawrence McCallum pp.147-150
- Kine Yearbook 1969 p.116
- Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.271
- Sixties Shockers by Mark Clark and Bryan Senn pp.267-268
