THE MURDER MANSION (1972)

The first fifteen minutes or so of this Italian/Spanish gothic thriller is a confusing mish-mash of incidents that wind up being largely irrelevant to the rest of the movie. On the road to Milan, two people in a green car wind up racing with a motorcyclist, and a couple in a VW also get involved. They all end up lost in fog and take refuge at what looks to be an abandoned mansion near a cemetery. The group includes Fred, the handsome motorcyclist; Laura, a young woman he picked up; the goateed Mr. Porter, driver of the green car who had been coming on to Laura before she switched cars; Tremont, a lawyer, and his wife; Ernest and his mistress Ellen; and Elsa who is meeting Tremont to (I think) finalize her divorce from Ernest, from whom she needs a signature. These folks enter the mansion and discover it’s inhabited by its owner, the sexy but aloof Marta, who tells them that a vampire epidemic caused most of the nearby villagers to leave town. Bolstering her story is a creepy witch and her apparently zombified chauffeur who are wandering around in the fog. The visitors soon discover that the mansion is about as creepy as the foggy exterior, with odd paintings of an occult bent hanging on the walls and mysterious noises coming from the cellar. The witch, who might be Marta's late aunt, and the chauffeur put in apparitional appearances, people start dying (though at least one person, found dead on a meat hook, later shows up alive), and Elsa seems to be going mad.

The first part of the film is so off-putting, I almost quit watching. But once everyone is in the house to stay, things become easier to follow. Though hints of supernatural happenings are everywhere, this is really a gothic old dark house mystery with elements of Agatha Christie and Scooby-Doo. That may seem like a spoiler, but it's fairly obvious from early on that the witch and the chauffeur aren't ghosts. What I won't spoil are the identities of the bad guys and the motivations for their dastardly plans. Even if you think you have it figured out, there are some nice surprises near the end. Visuals are good even if the script has its problems, and the acting is about par for the course. Best are Analia Gade as Elsa (pictured) and Ida Galli as Marta. Everyone else seems a bit stymied by their underdeveloped characters, but that doesn't hurt the film much. The musical score is a bit bombastic at times but effective—cackling shrieks are part of the score. Dubbing is poor (again, par for the course). On balance, I'd say this is worth seeing. Some critics call this a giallo, but fans of that genre will be disappointed. [YouTube]