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‘I never had a warmer welcome.’
Christopher Lee and Mario Bava sounds like a match made in Gothic horror heaven
and while no one is putting Hercules in the Haunted World into their top ten,
The Whip and the Body, which you can find on Shudder and on Youtube,
plays to the strengths of both men.
Although it should be noted that this is a rare instance of Lee not doing his own dubbing for an English language version,
so his voice is provided by American actor Dan Sturkie,
which is a little disconcerting.
‘I came back because I heard of your marriage, good luck’
Nobody is happy to see Kurt Menliff return to his ancestral home.
‘Before I die I swear I’ll see his dagger plunged into his throat’
The woman he left behind, Navenka, is now married to Kurt’s brother,
but he doesn’t hit the spot, so to speak, like Kurt.
‘You always loved violence’
So the title has an obvious literal meaning but it also refers to the film’s whole theme,
and the relationship between Kurt and Navenka;
he is the whip, she the body,
and the control he exerts over her does not stop with his murder.
Navenka becomes convinced that Kurt has come back from the dead,
'Kurt!'
to avenge his death and retain his hold over her.
‘He said he saw a shadow moving in the chapel, and a light’
While others run around trying to solve this as a conventional crime.
‘I can’t possibly imagine that one of us is a murderer’
Navenka is never in doubt of what is happening,
pushing her ever closer to insanity.
So this plays like a supernatural sadomasochistic Gaslight,
shot in the style of a brooding gothic melodrama.
Bava doesn’t rush anything here, particularly in the film’s stealthily paced mid-section,
filled with creeping tension.
Lee is the most recognisable name, and he is ideally cast,
Bava skilfully utilising his natural menace and screen presence,
but Dahliah Lavi as Navenka is top-billed and deservedly so
as much of the film is based around her perspective and her conflicting feelings for Kurt.
‘I hated him’
torn between fear and desire.
Initially, no one believes Navenka, assuming this is just a manifestation of her obsession,
‘It’s always him that you think of; Kurt instead of me’
but as they too start to believe that he has returned from the grave.
Bava shifts focus, cleverly setting up the ending.
As a piece of atmospheric gothic filmmaking,
The Whip and the Body is everything you expect from as visually stylish a filmmaker as Bava.
But despite its exploitation title, this is more interested in psychology than cheap thrills,
more interested in atmosphere than jumps shocks.
The relationship between Kurt and Navenka is disturbingly believable, for all its melodramatic context.
‘He’ll kill us all’
largely thanks to Lavi’s performance.
It’s one of many horror films that feeds on the fine line between love and obsession,
and does so very successfully.
Thanks for watching. Don’t forget to hit the like button. What are your favourite Mario Bava films and why? Let us know in the comments below.