Castle Of the Living Dead (Ricci/Keifer, 1964)

[HerrSchreck]

Does anybody out there know of any existing dvd releases of this film? It was a gothic horror film with heavy visual quoting of German silent horror flicks, with many of the characters made-up to look Cesare-Caligari-esque. Having just finally grabbed a copy of THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, as well as the Hammer Franchise Univ. box, my mind is running to some of the better Christopher Lee vehicles of the era. This obscurity has been a rarity on the home vid market since the vhs days.

Does anyone know of any existing DVD editions, or perhaps caught the broadcast on TCM last year quoted by Lucas below? The film is also (I think it's quoted in the article below-- though I heard it in the Lee int. on the VCI CITY OF THE DEAD disc-- that Warren Keifer, co-director & writer of the film, is the source of Keifer Sutherlands name... as Donald acted in the feature & named his son out of tribute.)


http://www.videowatchdog.com/watchblog/ ... le-of.html

[Gordon]

Michael Reeves (Witchfinder General) in addition to co-writing this film, also shot second unit exteriors (as well as some dialogue scenes, uncredited) and the great Aldo Tonti (Ossessione; Nights of Cabiria; Europa '51) was the cinematographer; also, Luigi Kuveiller was the camera operator, he was the operator on L'Avventura; Bava's Black Sunday and The Girl Who Knew Too Much; and later as cinematographer on Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Elio Petri's Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion; The Working Class Goes to Heaven and Todo modo; also Profondo rosso, so there was most definitely talent involved here - and what sounds like a helluva feature debut from Doanld Sutherland! As a big fan of Witchfinder General, I'd love to see it and then look for signs of how much of Reeves' style the film has. Luciano Ricci and Lorenzo Sabatini, judging by their sparse filmographies were basically hacks, it seems to me.

Yeah, I'm a but surprised that this one hasn't surfaced already. Movies Unlimited list a DVD-r HERE, though, if you're feeling frisky.

I reckon that it was shot in/for 1.66:1, as it is black and white and I can't recall many Italian horror films from the 60s in monochrome scope, though I am surely overlooking about ten films! 8-[ The TCM broadcast was indeed letterboxed, but that's all I have heard, ie. no info on the ratio.

[tryavna]

I saw the version TCM broadcast. It was indeed a pan-scan version that had been further lopped off to mimick letterboxing. (The company that did it, the National Film "Museum," has since been banned by TCM, after numerous complaints. You couldn't see the top of Christopher Lee's head once!)

It's a movie that's worth catching, but I was ultimately disappointed. Considering some of the talent involved, it under-achieves. (Again, I'd point out that my views may be a bit biased, since I obviously had to sit through a drastically butchered print.) Having seen "Witchfinder General," I have to say that none of Michael Reeves' brilliance shines through here -- I have no idea how much input he actually had into the final cut.

Ultimately, it's very fun in the typical Italian horror style, but not particularly memorable.

[Gregory]

(I think it's quoted in the article below-- though I heard it in the Lee int. on the VCI CITY OF THE DEAD disc-- that Warren Keifer, co-director & writer of the film, is the source of Keifer Sutherlands name... as Donald acted in the feature & named his son out of tribute.)

I believe that's correct, but both are spelled Kiefer.

[HerrSchreck]

Smoking Kif?

[HerrSchreck]

So we've got a dvd release of this film finally, though it appears full frame and my guess it's just a release of the television transfer for TCM rather than open matte which wouldn't bother me half as much. "Extra air" in shots is far better than having parts of the shot removed from the edges of a 1.66 AR. Anybody know anything about this company retroflicks, or this release in particular from them?

Interestingly, I found this release cross checking a flick I grabbed today by mistake, thinking it was the above film. This release of a film called "CASTLE OF THE WALKING DEAD", which was also shot on the continent in the 60's, and starrs Christopher Lee as a "count", in this case Regula rather than Drago in the above film. Yet the settings and cinematography and overall mood in this film (I haven't finished it yet) are wonderfully gothic. A haunted forest with womens legs arms & heads growing straight out of the tree-trunks like branches, a Dali-esque (Erickson sez Bosch in his review) castle, and gliding camera movements smoothly rounding corners along with hurrying characters. A happy mistake, but a shoddy, cropped print on the dvd.

[Ledos]

Castle of the Walking Dead is a West German film and is available on a semi-quality release in Germany under its original title Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel. This is the version to get. German and English audio.

[HerrSchreck]

Whats your opinion of the film Ledos? I'm so backlogged I havent gotten to it yet, and Id be interested inhearing your opinion.

[Ledos]

It's an okay horror film. The Aurum horror encyclopaedia pretty much nails it when it says "If the cinematography had been up to, say, Mario Bava's standards, this movie could have become a surreal masterpiece". It is not up to those standards though it tries to achieve some of that same atmosphere (it has the feel of being a mixture between Italian gothic and a Hammer film). It's not among my favourites but definitely worth seeing if you're into the genre. Karin Dor looks absolutely great, by the way!