Mario Bava is known world-wide for his groundbreaking work in the international horror scene. Ask any horror fan what the most influential horror classics are, and chances are they will mention films like BLACK SUNDAY, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, and BLACK SABBATH in their top 10 list. Yet there are several other Bava films that (for various reason reasons) are not widely known to the general public. THE WHIP AND THE BODY is one such film. Released in 1963 as LA FRUSTA E IL CORPO, the film sent shockwaves through the film industry, with its racy portrayal of sadomasochism. As a result, THE WHIP AND THE BODY was trimmed of the offending footage in nearly every country it played. Here in the states, the movie was not only heavily cut, but also re-titled as WHAT!, probably because that was the audiences’ reaction after seeing this incoherent version. THE WHIP AND THE BODY suffered again when it was released in a heaviliy cropped print on VHS. VCI Home Video comes to the rescue, not only by locating an uncut source print of the international version, but also by restoring the film to its original widescreen luster. To further add value to the DVD presentation, THE WHIP AND THE BODY earns special edition treatment.

Esteemed actor Christopher toplines as the sadistic Kurt Menliff. Deliah (THE F.B.I VS. DR. MABUSE) Lavi plays Kurt’s ex-lover who is now married to Kurt’s younger brother. Tony (RETURN OF THE EVIL BLIND DEAD) Kendall is Curt’s spineless brother, Christian. Luciano (TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE) Pigozzi essays the role of Losat--a hunch-backed servant of the castle. Dean (THE ROAD TO FORT ALAMO) Ardow is Kurt’s father, Count Menliff. Harriet (BLACK SABBATH) Medin portrays Giorga, a woman who wants to see Kurt Menliff dead.

Count Menliff (Ardow) banishes his favorite son, Kurt, after the sadistic indivdual abuses his housekeeper’s daughter. However, the daughter loves Kurt and kills herself after Kurt is exiled. The housekeeper Giorga blames Kurt for her daughter’s suicide. Years later, when Kurt returns to the fold, much has changed. His brother Christian (Kendall) is now held in high regard by his father, and stands ready to inherit the power and position of his faltering patriarch. Kurt’s former love, Novenka (Lavi) is now married to Christian in what turns out to be a fruitless marriage. Kurt wants to reclaim his heritage from his father, but Count Menliff will have none of it. After his father spurns him, Kurt goes down to the beach where he happens across his ex-love Novenka, wandering around the beach. He makes advances on her but she resists—until he takes her riding crop from her and beats her with it. Since she is secretly a sadomasochist, she enjoys it and they end up making love. Kurt returns to the castle, leaving Novenka beaten and unconscience on the beach. That night in his room, an unseen figure plunges a dagger deep into Kurt’s throat. The servant Losat (Pigozzi) discovers the lifeless body and alerts the other family members.

After Kurt’s funeral, the relationships between the remaining family members begin to deteriorate. Novenka and Christian’s marriage begins to slowly unravel. But things really get weird when Novenka starts seeing the walking corpse of Kurt lurking around the hallways of the castle. She also hears the murmering of voices and the cracking of a ghostly whip. Christian and the family believe she is going mad, until they detect evidence of the undead, too. One evening, the ghost of Kurt pays her a visit and starts whipping her good. Shortly after, Count Menliff is murdered in the same bloody way that Kurt was killed. Soon after Novenka is still haunted by the specter of Kurt—but it she going insane or has the spirit of Kurt Menliff returned to torment his family who threw him out of their homestead?

THE WHIP AND THE BODY is one of Mario Bava’s best and most controversial films. Veteran screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi crafts a screenplay that treads a line between delicate poetry and sadistic excess. Bava creates a thick wall of tension and fear by tapping into primal human nature. For instance, a scene in which a hand slowly reaches from the darkness to grasp the camera, is symbolic of man’s primal fear of the unknown. Bava’s fertile imagination breathes life into cinematic setpieces which would seem generic in less capable hands. Bava continues his trademark usage of manipulated shadows and expressionist colors. To go along his stylistic film techniques, Bava injects THE WHIP AND THE BODY with a pure emotional resonance. Despite the gothic imagery, Bava underscores the film with a sense of poetic tragedy and family guilt. The film is slowly paced, and has a relaxed, cerebral tone similar to that of Edgar Allen Poe’s works.

In THE WHIP AND THE BODY, Mario Bava pushes the envelope and shows more courage than ever before. Never in the history of cinema has the subject of sadomasochism been dealt in such a fashion. And underneath this lurks even more deep psychological and sexual overtones. The way Bava films these flagellation scenes invites the audience to identify with the character of Kurt. The audience becomes the third party looking through Kurt’s eyes as he commits these acts of sadism. Kurt gives out the lashings left and right, but you’ll notice he makes no attempt to be on the receiving end of the whip. Disturbing as these scenes may be, Bava manages to wrap up the sadomasochist acts in a shroud of romance, complete with Carlo Rustichelli’s poetic score playing in the background. Despite the breadth of characters in THE WHIP AND THE BODY, like BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, Bava does not favor one character over the other. There are no heroes and no villains, excluding the short-lived character of Kurt Menliff, of course. But even his evil character only exists to provide impetus for the plot and characters. There are moments where BLOOD AND BLACK LACE becomes a whodunnit, and Bava promptly sets up some red herrings to draw the viewers suspicion. Indeed, until the very last moments of the film, the outcome is only hinted.

THE WHIP AND THE BODY features a tremendous international cast. Christopher Lee gives his usual magnificent performance, with the only letdown being the dubbed American voice delivering his black-hearted lines. Deliah Lavi is the true star of the movie and shows quite a range. One minute, she is a fear-stricken noblewoman, the next she is a sadomasochist degenerate, and finally a woman struggling with hersanity. Lavi also turns in a solid physical performance as dictated by her character’s situations. Tony Kendall is good as Christian, a man who happens to have everything that belonged to his older brother, including his money, position, and spouse. He experiences a gamut of emotions as he comes to grip with the stark reality around him. Character actor Luciano Pagozzi is always great to see. Interestingly enough, Bava’s best actress, Barbara Steele passed on THE WHIP AND THE BODY. Bava expert Tim Lucas never expounds on this fact during the commentary track. Perhaps she was offended by the subject matter, or perhaps she was just busy. Deliah Lavi fills the role nicely, and delivers her performance similar to what Barbara Steele would do.

The DVD includes the original Italian language version, and the English dub, both in Dolby Digital Mono 2.0. Except for the vocals, both tracks are identical and in very good shape. The folks at VCI must have cleaned up the audio source, because there is no noticeable hiss, distortion, or sound problems of any kind. The sound effects are particularly clean and natural. Castle Menliff comes alive with wind blowing through the corridors, footsteps echoing through the chambers, the sound of ghostly voices, and the spectral cracking of whips. Carlo Rustichelli’s superb neo-classical score is a taken from the emotional Windsor Concerto. Rustichelli uses variations of the Concerto for various moments of drama, horror, and revelation. Much of the effectiveness of THE WHIP AND THE BODY can be attributed to the magnificent scoring. The English dubbing is effective but some of the voice actors sound too American. In the audio commentary, Tim Lucas reveals that Christopher Lee enjoyed THE WHIP AND THE BODY immensely, but was unhappy that his voice ended up sounding like a cowboy! THE WHIP AND THE BODY would have been much more effective had Lee provided his own vocals, but he never recorded any voice tracks for the film in any of the multiple languages.

There are also several Bava trailers:

• BLOOD AND BLACK LACE English Trailer (1.85.1, Mono, 1:01)
• THE WHIP AND THE BODY French Trailer (2.35.1, Mono, 3:50)
• PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1.66.1, Mono, 2:06)

-  Phil Chandler