A Letter from our Man in Rio!

Hi Mirko, 

I am from Brasil and live in Rio de Janeiro. Since I was a 5 year old kid, I wanted to work on films. Not in front of the cameras, but behind them. So I became a director and screenwriter mostly working on Brazilian TV. Due to my fascination with film I became also a historian of Brazilian and world film history, giving classes on those subjects too. Cinema is and will always be my life. Finally I also became a writer. In 2007 I published biography of the Italian-Brazilian actor Anthony Steffen. Now I'm considering to publish it in English. For your interest Anthony Steffen didn't have much to say about Marisa Mell, only that she was very professional, sort of distant and girlfriend of one of the film producers, the polemic Pier Luigi Torri. 

My job as a director and screenwriter is based on references of all that I see and feel around me. The first Marisa Mell movie I've seen was “Danger: Diabolik!”. I was enchanted with Mario Bava’s mis-en-scène. An accomplished director must have a good cast to work with and the magical way Marisa Mell is shown in “Danger: Diabolik!” stuck forever in my mind. Then I wanted to see all her movies. Italian popular cinema from the 60's to 80's is also a predilection, any Marisa Mell film I grabed was a delight, no matter how good or bad it was. At that time you had really to work hard to find her films on VHS and I own a lot of those damned and delicious Greek tapes. 

Personally I look at Marisa Mell from several points of views. As an admirer, as someone hornly in love with a woman who has several ups and downs, as a film craftsman who would have loved to have worked with her and, above all, someone curious about her character and personality in an era with excesses, boldness and experimentalism. 

The images I got from her are usually adapted to my work. Every script I write there's a character named Marisa. If I ever have a daughter, I hope the mother will agree her name will be “Marisa”, I always liked the name “Marisa”... Every girlfriend I had, I took home to see “Danger: Diabolik!”. Our realtonship would depend on her opinions about it. Gladly, they all liked it. 

Well, I'm exageratting a little bit. I do have some other actresses I like such as Sylva Koscina, Karin Schubert, Anita Strindberg, Marilu Tolo, Agosina Belli, and a lot more. But Marisa Mell has something special that fascinates me. Too bad she made some not so good options in her life, but don't we all do? She and all the actresses I mentioned are from a bygone era. Audiences and audiovisual storytelling have changed, call it progress, decadence, whatsoever. What I see in Marisa Mell’s acting and life serves me very well to give instructions to an actress or actor, cinematographer, screenwriter, producer, everyone involved in the moviemaking process. And the cinema just loves Marisa Mell. She knows how to dialogue with it, to behave and convey emotions. You do believe in her, be it in “Mahogany”, “Quest of the Mighty Sword” or “Objectif: 500 million”. 

I don't have a favorite movie of Marisa Mell. “Danger: Diabolik!), “Una Sul Altra” (where she had a great director, she was just perfect), in “La Encadenada” she is great, so is she in “Lebensborn”, “Historia de una Traicion” is another one I love, and, of course, “La Belva Col Mitra”. Do I have to choose just one? Well, just like all top film lists changes according to your mood, I will stay with “La Belva Col Mitra” tonight. It's a film I can watch anytime and I'm always pleased. The action is good and crude, very Peckinpah, and Mell and Berger’s chemistry is awesome. It's a good thriller that would never be made today, Berger is just like Stroheim, the man you love to hate. 

Well, that's Marisa Mell for me. If life was a Angelo Frontoni photo, I wouldn't have any doubt who would be in it. 

All the best from Brazil! 

Daniel 

Hello Daniel, 

Thank you for your great letter telling us your fascination with Marisa Mell. I love the Brazilian Marisa Mell movie posters which I had never seen before. The poster for "Les Libertines" is really great. Marisa Mell was truely a star in your home country because she is very prominent on every poster luring people into the movie with her beauty. Oh boy, your girl friends were in for a real surprise having to see "Danger: Diabolik!" before being able to date you! ROFL! Luckily they all liked it or maybe they had no choice then to like it to be able to be with you! Nevertheless it is a great  why to get to know someone! Mmmmm, maybe I should start doing that from now on for my own dates! Your favorite Marisa Mell movie at the moment is not a choice that you hear very often! Mostly it is the classics like "Danger: Diabolik!" or " Una Sul Altra" but seldom "La Belva Col Mitra" due to the violence especially the rape of the Marisa Mell character, which made the movie very notorious! 

Take care,

Mirko

"Marisa Mell Movie Discography" by Gerald S.

When I was a teenager some 25 years ago I first saw Marisa Mell on TV in the Umberto Lenzi directed 1972 giallo “Sette Orchidee Machiatte di Rosso”. I was immediately mesmerized by her strange mysterious beauty. At the same time I also started to collect soundtracks of my favorite movies. One genre I especially loved was the italian gialli with their stylish music. Film scores by Ennio Morricone , Riz Ortolani or Bruno Nikolai were rather easy to find in Germany. Finding soundtracks from other composers of Italian gialli was a complete other story mostly due to the lack of popularity in my home country. Commercial releases on records and later cd’s were almost non existent. But at the end of the 90’s things started to change. Labels like Beat Records , Digit Movies , Dragored started to release a lot of soundtracks from the late 60’s and 70’s, especially from Italian genre movies. In early 2002 I visited a music store in Cologne, Germany. As always I was looking for rare and unusual soundtracks of some of my favorite composers and movies. The store was known for importing often rare soundtracks. Going through the racks I discovered a soundtrack from one of my favorite composers “Riz Ortolani”. The title of the soundtrack was unknown to me: “Una Sull’Altra”. Whaw! What a find! On the cover I saw a half-naked women with a stunning face and platinum blond hair. It was Marisa Mell, one of my favorite actresses. I had to buy this soundtrack. Once home I noticed the great quality of this soundtrack by Dragored. The movie was also available in Germany but in a heavy cut version. Now I wanted to own more soundtracks of Marisa Mell movies. Hopefully the soundtrack to Una Sull’Altra was not a lucky shot. There had to be other soundtracks on the market. So the hunt was on! It was not easy but I persevered. In the end I found the EP release from Polydor with music from the Eurowestern “Der Letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz” with 12 tracks. Then came a very rare CAM LP called “Superdrago” and the cd of the Diana Ross-starrer “Mahogony”. On Ebay I found the soundtrack of “Danger: Diabolik” by maestro Ennio Morricone. I knew that the score was destroyed in a fire so the edition that I bought was a copy of a Japanese laserdisc audio reel made into a soundtrack. The song “Deep Deep Down” by Chrissy is one of my favorite songs, ever! A lesser known sexy Marisa Mell movie “Casanova & C°” with Tony Curtis became also available on CD with another movie “La Vergine di Norimberga” written again by Riz Ortolani. My favorite soundtracks in my Marisa Mell movie discography are the complete scores from the movie “Stuntman” and “La Moglie Giovanne” issued on cd by Beat Records. Carlo Rusticelli is a real master composer for the movie “Stuntman”. The tracks 19 and 22 are really mind blowing. He also composed another Marisa Mell movie “Milano Rovente”. Finally I am very happy to own a copy of the music for the movie “Nel Buio Del Terrore” by Carlo Savina who has dedicated a title of a score for the movie to Marisa Mell.

RUF DER WILDGÄNSE (1961)

Music by Rolf Wilhelm

To my knowledge there exists only the main theme of this movie on a cd: “Deutsche Filmkomponisten” Volume 4: Rolf Wilhelm . The composer is also famous for his soundtracks for the movies “Via Mala” with Gert Froebe and Christine Kaufmann  and “Die Nibelungen” with Uwe Beyer and Karin Dor.

DAS RATSEL DER ROTEN ORCHIDEE (1962)
Music by Peter Thomas
Here is another rare track from the Mystery of the Red Orchid. I think that the complete score is lost so only the opening title was published on the Kriminal Filmmusik cd. It is direct tranfer from the movie audio reel. This cd has also some great music from German Edgar Wallace movies for which Peter Thomas wrote the soundtracks. In later years after this movie Peter Thomas became very famous, even in America, for the score the German science fiction television series "Raumpatrouille Orion".

DER LETZTE RITT NACH SANTA CRUZ (1964)

Music by Erwin Halletz

There is a very rare 45 RPM from Polydor with 12 tracks! It is also partly available on a cd from the soundtrack series “Deutsche Filmkomponisten” Volume 8: Erich Halletz with 3 tracks of the movie. Another issue is the very rare cd from Musik Mosaik KR 001 which has also the music from the Karl May movies “Der Schatz der Azteken” und “Pyramide des Sonngottes”. The Karl May film series was very popular in Germany in the 60’s. Strangely , Marisa Mell never played a part in these film series.

LP Version

CASANOVA 70 (1965)

Music by Armando Trovaioli

There are two very interesting issues of this great but strange soundtrack. It is very typical soundtrack of Maestro Trovaioli. The first release is the Japanese cd from Avanz Records SP/CR-20028 from 2004 with 9 tracks. There exists also a different cd from GDM CD Club 7057 from 2009 with 10 tracks. This latest album contains also the soundtrack from the movie “Homo Eroticus”. It is limited editon of 500 copies. The GDM version is different from the Avenz version of the soundtrack . Collectors should own both cd’s.

CD Version

Japanese Version

NEW YORK CHIAMA SUPERDRAGO (1966)

Music by Benedetto Ghiglia

There is only a mega rare LP issued by CAM as CDR 33.16 from the year 1966. This soundtrack was never released on CD. The LP has  21 tracks of great music and is one of the rarest in the list of the soundtracks from the movies of Marisa Mell.

LP Version

STUNTMAN (1968)

Music by Carlo Rustichelli

This movie has known three releases . The latest is the Beat Records as BCM 9507 CD from October 2012 limited to 500 copies! It is a complete soundtrack with 28 great tracks of Maestro Carlo Rustchelli music. He also music for other cult favorites “Milano Rovente”, “Sei Donne per L'assassino”, “La Frusta e il Corpo”. Then there is LP release, issued by CAM MAG 10.020  from 1969 with only 16 tracks. This Album is very hard to find ! At last but not least you have the Japanese edition RPM from King/Seven Seas HIT from 1974 . I think that this is the rarest release of this soundtrack.

LP Version

Japanese Version

CD Version

DANGER DIABOLIK (1968)

Music by Ennio Morricone

This is the music to probably the most classic and well known Marisa Mell movie. Personally I find this one of the best soundtracks ever written by Maestro Ennio Morricone! There was never an official release of this soundtrack due to the before mentioned reasons in the introduction but it's still in the top ten ranking list of best soundtracks ever written! I know of 3 releases! The official 45 RPM issued by Parade as PRC 5052 with the theme song from Christie in italian. This release fetched around 95 euros the last time I checked on Ebay! Then there are the two bootleg cd's from Pallottola Foro issued as OTHR-1968 from the year 2001 and from Sycodelic issued as SYCO:0011 in a  tri-foldet-digipack also from the year 2001. Those are also very hard to find.

Bootleg Version

Titlesong as single

UNA SULL'ALTRA (1969)

Music by Riz Ortolani

Like Diabolik this is another Marisa Mell classic with a lot of different issues. The most important are: Dagored RED 128-2 CD with 15 tracks from the year 2001. I do not know if this is a complete soundtrack but it is the best issue in my opinion. There is also a limited edition LP from the same labl, issued as Dagored RED 128-1 with a copy of the Italian movie poster. Finally you have the cd realesed as a bonus with 11 tracks together with the US DVD of the movie, issued by Severin as SEV1109.

The first realease of the soundtrack was the Beat Records LP 004 with 14 tracks. A re-issue of the album was in 1997 on cd by Beat Records as CDCR 38 with again only 11 tracks together with the soundtracks of two other movies: “Tiffany Memorandum” and “Teresa la Ladra”.

LP Version

CD Version

Compilation

NEL BUIO DEL TERRORE (1971)

Music by Carlo Savina

This soundtrack is also one of my favorites.

The soundtrack was released for first and only time ever on Mask MK 705 DLX, dated november 2010. It has 20 tracks and is to my knowledge a complete soundtrack) . This is one of my favorite covers wit beautiful artwork and a great informative booklet.

AMICO STAMMI LONTANO ALMENO UN PALMO (1972)

Music by Gianni Ferrio

There are two issues of the soundtrack: a LP on Cinevox MDF 33/52 with 18 tracks released in march of 1972 and a limited cd on Digitmovies CDDM 027 released in march of 2005 with 23 tracks . The scenes with Marisa Mell have represented with two tracks: track 3 (Come Tanto Tempo Fa) and track 12 (Addio Sarah ). Gianni Ferrio is also best known for two great gialli “Una Farfalla con le Ali Insanguinate” starring Helmut Berger and “L'Uomo Senza Memoria” starring Senta Berger.

CD Version

LP Version

SETTE ORCHIDEE MACCHIATE DI ROSSO (1972)

Music by Riz Ortolani

There was never an official release of this soundtrack but many cues are taken from the earlier movie “Cosi Dolce, Cosi Perversa” from 1969 starring Caroll Baker & Erica Blanc. The CD was released on Hexacord HCD-SF 05 in 2001. The album has also great track of the song "Why". Was the title theme of this music taken from another music?

MILANO ROVENTE (1973)

Music by Carlo RustichelliT

There is only one great release of this soundtrack issued in september of 2008 on Beat Records, CD CR 85. It is a limited edition of only 1000 copies with 23 tracks! Every true soundtrack collector should own a copy of this soundtrack with great artwork and beautiful booklet.

LA MOGLIE GIOVANE (1974)

Music by Stelvio Cipriana

This is the latest issue of a soundtrack of a Marisa Mell movie in febuary 2013 by Beat Records DDJ024 . The album is a very limited edition of 500 copies with 13 tracks in a jewel case with a 12-page booklet . The music is dedicated to the beauty of Marisa Mell.

MAHOGANY (1975)

Music by Diana Ross and Michael Masser

The first release was 1975 on Motown Records M 6.858 S1 as LP with 15 tracks. In 2000 a re-issue was published on Motown Records 012 157 677-2 . The title song sung by Diana Ross was a major hit all over the world but the movie was a flop at the box office.

CASANOVA & C° (1977)

Music by Riz Ortolani

The first issue was a LP in the year 1977 on CAM SAG 9078 with 10 tracks.Riz Ortolani is a real master but this composition was not his at his best ! There was a re-issue on CAM CSE 109 in 1993. The cd contains also music from horror movie “La Vergine di Norimberga” starring Christopher Lee and Rossana Podesta. This soundtrack is one of my favorites!

CD Version

LP Version

UN'OMBRA NELL OMBRA (1979)

Music by Stelvio Cipriani

This soundtrack is since a long time out of print. It was issued by Digitmovies CDDM052 in march of 2006. Maestro Cipirani was also the composer of classics like Tentacoli , Ecologia del Delitto and Piranha II. There are 22 tracks and keyboard performed by Claudio Simonetti from the famous group Goblin.

CD Version
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Thanks to Gerald S. from Germany for making this entry. I appreciate it very much!

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If you would also like to write an entry for the Marisa Mell Blog regaring her life and work, just contact me and we will see what we can work out.

UPDATE

Another Marisa Mell fan from Germany, André Schneider from Berlin, has pointed out that there is also a cd available from the movie "...dopo di che uccide il maschio e lo divora" on  a compilation album with two other movies, music composed and conducted by Piero Piccioni.

Thanks to André Schneider for pointing this one out! 

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Gerald also send me recently an update! There is also a single available of the title music for the movie "Che Notte Ragazzi", sung by I Corvi!

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If you know of other soundtracks of Marisa Mell movies that are not mentioned here please let me know!