I Piu Belli Locandini di Marisa Mell

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

"Hallo! Hier spricht Edgar Wallace!" auf Arte

A few months ago during the month of September 2011 the Franco-German cultural network "Arte" had an Edgar Wallace "Krimi" night. During that night they showed two on Edgar Wallace crime novels inspired movies together with a special about the Edgar Wallace craze during the 60's and early 7o's. What is so special about this programme is the fact that stars from that series like "Joachim Fuchsberger", best known for the giallo "What have you done to Solange?", "Karin Dor", best known as bond girl in "You'll only live twice", "Karin Baal" also known for "What have you done to Solange?" and German music composer "Peter Thomas" have been interviewed together with Italian director Umberto Lenzi, known for so many cult movies but in this entry for the giallo "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso" for their contribution to this German cult movie series. In this programme all the characteristics of an Edgar Wallace movie are analyzed and commented by the people that played an important part at that time in their success worldwide like the famous driller killer sequence with Marisa M

ell as victim from the movie "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso" which a few years later would be copied for the movie "Driller Killer" by Abel Ferrara.

Giallo Radio - Music with a bloody edge!

The internet is this day and age flooded as everyone knows with millions of sites tackling as much subjects which are of little or no intrest to you. But once in a while you stumble on a site that keeps you glued for many hours to your computer screen and when the site produces also some of the best music ever composed by music maestro's like Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Claudio Simonetti, Piero Umiliani, Stelvio Cipriani and many others than you can not believe your luck! That happened to me several months ago discovering the site with music of one of my most favorite film genre's: the Giallo. The site is called "Giallo Radio", hosted by a wonderful man named Mark Hammon.

Marisa Mell Blogspot (MMB): How did you came to be such a soundtrack fanatic?

Mark Hammon (MH): I am first and formost a film fan followed by a soundtrack fanatic. I have been listening to soundtracks since my father turned me on to them in the 60's. My first soundtrack purchase was from the war movie "Patton" in 1970. My favorite films/scores are for horror films.

MMB: Are you now as an adult professionelly involved with movies or soundtracks?

HM: I work for a U.S. soundtrack company as a contractor. I started out as a customer and over the years, built a website, maintained it and now I am as much of the company as the employees.

MMB: Were you from the beginning familiar with the Eurocult movies and the wonderful music that it has produced during the height in the 60's and 70's?

MH: In the 80's-90's I discovered VideoWatchDog. I learned about the whole European Horror genre. I learned of Argento, Fulci, Franco, Rollins... I had a Laser Disc player and rented and purchased foreign horror films and noticed the music always seemed to be good in the films, but when I purchased the CDs it seemed like it wasn't horror music. With the likes of Argento I learned about the 'thrillers' (not knowing the term "Giallo"). I liked how the music, plots and characters worked together. I am amazed that people don't recognize "Basic Instinct" as an American "Giallo" film. MBB: What is the composition of your home theatre?

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MH: I own an all region DVD-player, certified "THX Surround" sound set up (Boston Acoustics, Pioneer - 700 Watts of intense surround). I just got rid of my HD 65" Mistubishi Rear Projection and now have a 55" Sony HD LCD. I tend to watch at least 10 movies a week.MMB: What do you think about Marisa Mell and her career?

MH: I think Marisa Mell is a beautiful actress, but I don't have a lot of movies with her in them.

MMB: I noticed that the "Giallo Radio" site is not updated regularely but sporadic?

MH: As for my "Giallo Radio" site I had such big inspirations but just don't have the time to do much with it. I have a family, two jobs and want to spend my time watching movies instead of updating my website.

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MMB: Thanks Mark for the interview!

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Giallo Radio has several scores of Marisa Mell's giallo's to discover by you!

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You can find the "Giallo Radio" website at http://www.gialloradio.com/index.html

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You can find the "VideoWatchDog" magazine at

http://www.videowatchdog.com/home/home.html

The Voice of Thousands!

A few months ago, I had an entry about the life of one the best known female voice actresses in the Eurocult realm by the name of Carolyn de Fonseca. She was the English voice of almost all the known Eurocult actresses like Dagmar Lassander, Anita Ekberg, Rosalba Neri, Barbara Steele and... of course Marisa Mell in "La Belva col Mitra".

What few people know is that she was married to probably the biggest male voice actor in the history of the Eurocult movie business: Ted Rusoff. In the November-December 2010 issue of Video Watchdog # 159, John Charles has an in-depth interview with this voice giant about his life and career during the past 40 years as the voice of actors in more than a 1000 movies (!). The article has several exclusive photo's of him together with his late wife Caroline de Fonseca. Fans of Marisa Mell might remember his voice of a priest in the giallo "Sette Orchidee Macchiate di Rosso" from 1971 directed by Umberto Lenzi. After reading the article you know the in's and out's of (Eurocult) voice dubbing and it's history. Highly recommended.

Whose orchid is it anyway???

Today I went shopping in my home town because the weather was very nice and I needed some new stuff for the autumn and winter that is coming upon us very soon. Driving into town with my car during a saturday afternoon is not a very good idea but I had to do at the same time some errants so I needed the trunk of my car. The road into the city center is normaly a 10 minutes drive but today it took me more that 45 minutes to reach my destination. It was a lot of stop and go and bumper to bumper. What do you do while waiting in line to enter a city? Listen to the radio, text some messages to friends, thinking about meaningless things, looking at the many tourists that are still in big numbers in town hurrying along the boardwalks like grasshoppers in a corn field... Then I needed to stop the car again at a traffic light that was close to my end target. Finally. This traffic light is situated near a very big perfume store from a very well known chain of perfume stores. While looking at the big displays in the windows I saw a lot of advertising for perfumes from all the major brands like YSL, Boss, Gucci... and also the photo above with a beautiful lady in perfect make-up. She had grand eyes, very lush red lips and her right eye was decorated with a blood red orchid. "What an original concept", I thought to tell a message! I had never seen that ad before. The traffic light went to green and I entered city center. The strange thing was that during an entire day of shopping the picture above kept popping up in my mind. Who was that women and what was the name of the perfume she was advertising? But there was also another thing that was bothering me but I was not able to put my finger on it! What was it about that picture that struck me and made me uneasy?

Back home I found the picture on the internet. The women was Italian actress Monica Bellucci advertising the perfume "Hypnotic Poison" and lipstick "Rouge Dior" by Dior.

And then it hit me why I was so intrigued by this picture. The image of a women's eye in a blood red orchid I had seen before although not very often but the image was struck into my subconscious as a poster for a Marisa Mell giallo movie called "Sette Orchidee Macchiate di Rosso" or in French "Le Tueur à l'Orchidee" directed by Umberto Lenzi in 1972 with Antonio Sabato and Uschi Glass.

What coincidence I thought that after more than almost 40 years the same image was used for an ad campaign to promote the newest perfume of fashion house Dior. The only thing missing in the Dior campaign was a tear of blood dropping from the eye but that was maybe to much even for Dior. A little more research learned that the man responsable for this image was make-up master for Dior for more than 30 year called "Tyen". He started his job at Dior as a make-up artist and then in later years became their fashion photographer and stylist for their ads. And as you can see on the picture below he puts more on women's faces than just orchids.
I wonder if he is a giallo fan or even an Eurocult fan? It could be possible while living in Paris, France that he came across the poster of "Le Tueur à l'Orchidee" and that the image has struck him one way or the other. So when one day the new ad campaign for the Dior perfume was needed this image of an eye surrounded by orchid petals came back to him. Who knows? Nevertheless it makes for a strong image and a beautiful campaign.

Giallo Scrapbook #3

Midnight Media is a British publisher of the highly popular independent film magazine "Is It Uncut?" and special publications dedicated to the world of wild cinema bis with titles including: "Slash Hits", "Blazing Magnums", "Hispanic Horrors" and the phantastic "Giallo Scrapbook"-series. This fall Midnight Media is going to publish part 3 of this series with Marisa Mell on the cover from the movie "Sette Orchidee Macchiate di Rosso" directed by Umberto Lenzi. Like the previous two publications the Giallo Scrapbook #3 will be another collectable tribute dedicated to the flashy and trashy world of Italian Giallo Cinema with more than 40 movies reviewed in style - including: BLOOD LINK, CALLING ALL POLICE CARS, A CAT IN THE BRAIN, CRAZY DESIRES OF A MURDERER, DEADLY INHERITANCE, THE DEADLY SWEET, DEATH FALLS LIGHTLY, DEATH OCCURRED LAST NIGHT, THE DESIGNATED VICTIM, THE DEVIL HAS 7 FACES, DON'T LOOK NOW, THE DOUBLE, EYE OF THE LABYRINTH, THE FLOWER WITH PETALS OF STEEL, THE FOURTH VICTIM, GIALLO, GIALLO A VENEZIA, THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A, THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS, IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH, THE KILLER IS ON THE PHONE, KILLER NUN, THE KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS, MADHOUSE, THE MURDER CLINIC, MURDER OBSESSION, NOTHING UNDERNEATH, OASIS OF FEAR, ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER, AN OPEN TOMB... AN EMPTY COFFIN, PENSIONE PAURA, RED RIDING HOOD, SMILE BEFORE DEATH, SO SWEET SO PERVERSE, SPIRITS OF DEATH, THE STUDENT CONNECTION, THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH, TWO FACES OF FEAR, THE WEAPON THE HOUR THE MOTIVE, THE WEEKEND MURDERS. Whaw! The publication is written by Nigel J. Burrell and designed and edited by Paul J. Brown. It has been designed to look like one of the deranged killers has put it together, with blood splats, smeary fingerprints and torn out text and will be full colour throughout and lavishly illustrated with many rare images from these amazing movies. Highly recommended - Format is A5. Publication date will be announced shortly. Here is a look at the covers of the other publications. I have them all and they are joy to read and mostly a great way to discover new movies that you have never heard off.

More information at http://www.midnight-media.net/index.html

Driller Killer!

"Revenge in the House of Usher" is a 1982 gothic movie directed by Spanish cult directeur Jess Franco as a very loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The House of Usher." As it opens, Dr. Alan Harker (Antonio Mayans) receives a distressed letter from his former university professor-cum-mentor, Dr. Eric Usher (Howard Vernon), that prompts him to travel to Usher's castle. Once there, Dr. Harker discovers, to his utter horror, that Usher is trapped in the jaws of madness, obsessively attempting to resurrect his comatose daughter Melissa with the blood of abducted young girls. So far, so good but is this a movie with Marisa Mell? No, nope, nada! So why is this movie then subject for an entry on her blog then? Well, glad you asked. It isn't so much the movie that is interesting but the cover of this movie on the video box as pictured above. More specifically the women on the ground being menaced by a black gloved hand holding a drilling machine. (A scene that to my knowledge is not part of the movie.) That iconic image has been lifted right out a very famous Marisa Mell movie! The movie in question is a giallo called "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosse" from 1972 directed by also cult director Umberto Lenzi, famous for his cannibal movies "Mangati Vivi" and "Cannibal Ferox" or his other excellent giallo "Spasmo". You can see clearly that the artist responsable for making the cover of the video box for video distribution company "Wizard Video" in 1985 has lifted this scene from the Lenzi movie to spice up his cover and make the movie probably more interesting than it really is. In other words, as so often happened in the straight to video market of yesteryear, connecting a movie to another movie that was a success around that time. Strangely enough the movie that he is referring to is not "Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso" as one might suspect but another famous video nasty of the era. The slasher movie "Driller Killer" from 1979 directed by and starring in the lead role of Reno Miller gore maestro Abel Ferrara. And this movie was also part of the Wizard Video portfolio.

Reno Miller is an artist slowly losing his mind as he and his two female friends scrape to pay the bills. The punk band downstairs increasingly agitates him, his art dealer is demanding that he complete his big canvas painting as promised, and he gets into fights with his girlfriends. When the dealer laughs at his canvas he snaps, and begins taking it out on the people responsible for his pain and starts his revenge by killing while drilling.

Wizard Video was a motion picture distribution company created by B movie veteran Charles Band, who would later go on to found the famous "Full Moon" movie company. The company was best known for the VHS-releases of "Zombie 2", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and the ultimate video nasty "I Spit on Your Grave" (A remake (sigh!!!) of this movie will hit the cinema's this fall). The company was also well known for its very detailed, and often lurid, box art, especially after the switch to the "big box" format. Here are some other famous video box covers! And like everything from years gone by the Wizard Video movie boxes are at the moment very high in demand and collectors all over the world are quickely snatching them up to complete their collections often at very steep prices around 75 USD or more on Ebay per title. The demand is so high that even Charles Band is re-issueing them again never letting a deal go sour!