Lisa e il diavolo

Plot synopsis:
[note: this synopsis is only for Mario Bava's true and original Lisa and the Devil (1973), not the re-shot, re-edited version 'The House of Exorcism' (1975)]Lisa Reiner (Elke Sommer) is a young American woman vacationing in Spain with some friends of hers. During a stop in a small town square with her tour group, Lisa grows to admire a fresco of the devil carrying a dead man's body which her tour guide describes as the devil carrying away lost souls back to Hell. As her group disperses, Lisa hears a beautiful piece of music. She leaves her companions and traces its source to an elaborate music box in a little antique shop just outside the main square. While inside the shop, she encounters a strange man (Telly Savalas) purchasing parts of a life-size mannequin. After making eye contact, Lisa is startled when the man bears an uncanny resemblance to the devil depicted in the painting. The man's peculiar behaviour distresses Lisa, so she flees from the shop to rejoin her friends.However, she becomes hopelessly lost in the maze of backstreets of the town. Though she has only walked a short distance beforehand, the back streets and alleyways seem totally alien to her. The locals refuse to give her directions, as side streets lead to dead ends. Lisa runs into the mysterious man a second time, though this time he is carrying a full-length, life-sized mannequin eerily similar to the painting depicted in the main square, as well as carrying the music box still playing the haunting tune. Introducing himself as Leandro, he gives Lisa some vague directions back to the main square, then walks around a corner and disappears. But the direction that Leandro points to the main square leads only to more unfamiliar streets. Next, Lisa encounters a strange man who looks a lot like the mannequin that Leandro was carrying. These bizarre coincidences begin to terrify Lisa, and the stranger acts as though she is his long-lost lover. Frantic, Lisa pushes him away and the man falls down a flight of stone steps, apparently dead. Lisa runs off in a panic.Night falls on the village, and Lisa remains lost. However, her luck seems to be improving when she hitches a ride in a old vintage 1940s limousine which contains Francis Leher (Eduardo Fajardo) and his wife Sophie (Silvia Koscina) whom are driving through the village with their chauffeur George (Gabriele Tinit). But their limousine soon breaks down just outside a old villa on the town's outskirts. The four travelers push their car into the villa grounds and knock on the front door asking for assistance. The villa turns out to be occupied by an elderly blind countess (Alida Valli), and her neurotic son Maximilian (Alessio Orano). When Maximilian spots Lisa, he becomes convinced that she is the reincarnation of a woman that loved and lost. Maximilian implores his mother to allow the four stranded tourists to stay for the night while he helps the chauffeur repair the car's engine. Though the villa is well-appointed, it has a strange atmosphere. Lisa is subsequently shocked to discover that Leandro is the family butler, who also recognizes her from their brief meetings earlier, and seems a little too friendly to Lisa.As Leandro settles Lisa, Francis and Sophie, and George into their living quarters for the night, Lisa jumps with fright when she sees the same man from the village who tried to attack her, staring at her through the window. Lisa tries to get away from the house, but her departure is thwarted by Maximilian, who begs her to stay. As she feels some attraction to the young man, as well as pity for him, Lisa relents.The four travellers are settled down to dinner, while the food is served by Leandro. Lisa further notices the weird atmosphere of the place, when Maximilian continues to remind Lisa that she has a resemblance towards his lost lover, Elena. But Francis and Sophie's relationship becomes more strained as dinner progresses. Francis' cold, dispassionate nature forces Sophie to walk away from him, and she falls into the arms of George, whom they have quick passionate sex. A short while later, George is found dead, with a pair of scissors plunged into his throat. Sophie immediately assumes that her husband did it, and she flees outside into the car where she starts it up, When Francis comes out to stop her from leaving, she runs over him over and over again. But upon returning into the house, Sophie is killed by Maximilian in a hurtful, gory way. It was Maximilian who murdered the chauffeur to prevent Lisa from leaving.With the meddling strangers out of the way, Maximilian turns his attention to Lisa where it's revealed that the man who pursued Lisa in the village is actually Maximilian's stepfather Carlos (Espartaco Santoni). Like Maximilian, he had previously fallen in love with Elena, the woman displayed in a few old photographs who bears an amazing resemblance to Lisa. Carlos had abandoned the countess and ran off with Elena, who was also Maximilian's lover. Before she had a chance to join him, Maximilian had murdered Elena and stored her body in a concealed room so he could continue to have her, even in death. Apparently when Carlos returned to the village, he assumed after seeing Lisa that she was Elena. Now that Maximilian had murdered Carlos, he puts him display in an open coffin in the parlor so that nobody can take Lisa away from him.At this point, Lisa still has no idea that Maximilian is completely deranged, and on top of that, she's still being casually nice to him. When Maximilian decides to share his secret with Lisa about his lost love Elena, he takes her to the concealed room, and shows her Elena's skeletal remains, Lisa finally then backs away in horror and rejects Maximilian. But rather than kill her, he chloroforms Lisa and puts her in the bed next to Elena's remains. Maximilian strips Lisa naked and tries to have sex with the unconscious woman. But in his twisted state of mind, he feels that the skeletal remains of Elena is mocking him and he cannot perform. Apparently deciding that in order to consummate the relationship, he will have to marry her.Maximilian meets his mother in the parlor who's paying respects to her dead husband where he tells her of his intentions. The Countess, jealous of the hold Elena, in the form of Lisa, continues to hold over the men in her life, demands that Maximilian kill Lisa and dispose of her and the rest of the bodies before the police show up looking for her and the other murder victims. But Maximilian's devotion to Lisa is complete, and rather then get rid of her, he stabs his mother dead as she stands by the coffin that contains Carlos' body.All of these events are observed by Leandro, whose presence seem to haunt the villa, and who seems to be orchestrating the bizarre occurrences as some kind of sick game. Unsettled by this act of matricide, Maximilian rushes about the house looking for Leandro who, for once, is nowhere to be found. Instead, Maximilian finds the bodies of all his victims, including the skeletal Elena, seated at the dinner table looking at him. He turns around and sees his undead mother shambling towards him. In shock, Maximilian recoils backwards, only to fall out a second floor window, and onto the spikes of a gate. Emerging from behind the body of the dead Countess, Leandro remarks, "oh, it slipped".The next morning, Lisa wakes up, naked and in unfamiliar surroundings. Though it seems to be the exact same concealed room, it is now infested with vegetation and she is alone with no bodies anywhere. Putting her clothes back on, Lisa walks through the house and finds that its entirely deserted. In fact, it looks that nobody has lived in the house for a long time. Confused, but somewhat relieved that the entire night's experience was apparently nothing but a bad dream, Lisa leaves the house and runs into a group of schoolgirls playing ball in the street. The balls rolls in her direction and she catches it. One of the the girls points to Lisa and proclaims her a ghost because nobody has lived in the villa for a hundred years. The girls run away screaming. Lisa walks around a little and within minutes finds herself back in the town square from the beginning of the movie. She is observed by Leandro a short distance away who is being given a mannequin likeness of her.Lisa takes a taxi to the airport and enters a plane. After the plane takes off, Lisa notices the she is the only passenger. She searches section after section, only to discover the dead bodies of Maximilian, the Countess and all the others in the first class compartment. Frantically, Lisa makes her way to the cockpit where she opens the door and discovers that Leandro is the pilot, who lets out a devilish laugh. Lisa transforms into a ghastly pale mannequin and slumps to the floor.

Tags: violence, gothic, murder

Review:
Of course, the argument could also be made that this film suffers from slow pacing and a telegraphed conclusion, but I still think the movie is gorgeous, and Elke Sommer is a delight.But don't let that stop you from checking out "House of Exorcism", either!
She just cuts loose & goes for it, mugging for the camera, vomiting toads, and dripping lots of green bile (natch).Compared to "Lisa and the Devil", "House of Exorcism" is an absolute abomination, but the producer was a demented genius in forcing the issue of the possession subplot, since the film in its original form was far too "art house" to make any money on the drive-in circuit.
Well I finally managed to get to see 'Lisa And The Devil' as Bava originally intended it, rather than the very dodgy 'House Of Exorcism' version I had previously seen, and the original is ten times better!
The cast are all good, but Telly Savalas gives a standout performance just on the right side of over the top, and Elke Sommer appears much more believable as the confused protagonist of this movie, rather than the unconvincing Linda Blair wanna-be of 'House Of Exorcism'.
If you like Bava films, then you will surely enjoy Lisa and the Devil.
Eventually Lisa ends up getting a lift from a bickering couple (the wife of whom is having an affair with her chauffer) and they all end up at the usual huge mansion/castle inhabited by angry man Maximillian, his blind mother Alida Valli, and chirpy butler Telly Savalas, complete with Kojack lollipop.
The house is full of Bava's favourite prop: creepy dolls, and things just get stranger and stranger for here on out.There's no point in detailing any more of the plot, but it involves murder, mysterious characters locked in rooms surrounded by slices of cake, people becoming dummies and Telly Savalas breaking the ankles of a corpse in order to fit it into a coffin.
Lisa and the Devil is perhaps the most unique of the great Mario Bava's horror films.
The fluid camera-work is excellent, the Gothic scenery and sets are nicely captured, and the haunting music score is perfectly pitched to give this film a stylish and chilling atmosphere.The cast is also quite good.
It's a truly original horror gem and one of Bava's greatest works.Footnote: Avoid a terribly re-edited and re-worked version of the film re-named House of Exorcism.
They find shelter into a luxurious mansion where inhabits strange characters , a countess (Alida Valli) , his son (Alessio Orano) and the butler (Telly Savalas).The picture belongs to Italian horror genre , Mario Bava along Riccardo Freda (Secret of Dr Hitchcock , Vampires , The spectre) and subsequently Dario Argento (Deep red , Suspira , Inferno) are the fundamental creators of Latin terror genre .
The film gets an attractive and enjoyable casting , a gorgeous Elke Sommer (The prize) , an enticing Sylva Koscina (Miguel Strogoff) , a veteran Alida Valli (The Paradine trial) and a sympathetic devil with lollipop included played by Telly Savalas (Kojak) .
During the sightseeing in Toledo, Spain, the tourist Lisa Reiner (Elke Sommer) sees an ancient painting of the devil on the wall and leaves her group for a moment; however she gets lost in the narrow streets.
My vote is seven.Fortunately I saw "Lisa and the Devil" first; the opportunist commercial version released in USA with the title "The House of the Exorcism" on the trail of the success of "The Exorcist" is terrible and destroys the creepy atmosphere of the original movie.
Lisa and the Devil features many of Bava's trademarks; a devilish atmosphere, superbly chilling use of lighting and a general foreboding feel to the movie that gives the impression that something bad will happen.
The actors in the movie are also fairly accomplished; it features Elke Sommer, who also starred in Bava's atmospheric shocker, "Baron Blood", among other films and Telly Savalas, who gives a great turn as the creepy butler of the house.
Overall, Lisa and the Devil is a good horror movie with much to admire, most notably the superb creation of atmosphere from Mario Bava but I feel that if it had concentrated less on putting lots of ideas into it, and more on concentrating on the ones it already had; then it would have been a better film..
"Lisa and the Devil" follows a woman touring Spain who wanders from her tour group; she becomes transfixed by a portrait of the devil in a fresco, and begins to lose sense of herself, time, and space as she seems to enter a waking nightmare.Perhaps Mario Bava's most surrealist offering, "Lisa and the Devil" was re-edited and grossly manipulated with reshoots upon its U.S. release, ending up with an entirely new title: "House of Exorcism." The differences between the two versions are so extreme that they literally are completely different films in both tone and narrative.
You may be wondering how a film can so easily be reworked in such a way, but Bava's loose and unanchored narrative makes it fairly easy."Lisa and the Devil" is a legitimately engrossing epic fantasy that is both unnerving and aesthetically gorgeous.
The film retains a kitschy late sixties look to it, and in some ways reminds me of Jess Franco's "Succubus," which was made several years prior—I do think "Lisa and the Devil" is ultimately the better film, no question, but they both share in common the floaty dreamscape backdrops in which a woman finds herself.The film is genuinely weird and disorienting at times, but never in a way that disenfranchises the viewer; what's perhaps most intriguing is that it essentially begins in medias res, taking a fairly mundane situation (a woman touring a city) and throwing it straight down the rabbit hole.
All in all, "Lisa and the Devil" is a great surrealist horror film, and a steadfast example of Bava's later, more narratively playful offerings.
telly savalas does an excellent job as satan, and i loved how he enjoyed his trademark lollipop even during an italian horror film as though to say--"the devil loves ya, baby!" modern horror directors get everything wrong and make the mistake of thinking that meaningless action and excessive gore make an effective and memorable film, when nothing could be further from the truth.
This was my third time watching this most personal of Bava's works: whether it is due to the fact that the last two occasions proved problematic (the original Image Entertainment DVD experienced an audio glitch during playback that nearly blasted my TV speakers, while there were constant audio-related issues on the Italian-language track of the copy I acquired of the movie's Raro Video edition!) or the shadow that always loomed large over it in the shape of the execrable re-edit THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM (1975), I have never been really taken with the film as many others seem to be!!
{1966}, also co-written by Natale and a film whose stature seems to grow with each viewing, I mention how LISA owes a debt to it in the desolate narrow streets/decaying villa settings and the general nightmarish vibe) and, yet, it comes off as strangely aloof: one does not really connect with any of the characters throughoutespecially, as with A BAY OF BLOOD (1971), these largely seem to be on hand merely to ratchet up the 'body count' department (did we really need an additional love triangle to the mind-boggling quintet – taking into consideration that Elke Sommer here undertakes a dual role – already involved?!).
The rest of the cast, however, are only so-so: Alessio Orano is, fatally, unsympathetic as an impotent necrophile(!); Alida Valli, on the other hand, is imposing as ever playing his aristocratic and over-protective blind mother; and Espartaco Santoni is decidedly baffling as the latter's husband and the former's rival for love of his own spouse Sommer (his comings and goings, sometimes literally from death to life, eventually grew irritating!); while Sylva Koscina, Eduardo Fajardo and Gabriele Tinti, as already intimated, are at once underused and downright redundant!
Typical of Bava, too, the movie's look cannot be faulted (despite having a Spanish d.p., with a penchant for shooting in soft-focus, forced on him), effortlessly moving between the modern-day 'bookends' and the period milieu of its central narrative.By the way, given that I am going through the director's filmography in a non-linear fashion, it becomes interesting to note parallels between efforts that one would probably overlook if they were to be viewed chronologically; recently, for instance, I picked up on how SHOCK (1977) is pretty much a reworking of THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963) and even HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON (1970) in its depiction of a deranged protagonist coming to terms with a crime that had been all but blocked out of its consciousness.
Having just re-acquainted myself with the latter prior to my screening LISA, which I took as Bava's most Buñuelian work (in view of its leading man's affinity with the latter's Archibaldo De La Cruz), here we have an ending – the Devil adopting modern means of transportation – which recalls the Surrealist maestro's slyly abrupt way of concluding his SIMON OF THE DESERT (1965)!
The audio commentary did sometimes go overboard in trying to match the poetic quality of the picture: the last rose of the season plucked by Orano for Sommer at one point apparently stood for Bava's own last gasp at making an international name for himself – if you say so, Timbut, then, I was grateful to learn that Bava appreciated the work of Georges Franju and, indeed, it had never occurred to me before that he recruited two ladies from his films, i.e. Valli (from EYES WITHOUT A FACE {1960} – her mannered death scene being even incorporated in the finale here) and Koscina (from JUDEX {1963}), for LISA!
I've seen that film so many times I recognize those.Anyway, Lisa and the Devil is very low on dialog and big on atmosphere.
Everything seems normal at first, but bizarre things begin to happen, and we eventually discover that there are many things about each character that we don't know.Much of the horror in "La Casa dell'esorcismo" (the American title is "Lisa and the Devil") comes from camera angle and blurred shots, creating the sense of descent into terror and madness.
It's one of those films where the plot, believe it or not, isn't all that important--and this aspect makes "Lisa and the Devil" a lot like another good horror film, "Suspiria"--and that's putting the film in very good company.Elke Sommer is on vacation.
In fact, in a nude scene late in the film, you don't feel it's the least bit gratuitous--it's more like a lovely work of art--even if some of it also involves a weird necrophilic murderer!
That's pretty cool and as I write this I am watching "House of Exorcism".UPDATE: Apparently there is no separate page for both films--just one for "Lisa and the Devil"--so my review for the bastardized re- working is included here: An obvious difference you soon notice is that a different person dubbed Sommer's voice.
I'd give this one a 3--and that's being generous.UPDATE: Since I originally posted this review, IMDb has now created a separate page for "House of Exorcism" and it gets its just desserts as a terrible film and "Lisa and the Devil" avoids this distinction..
It's incoherent, confusing and complex; elements we didn't need because the script is pretty obvious (Elke Sommers plays Lisa, Telly Savalas is the villainous "Devil", and then the movie ends) from the beginning.
LISA & THE DEVIL is a mostly effective dream-like Gothic horror film with a few problems and an ending that almost destroys everything that was meticulously created before.
The film is filled with the usual Mario Bava elements: non-linear story, a handsome psycho, mannequins, colorful settings, the past tormenting the present, corrupt family, gory murders, etc.
Watching LISA & THE DEVIL is like watching a catalog of all Bava films in one.
Elke Sommer does a wonderful job as Lisa in the fact that there is an aura of mystery around her.Telly Savalas gives an excellent performance as the devil as he is both charming and evil.
Lisa and the Devil was a film where famed Italian director Mario Bava was given full creative control.
This possession themed material was inspired by The Exorcist (1973) and it was then spliced in along with huge sections of Lisa and the Devil, the resulting film was The House of Exorcism (1975).
Intriguing prologue--with tourist Elke Sommer lost on the deserted streets of Spain after locking eyes with a dead ringer for the Devil himself--is then canceled out by reincarnation/house of horrors plot that goes around in circles (many defenders of the movie say that is precisely the point).
Fans of Italian horror know that imagery is more important than plot in italian films, and this is indeed true in Lisa and the Devil.
Mario Bava's original version is regarded by many as a classic of surreal, dreamlike horror, but I found it a crushing bore from start to finish.Elke Sommer stars as tourist Lisa Reiner, who, after becoming lost in a Spanish town, gets a lift from a couple passing by in their car.
During the night Lisa has many strange encounters with the bizarre family and their even stranger butler (played by Telly Savalas, sucking on a lollipop, just like Kojak).Since I found the tedious story very hard to follow, I won't go into any more detail than that, other than to say that I think it was a ghost story.
This film is credited as "La Casa dell'exorcismo"/"The House Of Exorcism" here, but Mario Bava's original version is the one called "Lisa e il diavolo"/"Lisa And The Devil".
Mario Bava, arguably the greatest Horror director of all-time, created his most bizarre work in 1972 with "Lisa And The Devil".
I do not want to give anything away, but I can assure that "Lisa And The Devil" is a film that creates a hypnotic and nightmarish atmosphere like hardly another.
As all Bava films, "Lisa And The Devil" is wonderfully photographed in beautiful yet exceptionally eerie Gothic settings.
As stated above, "Lisa And The Devil" is not one of the absolute greatest films by Mario Bava, but it is definitely a great one.
I wonder why that movie is listed as the House of the Exorcism instead of Lisa and the Devil.
Lisa and the Devil (1973) ** (out of 4) A tourist (Elke Sommer) gets lost in an unknown European city but soon ends up at a strange mansion being run by a weird son, his even stranger mother and their lolly-pop sucking butler (Telly Savalas) who might just be the devil himself.
As I said, on a technical level this movie is near flawless but the story is also important to me and Bava never can drag me in and instead the entire film feels like one scene dragging after the next.
A film more reminiscent to the works of Jean Cocteau and Luis Bunuel than it's horror contemporaries, "Lisa and the Devil" is a barroque, nightmarish ride through what may well be Hell, as we follow a lost tourist - Lisa (the gorgeous Elke Sommer), finding shelter at a spooky villa owned by the mysterious Contessa and her son (Alida Valli and Alessio Orano), and soon finds herself caught in a grizzly web involving necrophilia, incest and murder, all of which is controlled by the sinister butler Leandro (Telly Savalas), who may or may not be the Devil himself.
The most impressive sequences feature Sommer possessed by Satan and spitting up a pea-soup-like substance and spewing rhetoric like Regan in "The Exorcist."Director Mario Bava provides some impressive visuals, but the plot is choppy, much of the dialogue overdubbed (typical of Italian horror), and the acting mediocre.Bear in mind that several versions of this film are available.
These two were made for each other.House of Exorcism is basically a travesty, an abomination where a co-producer(..this being Alfred Leone)takes a perfectly fine film well visualized by a true master of the macabre and creates instead a ludicrous, unnecessary rehash of The Exorcist, adding material with Robert Alda(..attempting desperately to bring sincerity and dignity to his role as a wounded priest, despite the hilariously profane gibberish coming from a possessed Elke Sommer's mouth), splicing in footage from "Lisa and the Devil" to pad everything out to cash in on another religious shocker's success.
(Small spoilers included) According to the title, I'm reviewing the House of Exorcism here but I better start by saying that the below discussed version is `Lisa and the Devil' in all the glory like Mario Bava intended it!
Lisa and the Devil however, is a pure Bava masterpiece and one of the most beautiful horror movies ever made.
The film doesn't quite add up to a movie which is mainly because it is actually Bava's Lisa and the devil and additional scenes shot by the producer.
Very few movies say "death" this many times over, and Lisa & the Devil is a film about the loneliness of the human-condition.
Sadly, Image didn't do a recut with Lisa & the Devil from the superior film-elements from House of Exorcism, it's a little weaker in image-quality.
Now, he was allowed to make movies without studio interference.Bava was allowed to create Lisa and the Devil as a non-commercial film, but it flopped in Italy and the U.S., where it would be retitled House of Exorcism with twenty minutes of the film cut and a new scene with Elke Sommer and Robert Alda would rip off The Exorcist.
She collapses and becomes the dummy that he carries back to the house.Lisa and the Devil was Bava's dream project turned nightmare.
The movies are completely different in tone, point of view, story, values, and virtually any other category you might think of DESPITE the fact that House of Exorcism is made up from Lisa and the Devil for at least 75%.
Let's talk about Bava's film, Lisa and the Devil.