The Long Hair of Death (1964)

Italian Title: I lunghi capelli della morte

English title: The Long Hair of DeathDirector: Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti)

Writers: Ernesto Gastaldi & Tonino Valerii (plus an uncredited Margheriti)
Music: Carlo Rustichelli

Production Company: Cinegai

An Italian production

In 15th century Italy the long-haired Adele Karnstein (uncredited, but according to Wikipedia she is played by Halina Zalewska) is accused of murdering the son of Count Humboldt and is to be burned at the stake as a witch. She is assured that if she is innocent God will save her from the flames - a sure fire method of justice. As she burns she curses the village and the Humboldt family. She appears to have two long-haired daughters, Mary (Barbara Steele) and the young Lisabeth, who for reasons not yet clearly explained is living in the Count’s castle as one of his daughters. Mary on the other hand has remained hidden, with no one knowing what she looks like. She sneaks into the castle and begs the Count not to burn her mother, saying she knows who the real killer is, but his son Kurt (George Ardisson) is suspiciously keen and gets the fire going before he arrives. When Mary confronts the Count the next day to complain he throws her off a cliff into the raging river below. Nice family. You can see where Kurt gets his humanitarian streak from. Her body is recovered and buried in an anonymous grave outside the castle's chapel.

Adele Karnstein is not too pleased with this latest development.

Several years later Lizabeth (Halina Zalewska) has grown into a beautiful young woman, and Kurt is lusting after her. Against both her and his father's wishes he marries her right there in the castle. Meanwhile plague ravages the village and the Count grows weaker by the day. 

The long-suffering Lizabeth (Halina Zalewska)

When he dies a funeral service is held during a storm and just as the priest reads from the book of Revelation a lightening bolt strikes Mary’s grave, splitting it open and revealing a maggoty corpse inside. The service is then abruptly interrupted by Mary crashing through the doors and promptly passing out. Barbara Steele is once again playing a double-role, one of which may or may not be a ghost, which is more than a little familiar if you’ve seen Black Sunday, aka The Mask of Satan. Fresh from her turn as a definite ghost in Castle of Blood, she is equally beguiling here and one can see why Margheriti was so keen to work with her again. Antonio Margheriti appears to have moved straight from Castle of Blood on to this film, even reusing the crypt set according to his son Eduardo.

You can't keep a good woman down.

Kurt, being the honourable gentleman that he is immediately springs to the rescue and this mysterious young woman is taken into his care. She claims to be Helen, on her way to a nearby town when her carriage overturned. Of course, given her being identical to Mary we have our suspicions that there is more to it than meets the eye, and as Kurt falls in love with her and plans to murder his wife so that he can be with this new ravishing beauty forever, things grow ever more sinister and wild.

Barbara Steele, mesmerising as ever

I don’t want to give more way, as the plot contains some fascinating twists and turns which are all the more fun if you don’t know what to expect. Suffice it to say, things don't go well for Kurt, but as we find out that it was him who murdered his brother, and Lizabeth was his brother's illegitimate daughter, we don't feel to much pity for him as it all goes south, with an ending like a mashup of Castle of Blood and The Wicker Man. But I've said too much.

An image borrowed from Mask of Satan perhaps?

I have recently been able to get access to UK censorship records for several Margheriti films including this one, which has been really interesting and I am excited to share this information as I work on this blog.

The records for The Long Hair of Death are a little brief, as it appears as though no cuts were required for an 'X' certificate. The film was submitted by Butchers Film Distributors in September 1967, and the BBFC did require cuts to the trailer in order to receive a 'U':

"The new trailer should not include any shots of people being burned; or any shots of couples embracing on beds; or any shots of the dead face. Shots of the mask should be kept to a minimum."

The film seems to have been widely distributed across the UK over the next six to twelve months, with evidence of it showing in Birmingham, Aberdeen and Coventry as well as around London. 

Aberdeen Evening Express, Monday 11 November 1968, p. 2

The review in Monthly Film Bulletin rightly points out that the black and white gothic was a little out of fashion by the time this got its UK release:

"Although erratically scripted, unusually clumsily dubbed, and sagging badly in the middle, this is a pleasingly atmospheric Gothic tale, shot in what look like real locations and with enough good sequences to lift it well out of the rut. Plague-ridden peasants roam the pestilential streets, skeletons languishing in cobwebby vaults are given momentary animation by rats scurrying beneath their mouldering vestments, the white-robed heroine braves the terrors of secret passageways, and a fine assortment of characters run mad, die of terror, are poisoned, or simply go up in flames.

The clou of the film is, of course, Barbara Steele's return from the grave: freed by a bolt of lightning which splits her tombstone in two, she shakes off the earth and worms to make a well-timed apparition, somewhat dishevelled but little the worse for wear, in chapel during a reading from the Apocalypse ("And on the day of Judgment, the dead shall return to life"). If Antonio Margheriti hasn't quite the same gift as Bava for this sort of thing, he acquits himself very creditably; Barbara Steele is her usual extraordinary self (though a trifle muted); and there is a nice performance of injured innocence by Halina Zalewska.

Distributed by Butchers in 1967, three years after its Italian release and arguably too late for a black and white gothic tale to flourish."

Monthly Film Bulletin, Sept, 1967, p.142

I watched this on the Raro Video blu ray, which also features an old interview with Eduardo (presumably shot for a previous DVD release around 2005). They shot the interview in the vaults under Luigi Cozzi’s shop "Profundo Rosso" in Rome with very poor lighting and framing. They claim it's a Dario Argento museum, and I’ve been there: it’s effectively like walking through a threadbare side show funhouse full of dismembered mannequins. Fun and eccentric, but not exactly what could justifiably claim to be a museum. However Eduardo is very knowledgeable about his fathers career, and discusses it in its entirety, not just focusing on the gothic films.

Would you say no if you thought she might be a ghost?

The Long Hair of Death is a slower, more atmospheric and thoughtful film than its predecessor Castle of Blood, but no less entertaining for it. There's enough crypts, cobwebs and cadavers here to keep any gothic fan happy, plus Barbara Steele in a double role. It shows Margheriti at the height of his powers as a filmmaker, able to squeeze an artful and majestic horror film out of a small budget, a good location and recycled sets and costumes back at Cinecita.

The Count will see you now.

Incidentally, long hair has indeed been a cause of death several times over the years, as a scan of the British Newspaper Archive reveals. There are stories from 1889, 1929 and 1931 whose grisly details reveal that long hair played a part of the tragic events. The latter story from the Belfast Telegraph has the headline "Woman Killed By Mangle" (21 October 1931, p.9), which would now make a good article in Fortean Times.