El justiciero rojo

What truly makes the difference between "La Vergine di Norimberga" and the rest of the Italian horror movies of the 60s and 70s is the amazing visual composition that director Antonio Margheriti creates with the aid of his team. Music and visuals converge to create one of the most beautifully looking horror movies.

Based on a novel by Frank Bogart, the movie is about a woman, Mary (Rosanda Podestà), who has recently moved to his new husband's castle in Germany. The Gothic castle keeps many secrets and one night Mary watches a murdered woman inside of one of the many torture devices kept in the castle's museum. Her husband, Max Hunter (George Riviere), thinks it was a hallucination since there is no proof a murder took place in the castle, but she is convinced that the old family friend Erich (Christopher Lee), is responsible of the murder. The mysterious dark figure of "The Punisher" roams the castle, but is he a ghost? or something else? This movie mixes perfectly the suspense and the mystery, the jazzy score at first may seem odd, but it fits the movie very well, giving a bigger atmosphere of surrealism to the movie, very fitting to Mary's confused state of mind. The beautiful sets are like a canvas, with a palette predominantly red that gives the movie an elegant, yet dark look. It is a very unique look for a horror movie, and it works in an awesome way.

The acting is good for the most part, although the dubbing that Italian movies used to have is a bit bad. Particularly in the case of Christopher Lee, whose voice is quite different. Nevertheless, Podestà makes a great performance and while Lee is relegated to a supporting role, he also makes a good job. George Riviere's performance may not be the best, although It would be better to judge it with the original audio.

The score is haunting, and very appropriate. Oscar winner Riz Ortolani created a score that sets up the atmosphere of surrealism the film demands. In fact, if a flaw was to be found, was that at times it feels too much style over substance, as there are points of high visual beauty but little plot development.

The SFX are quite advanced for its age, mainly in the make-up department, as the movie delivers some gore making a bizarre contrast between the beauty of the setting and the gruesome violence of the villain. While this movie may seem outdated, it is an overlooked gem that is still very good.

This was the first horror movie by Antonio Margheriti, and it was without a doubt his best. A joy to watch, Italian Gothic horror at its best. 8/10

... starts out with Mary (Podesta) being awakened on a dark and stormy night.

She hears a scream, lights a candle, and goes to investigate. She wanders through the forbidding castle, finally arriving in the dungeon, where she finds a dead body in the torture chamber. Film goes from there.

Movie has beautiful cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini. The color scheme is predominantly red and gold, black and white, with lots of shadows mixed in. The music score by Riz Ortolani is jarring; part of it feels just right for the genre, while part of it sounds like it belongs in a nightclub.

Podesta's Mary is a refreshing change from the usual heroine. She doesn't just scream on cue and faint, she fights back and thinks before she acts. Lee is good, as always. The rest of the cast is ok.

Horror films' screenplay is routine, until the last half hour, when it has twist after plot twist.

Movie is a fun watch, very worth seeing. 3/4.

It's astonishing: this Italian B-movie is very close to 18th century Gothic novels like the classic "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole (1765). Like in Walpoles novel the plot centers around a young woman, freshly married to a count and castle-owner. Now, the count may or may not be the brute who bestially murders women at nightfall - in the film the solution of this riddle is saved for the final showdown, while in the book it becomes obvious pretty soon, that the count is a despot and sinner. The main part of the movie features the camera tiptoeing behind the fragile woman, who, genre-typically seems even more vulnerable (and visible for an enemy) in her thin, white, silky nightgown. Like Isabella, the lead in Walpoles book, she wanders around in an subterranean labyrinth of vaults and crypts, well aware of the fact that some dark creature is down there with her in the dark. Well: for today's taste this film with it's crude special effects of miniature castle-views and rubber-scars in Christopher Lee's face is more up for laughter than for a real scare. Still it has a special atmosphere ... Interesting trivia: The Italian Original version (called "La Vergine di Norimberga" - "The Nuremberg Vergin") implies some subplot about a former Nazi-officer who was caught plotting against Adolf Hitler. As a punishment his face was mutilated, making him look like the Phantom of the Opera. In the DVD-version that is distributed in Austria and Germany (and which follows the German dubbed movie-version from the 60s) this plot is completely altered, leaving out any Nazi-references, even changing the names of the "bad guys" from "Fritz", etc. in the original to British sounding names like "Fred", maybe trying to catch up with the German "Edgar Wallace" Brit-scare-boom of that time. Seems the Germans are afraid of what in other countries is referred to as German Angst ...

This film by Antonio Margheriti certainly tells one of the most unusual stories ever told in a Gothic horror movie. Margheriti directed it through and through Gothic - the old, creepy castle, thunderstorms, secret passage ways, skulls piled up, medieval torture devices and so forth - but the story takes place in the presence.

The Bavarian town of Nuremberg made headlines after World War II: The biggest process against Nazi leaders was held there. So it's no surprise that the motive for the happenings in the film "La Vergine di Norimberga" directly rely on Nazi war atrocities - and to combine Gothic horror with the darkest chapter of German history is undoubtedly unique (the German version, however, censored the whole Nazi subplot and made the killer's motive much simpler - avoid this version at all costs). This combination may sound odd, but it works in this film perfectly and gives it also a "no war ever again"-statement that I fully support (but if one watches how many wars are always going on in all different places on earth, one really wonders if mankind has learned of the past war atrocities including WWII).

Christopher Lee gives another supporting role to remember, and Riz Ortolani's score is bombastic, but fits the Gothic atmosphere of the picture. There are some surprisingly gory moments in the film (concerning it was made in 1963), but they never make the impression of being gratuitous or senseless. I highly recommend this film not only to fans of the genre. The U.S.-video print from "Panther Video" (long out of print, though) presents a surprisingly good looking picture quality with lush colors and clear sound that would also make a fine DVD release possible.

My rating: 8 out of 10 - look for this gem!

Max Hunter, (Georges Riviere) gets married and takes his wife, Mary Hunter (Rossana Podesta) to his ancestral castle which contains a large collection of torture devices used in Medieval times. Max is away from his wife on business and Mary finds herself in a house where she finds dead people being killed under her own roof and a servant named Erich, (Christopher Lee) who has a deformed face and acts very strangely towards her. There is a scene where a young girl gets her nose chewed off by a rat and a man finds himself drowning in a basement room filling up with water. This film is full of surprises and we also see pictures of Adolph Hitler which takes the film into another direction. Nice entertainment film for Halloween night.