Available from
Luminous | Directed by Sergio Garrone | Review
by Crites
Klaus
Kinski's filmography is as varied and erratic
as the man himself; from a twitchy hunchbacked
gunfighter in Leone's FOR A FEW DOLLARS
MORE to the arch vampire himself in Herzog's
NOSFERATU, Klaus has played 'em all. I'd
never heard of this one however, 1974's
LE AMANTI DEL MOSTRO (AKA LOVER OF THE MONSTER), in which
Kinski "becomes obsessed with his experiments
in the reanimation of the dead." [Editor's Note: We had inadvertently identified this film under the US title THE HAND THAT FEEDS THE DEAD. However, that film is actually LE MANO CHE NUTRE LA MORTE, also filmed by Garrone with Kinski on the same sets and much of the same cast in 1974. Both films can be found at Luminous Film and Video Works. There is also a recent double CD soundtrack featuring the scores from both Garrone/Kinski films as well as Joe D'Amato's perverse ghost tale DEATH SMILES AT MURDER.]
It's the late 19th century,
and Professor Alex Nijinsky (Kinski) and
his beautiful wife Agniezka (Katia Christine)
are traveling by horse and carriage to the
villa left her by her late father, Professor
Ivan Rassimov. Their marriage is faltering,
due largely in part to Alex's fits of jealousy,
and the couple hopes that the remote and
scenic country location will provide them
with a much-needed second chance at marital
bliss. They still have quite a way to go;
the pair will be sleeping at opposite ends
of the mansion. One other kink in Nijinsky's
hopes for getting back in the good graces
of the little lady is their neighbor Dr.
Igor Walensky, who right away comes sniffing
around the villa displaying a clear interest
in curvaceous blonde Agniezka.
Largely left to his own devices
in his wife's home and hometown, Alex spends
a good deal of time finding solace in spirits
and Professor Rassimov's library. It seems
the late Professor had some rather unorthodox
scientific views, particularly regarding
"the mystery that exists between life
and death." A former doctor himself,
it doesn't take Alex long to find his way
into the Professor's cellar laboratory and
begin recreating the old man's experiments
with electricity.
After restoring the Professor's
"machine," an elaborate system
of coils, beakers, and archaic batteries,
Alex has the opportunity to test the device
when the family dog Sasha is found dead.
But instead of some miraculous scientific
breakthrough, the gory process (involving
evisceration and electrocution) is an utter
failure. In the course of the experiment
Alex does however receive a severe shock
from the machine, a shock which is to alter
his personality substantially. Or at least
simply unleash a dormant portion of his
already frustrated personality...
On the outskirts of the village
an unseen presence attacks a farmer and
his family, brutalizing man and wife and
murdering their child. Shortly thereafter
Alex finds himself wandering the forest,
working his way home in a frenzied and unkempt
condition.
The following day the town's
police force, along with a sizeable hunting
party of angry citizens, are combing the
countryside for the "vagabond"
suspected of killing the child. Alex is
also roaming the woods once again, in the
same dangerously delirious condition he
was the day before, when he comes across
a pair of lovers in a clearing. Striking
the man down Alex pursues the woman through
the shrubbery, and when the search party
finds her she's been stripped, violated,
and murdered. Alex flees the scene in a
manic state, a feral combination of panic
and exhaustion, just as a random hobo happens
to be passing by and is seen by the posse.
Chased through the woods the vagabond is
caught and laid into, and by the time the
police take charge he has already been beaten
to death by the mob.
Back at the villa Alex senses
that he is losing himself, and one night
approaches his wife in her bedroom hoping
for a final heart-to-heart reconciliation.
There is still too great an emotional distance
between them however, as she continues to
hold against him a particular unspoken offense
related to his "absurd jealousy."
Rebuffed, Alex leaves the bedchamber and
returns to the laboratory, haunted by imaginary
laughter.
Soon Alex is stalking the
village, and peeping through a window as
a sexy young harlot undresses for a fat
old letch. As they roll about on the bed
Alex enters, breaking the man's neck and
leaving the girl bloody and ravaged. Afterward
he returns to the woods, lovelorn and persecuted
by memories both real and imagined. When
he reaches the villa Alex is confronted
by Agniezka's head servant Boris, who recognizes
Alex for the killer he is and draws a knife,
determined to prevent any harm from befalling
his mistress. Alex fells him with a single
blow, then descends into the cellar much
like a vampire returning to his crypt at
dawn.
With the discovery of the
most recent victims another posse is formed
to search for the "mad man" on
the loose. But instead they find another
hobo who, still covered in the blood of
a stolen chicken, makes a more convenient
target ("He's got the face of a criminal!").
Taken before the magistrate the man pleads
innocence, but for lack of a better suspect
is jailed anyway.
Alex meanwhile lies in an
exhausted state resembling a coma. And who
should be attending to him during his days
of unconsciousness but the good Doctor Walensky,
who obviously takes a greater interest in
his patient's wife than the patient himself.
When Alex begins to recover and, despite
his wife's ministrations, realizes that
nothing will change between them, he lets
her go, telling her that she can now consider
herself free. The camera soars up and away
from their table setting on the lawn, and
into the court where they are watching the
hobo's trial. As there have been no murders
committed during the five days Alex lay
in bed, a time period coincidentally matching
that spent by the hobo in jail, the tramp
is found guilty by the court and sentenced
to hang. Returning to the villa Alex attempts
to drink away his own guilt under the suspicious
eyes of Agniezka and Dr. Walensky, and equally
shaken by their obvious closeness and their
veiled accusations Alex stumbles down to
the basement to fall into a trembling fit
of auditory hallucination.
Pledging his eternal love
to Agniezka Walensky takes his leave, only
to hear her begin screaming almost immediately.
Alex is stalking his wife through the mansion,
and breaking into her bedroom he approaches
the terrified woman and begins tearing off
her clothing. As Alex throws her to the
bed and begins ravishing her Walensky beats
his fists bloody trying to break into the
villa and save her, but once locked down
the mansion is like a fortress (or, as Agniezka
had said earlier, like a prison). As Igor
sobs outside, Alex rapes Agniezka so violently
that she dies in his arms. As the fit passes
and his sanity returns, Alex realizes what
he has done and, cradling her lifeless body,
begins looking for a way to remedy the situation...
At this point I was hoping
that Alex would haul her down to the cellar
and hook her up to the machine for an ending
somewhere along the lines of RE-ANIMATOR
and PET SEMATARY. Instead Garrone moves
in another direction, one equally dramatic
and grief-stricken but aimed much more along
the lines of desperate redemption than sci-fi/horror.
Effective and unexpected, this more classical
finale may not please the gorehounds in
the audience (who will also no doubt be
disappointed to see that, aside from the
experiment with the dog, there's very little
blood or explicit violence in the picture)
but will certainly meet with the approval
of most.
With the mad scientist theme,
rich coloration, and period settings, LE
AMANTI DEL MOSTRO resembles a Hammer picture,
but with a much more tragic and violently
lusty end. The dark and brooding interiors
well match Alex's mindset as his newly unleashed
homicidal frustration grows, and the lupine
howls that occasionally spring to life on
the soundtrack also serve to accentuate
the deepening feral state into which Alex
finds himself descending. Kinski's Jekyll
& Hyde performance is remarkable, as
with a minimum of makeup he transforms from
the urbane and sharply-dressed Professor
Nijinsky into a glassy-eyed, slack-jawed
fiend whose rapacious bloodlust has an entire
village terrified. A timeless tale of frustrated
romance, given an extra edge as it is by
Kinski's always watchable performance and
the violent mad scientist twist, LE AMANTI
DEL MOSTRO is a most gratifying watch for
fans of Klaus, Italian cinema, and classic
horror alike.
The film is given a region-free
widescreen presentation, in Italian with
English subtitles that can be turned on
and off. These subtitles are clear and easily
visible, but are sometimes a bit confused
in their grammar and spelling (and in one
point there's a rather important mistake
replacing Rassimov's name with Walensky's).
The DVD transfer, apparently by CVR for
Melbourne's Shoarma Digital, is a bit shaky
as well, flickering and rolling at times
as would a videocassette. Nothing to ruin
the viewing experience certainly, but it
is noticeable.
Bonus features include an
extensive Klaus Kinski photo gallery, containing
posters, stills, and archival images from
all eras of Kinski's career, accompanied
by a sombre piano score. There's also an
interview taped from television recording
his appearance on the German talk show Na
Sowas! After some outtakes displaying Kinski's
volatile on-set behavior (during filming
of KOMMANDO LEOPARD) he comes onstage to
go off on his own tangents and toy with
the rather ridiculous host for asking roundabout
questions. But instead of an outburst or
brawl it all ends on a note more along the
lines of his statement, "I'm thinking
right now that I'll be going back to the
hotel and drink a Pilsner beer." Go
Klaus!
$19.95 from Luminous
Film & Video Wurks, P.O. Box 289,
Hampton Bays, NY, 11946
