THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE
After the death of his wife Evelyn, Lord Alan Cunningham (Steffan) suffers an intense breakdown but, after being released from an institution, passes the time by picking up sexy women and bringing them home to his castle, where he runs after them with a whip and possibly kills them. After tormenting a sexy nightclub performer (Blanc) who does a sexy strip routine involving a coffin, he
Certainly a far cry from the typical black-gloved slasher story, Evelyn switches narrative gears so many times that first-time viewers may get a nasty case of whiplash. From the lurid S&M sessions and stripteases in the basement to an out-of-nowhere corpse devouring by foxes, Evelyn pulls out all the stops to please its audience without tipping its hand about the characters' true intentions until the climax. And what a climax it is; suddenly switching the film's setting to a chilly, icy-white interior out of a Kubrick film, the last showdown is an unforgettably unhinged concoction with poisonings, stabbings, blood-smearing cleaveage, and a handy bag of sulphuric acid creating a true Grand Guignol finish. If that wasn't enough, Bruno Nicolai supplies a dynamite music score
Though Evelyn has popped up on countless video labels over the years, no version prior to NoShame's DVD has come close to offering a satisfying presentation. The film's startling levels of nudity were generally left intact through the years, though its first stateside appearance from AIP was chopped down by several minutes, completely eliminating the aslyum opening sequence as well as several dialogue passages. Future reissues reinstated some of the missing footage and provided the source for most public domain video editions, which cropped up everywhere from Sinister Cinema to Eclectic. Unfortunately they all looked like garbage, with faded colors, hazy detail, and rampant print damage. The first authorized DVD from German's X-Rated Kult (issued with a variety of alternate covers) offers a nice and colorful transfer overall, but it's awkwardly cropped to 1.85:1 (destroying quite a few compositions in the process) and inexplicably draws its S&M footage from a different, much dupier source. Therefore, it's
Though she's really only in three scenes (and steals all of them), Blanc's presence is significant enough for her to introduce the feature film with a very funny, sexy intro; she also appears for a nice 21-minute video interview, "The Whip and the Body," in which she sits at a make-up table and chats about the making of the film, including funny bit about the owner of the castle used for shooting and her own improvised attempts at dancing. Production designer Lorenzo Baraldi appears for a 23-minute interview, "Still Rising from the Grave," in which he discusses his general career from his earliest days and recalls the elaborate methods used to create the film's look.
The film comes packaged as the first disc in a set entitled "The Emilio Miraglia Killer Queen Box Set" which also includes the director's second (and last) giallo, the far more rare The Red Queen Kills Seven Times. Basically flipping the first film's structure, this outing begins with a great gothic prologue setting out the general premise of the story, then switches over to a bright, colorful, modern milieu for the rest of its duration. The story originates from a family's sinister curse, depicted in a gruesome painting in their castle's main living room(!), which condemns seven victims every hundred years to die at the hands of a "Red Queen" who holds a grudge against her sister, the "Black Queen." After the aging patriarch dies under mysterious
Decked out with one of Bruno Nicolai's catchiest scores and some knockout first-time cinematography by Alberto Spagnoli (who went on to Daisy Miller and Shock), this film is certainly the equal of Evelyn and, in terms of story construction and gory thrills, even surpasses it. The jolts and plot twists are very well-time and executed with marvelous panache; the sequences with the red-cloaked villain are especially potent, including a terrific dream sequence that climaxes with a surprisingly bloody punchline. Though she's saddled with a strange retro hairstyle, the always gorgeous Bouchet makes a fetching and sympathetic heroine; Evelyn's Malfatti also
Production designer Baraldi returns on this disc to provide a quick video intro to the film as well as a 14-minute interview, "Dead a porter," which continues from his previous chat and covers the basics of this projct, including the methods used to get the eye-catching fashion outfits. Marino Masé (who plays the police inspector in the film) appears for "Round Up the Usual Suspects," a 15-minute interview in which he lays out the basics of his career and recalls how he landed the part. "If I Met Emilio Miraglia Today...," a 4-minute video piece, features Blanc, Masé, and Baraldi talking about... well, exactly what the title says. Bouchet appears briefly for a one-minute Q&A at a convention, "My Favourte... Films," in which she cites Red Queen and Don't Torture a Duckling among her favorite credits. Finally, the disc throws in an alternate English-language "countdown" opening which replaced the much longer prologue in some territories, plus a gallery of posters and stills.
The first DVD pressing of this set comes packaged in an elaborate black box complete with a great Red Queen figurine, brandishing a knife over her head; it's just the thing for drawing puzzled stares from company, and one can only wish NoShame had followed suit and delivered an action figure for The Sensuous Nurse as well! The case also includes two lobby card reproduction postcards and a thick booklet containing liner notes and bios of Miraglia, Baraldi, Bouchet, Blanc and Steffen by Chris D., plus bios of Danning, Rossi Stuart and Masé by Richard Harland Smith.
Color, 1971, 101m. / Directed by Emilio Miraglia / Starring Anthony Steffen, Marina Malfatti, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Umberto Raho, Erica Blanc / NoShame (US R0 NTSC) / WS (2.35:1) (16:9), X-Rated Kult (Germany R2 PAL) / WS (1.85:1)
THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES
Color, 1972, 98m. / Directed by Emilio Miraglia / Starring Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti, Marino Masé, Sybil Danning / NoShame (US R0 NTSC) / WS (2.35:1) (16:9)
Few drive-in moviegoers in the early '70s could avoid some kind of contact with The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, a frequently reissued title whose promise of
zombie thrills led to some confusion when the actual story instead turned out to be a particularly deranged giallo. Rather than aping the high-gloss modernity of the more famous contemporary works of Argento and Bava, this first-time thriller by director Emilio Miraglia sets its kinky mystery plot in an atmosphere derived from the atmospheric Italian gothic horrors of the '60s like Nightmare Castle.
decides to take the advice of his physician friend, Richard (Rossi Stuart), and take a second wife, Gladys (Malfatti). Unfortunately things get even worse as inexplicable murders continue...
with a brief quote from his earlier Eugenie thrown in during one early strip dance for good measure.
with great relief that NoShame's version - uncut, fully scoped, and simply beautiful - can finally be dubbed the first worthwhile video release of this title in any format. The exceptional visual quality will be a pleasant jolt to anyone who's suffered through past editions, and newcomers should be drawn in immediately by the film's irresistible visuals. Just as noteworthy is the restoration of the film's Italian soundtrack; the far more widely distributed English dub track (also included here) is an unintentional laugh riot packed with ridiculous phony English accents of various stripes, while the Italian version is far more flattering to the feature itself and less likely to provoke giggles among viewers. The biggest beneficiary of the Italian track is Steffan, whose performance has been almost universally condemned on the grounds of his awkward English dubbed voice alone.
The disc is rounded out with Italian and English versions of the flamboyant European trailer (for some reason the very different, horror-oriented AIP trailer is MIA), and a poster and still gallery.
circumstances, young Kitty (Bouchet) - who apparently killed her sister Evelyn by accident as a child during a catfight by a lake - is plagued by nightmares which intensify when her boss at a fashion house is found murdered. With the red queen seen stalking the grounds and now apparently intent on fulfilling her body count, Kitty must scramble to crack the mystery (and fend off a few grope-happy men along the way) before she becomes the next victim.
returns to provide the requisite "bad girl" role. Once again Miraglia manages to pile on the nudity (including an early bare role for scream queen Sybil Danning), though it's integrated into the plot skillfully enough to avoid disrupting the tone of the overall film. Highly recommended.
