Lisa and the Devil
Encyclopedia
Lisa and the Devil is a 1972
Italian
horror film
directed by Mario Bava
. The film has developed a cult following among fans of European horror, it is particularly praised by fans of Mario Bava
. Like most of Bava's films Lisa and the Devil possesses inventively stylish direction and evokes an atmosphere of bizarre and eerie, yet surreal beauty. The film is said to have been one of Bava's personal favorite works, though the director would not live to see the film released as he had made it. Difficulty finding a distributor for the film forced it to be drastically altered. It was originally released in 1975 in the United States under the title House of Exorcism, an alternate cut of the film that removed much of the original film's content in favor of new footage shot specifically for the US version of the film, as well as an entirely new script. Years after director Bava's death the original version of the film emerged again and is now available on DVD.
) wanders away from her tour group in Toledo and encounters a man called Leandro (Telly Savalas
) who resembles the portrait of the devil in a fresco she has just seen. When she is unable to find the tour group again, she takes refuge in a crumbling mansion owned by a blind Countess (Alida Valli
), where Leandro is the butler. The Countess's son (Alessio Orano) is drawn to Lisa because of her physical resemblance to his dead lover. As people begin to die off at the villa at the hands of a mysterious killer, Lisa finds herself in a surrealistic nightmare
from which she cannot escape.
and sent the director's career into a downward spiral, that ended with the success of his 1971 film Twitch of the Death Nerve
. As such, Bava entered into the production of Lisa and the Devil with renewed confidence in his freedom to produce films without much studio interference.
Film producer Alfredo Leone, who had worked with Bava on his previous film Baron Blood
, gave Bava free rein on the making of Lisa and the Devil and allowed Bava to produce a film that was very much non-commercial fare with its surrealistic tone and dreamlike direction. Unfortunately, when it was released in Italy, the film was a commercial flop. Furthermore, when Leone took the movie to the Cannes Film Festival
, US film distributors turned down offers to release the film in the US.
In a desperate attempt to get the film released in the US, Leone convinced a very reluctant Mario Bava that they should revamp the entire film as an Exorcist
clone, in order to cash in on the popularity of that film, complete with new footage being shot of an exorcism involving Elke Sommer and Robert Alda
, who was cast as a priest in the new footage. The film itself was then heavily cut, removing over twenty minutes of footage (including the film's ending) and having the remaining footage edited into the new footage as an extended flashback sequence that Sommer's character tells Alda's character.
Leone clashed with Bava over the new footage shot of Alda and Sommer; Leone wanted profanity and strong sexuality in the new footage, something Bava refused to do. At first he would set up the scenes and then leave the set so that Leone could direct the actors; later he tried to convince Elke Sommer not to act in these scenes, and eventually he left the film altogether. As such, the finished film's direction was credited to Mickey Lion.
House of Exorcism was released in the United States in 1975, where it was a critical and commercial flop. Leone's plan to try and exploit the popularity of The Exorcist backfired, as many critics and viewers denounced the film as a blatant rip-off of The Exorcist.
1972 in film
The year 1972 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Avanti!, directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet MillsB...
Italian
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Mario Bava
Mario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
. The film has developed a cult following among fans of European horror, it is particularly praised by fans of Mario Bava
Mario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
. Like most of Bava's films Lisa and the Devil possesses inventively stylish direction and evokes an atmosphere of bizarre and eerie, yet surreal beauty. The film is said to have been one of Bava's personal favorite works, though the director would not live to see the film released as he had made it. Difficulty finding a distributor for the film forced it to be drastically altered. It was originally released in 1975 in the United States under the title House of Exorcism, an alternate cut of the film that removed much of the original film's content in favor of new footage shot specifically for the US version of the film, as well as an entirely new script. Years after director Bava's death the original version of the film emerged again and is now available on DVD.
Plot
Tourist Lisa Rainer (Elke SommerElke Sommer
Elke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...
) wanders away from her tour group in Toledo and encounters a man called Leandro (Telly Savalas
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...
) who resembles the portrait of the devil in a fresco she has just seen. When she is unable to find the tour group again, she takes refuge in a crumbling mansion owned by a blind Countess (Alida Valli
Alida Valli
Alida Valli , sometimes simply credited as Valli, was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films, including Mario Soldati's Piccolo mondo antico, Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, Carol Reed's The Third Man, Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido, Luchino Visconti's Senso, Bernardo...
), where Leandro is the butler. The Countess's son (Alessio Orano) is drawn to Lisa because of her physical resemblance to his dead lover. As people begin to die off at the villa at the hands of a mysterious killer, Lisa finds herself in a surrealistic nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
from which she cannot escape.
Cast
- Telly SavalasTelly SavalasAristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...
, Leandro - Elke SommerElke SommerElke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...
, Lisa Reiner - Sylva KoscinaSylva KoscinaSylva Koscina was an Italian actress.-Biography:...
, Sophia Lehar - Alessio Orano, Maximilian
- Gabriele Tinti, George
- Kathy Leone, Lisa's friend
- Eduardo FajardoEduardo FajardoEduardo Fajardo is a Spanish film actor. He appeared in over 160 films between 1947 and 2002.He was born in Pontevedra, Spain.-Selected filmography:* Reckless * Tizoc * Django...
, Francis Lehar - Franz von Treuberg, Shopkeeper
- Espartaco Santoni, Carlo
- Alida ValliAlida ValliAlida Valli , sometimes simply credited as Valli, was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films, including Mario Soldati's Piccolo mondo antico, Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, Carol Reed's The Third Man, Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido, Luchino Visconti's Senso, Bernardo...
, Countess
Trivia
- Leandro frequently having a sucker in his mouth was a trait added by Telly SavalasTelly SavalasAristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...
. As told on the DVD commentary, Savalas had recently quit smoking and used the suckers as an alternative. But Savalas' character does smoke in the film and the DVD commentary indicates that the original script called for gum drops, which Savalas did not like so he suggested lollipops as an alternative. The suckers would become a popular character trait on his television series KojakKojakKojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
which started that same year. - Director Mario BavaMario BavaMario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
had reportedly wanted to do this movie for years. After the huge international success of his 1972 film Baron BloodBaron BloodBaron Blood is the name of several fictional characters that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics.-Publication fistory:The original version first appears in Invaders #7 and was created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins....
producer Alfredo Leone gave Bava free rein to do any project he wanted. - Lisa's friend was played by Kathy Leone, the daughter of producer Alfredo Leone. She plays the same role, though expanded, in House of Exorcism which is a re-edited version of Lisa and the Devil. Kathy Leone appeared in cameos in a number of Leone-produced films and is also seen briefly in Bava's Baron Blood.
- Anthony PerkinsAnthony PerkinsAnthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
was offered the role of Maximilian, but Perkins turned it down. - The scene where Leandro breaks the corpse's feet to stuff it into the coffin is a reference to the H.P. Lovecraft story "In the VaultIn the Vault"In the Vault" is a short story by American horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft, written on September 18, 1925 and first published in the November 1925 issue of the amateur press journal Tryout.-Inspiration:...
". - Shot in seven weeks.
- Director Mario BavaMario BavaMario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
was a superstitious individual and considered the color purplePurplePurple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....
to be bad luck. When he saw Alida ValliAlida ValliAlida Valli , sometimes simply credited as Valli, was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films, including Mario Soldati's Piccolo mondo antico, Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, Carol Reed's The Third Man, Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido, Luchino Visconti's Senso, Bernardo...
wearing a purple gown as part of her costume he thought it was a bad omen. Indeed there were complications throughout the production. - When the cast and crew flew to a different location to shoot interiors on a Pan Am jet, a terrible rainstorm caused the roof to collapse over rooms being used as make-up and wardrobe in parts of the villa where most of the film was shot. Had cast and crew not been away on the Pan Am location, they would have been shooting in the villa and producer Alfred Leone is convinced there would have been many injuries.
- The film was shot without sound and the dialog was dubbed in after principal photography. Reportedly while directing the cast on the set Bava would play Rodrigo's "Concerto d'Aranjuez" to get the emotion he desired from the actors.
- It wasn't until two years after Bava's death that Lisa and the Devil was finally released in its full-length original version. Ironically its premiere was an airing on American television in 1983.
- The film was always titled in English - Lisa and the Devil - so the Italian title referenced here is merely a translation. The film never received Italian distribution in Bava's lifetime.
Alternate Titles
- Der Teuflische (West Germany)
- Diablo se lleva a los muertos, El (Spain)
- Lisa and the Devil (USA)
- Lisa e il diavolo (Italy)
- The Devil and the Dead
- The Devil in the House of Exorcism
- The House of Exorcism (USA) (recut version)
The House of Exorcism Edit Controversy
In the late 1960s, a string of flops resulted in Mario Bava losing his coveted American distribution deal with American International PicturesAmerican International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
and sent the director's career into a downward spiral, that ended with the success of his 1971 film Twitch of the Death Nerve
Twitch of the Death Nerve
Twitch of the Death Nerve is a 1971 Italian horror film directed by Mario Bava. Bava cowrote the screenplay with Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni and Sergio Canevari, with story credit given to Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Barberi. The film stars Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, and Laura...
. As such, Bava entered into the production of Lisa and the Devil with renewed confidence in his freedom to produce films without much studio interference.
Film producer Alfredo Leone, who had worked with Bava on his previous film Baron Blood
Baron Blood
Baron Blood is the name of several fictional characters that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics.-Publication fistory:The original version first appears in Invaders #7 and was created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins....
, gave Bava free rein on the making of Lisa and the Devil and allowed Bava to produce a film that was very much non-commercial fare with its surrealistic tone and dreamlike direction. Unfortunately, when it was released in Italy, the film was a commercial flop. Furthermore, when Leone took the movie to the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, US film distributors turned down offers to release the film in the US.
In a desperate attempt to get the film released in the US, Leone convinced a very reluctant Mario Bava that they should revamp the entire film as an Exorcist
The Exorcist
The Exorcist is a novel of supernatural suspense by William Peter Blatty, published by Harper & Row in 1971. It was inspired by a 1949 case of demonic possession and exorcism that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University, a Jesuit school...
clone, in order to cash in on the popularity of that film, complete with new footage being shot of an exorcism involving Elke Sommer and Robert Alda
Robert Alda
Robert Alda was an American actor. He was the father of actors Alan Alda and Antony Alda.-Life and career:...
, who was cast as a priest in the new footage. The film itself was then heavily cut, removing over twenty minutes of footage (including the film's ending) and having the remaining footage edited into the new footage as an extended flashback sequence that Sommer's character tells Alda's character.
Leone clashed with Bava over the new footage shot of Alda and Sommer; Leone wanted profanity and strong sexuality in the new footage, something Bava refused to do. At first he would set up the scenes and then leave the set so that Leone could direct the actors; later he tried to convince Elke Sommer not to act in these scenes, and eventually he left the film altogether. As such, the finished film's direction was credited to Mickey Lion.
House of Exorcism was released in the United States in 1975, where it was a critical and commercial flop. Leone's plan to try and exploit the popularity of The Exorcist backfired, as many critics and viewers denounced the film as a blatant rip-off of The Exorcist.