THE SEVENTH GRAVE (1965)

 HOW DO YOU SAY "ODD DUCK" IN ITALIAN?

  Shot in February and March of 1965 (when my bacon wasn't quite finished bakin'), "LA SETTIMA TOMBA" finally appears in a gloriously beautiful B&W print in the recent Severin box set "Danza Macabra Volume One:  The Italian Gothic Collection"

and the film is at once a misfire and extremely interesting while sorta kinda dull.  If those handful of contradictions are confusing, then good . . . . because THE SEVENTH GRAVE is confusing.  The film certainly belongs in the Severin box set because it's certainly very gothic and very Italian; even as the opening title card reads "Old Scotland" as our film's location.  The plot isn't what I'd call original.  A group of people arrive by coach at a village inn (the Rooster Inn, old cock!), on their way to the local sinister castle for a reading of the will of the late Sir Reginald Thorne.  Barmaid tells the group that the castle is evil and creepy and they should stay away from it -- then promptly bums a ride with them as the girl is working at the castle that evening.  The group is met at the castle by a notary with the will in hand safely under lock and key.  The notary also informs the group that Sir Francis Drake hid his treasure somewhere in the castle grounds. 

The group takes a tour of the castle and discovers everything from a prison cell with a chained-up skeleton still hanging in it, a mad scientist-like laboratory and the family tomb. 

At some point, the will goes missing.  At another point, the corpse of Sir Reginald goes missing from its coffin.  At yet another point, the group stages a seance (since one of the group conveniently is a medium) to see if they can get her spirit guide to tell them where the treasure be at.  And at most points in the movie, someone will suddenly go missing and the rest of the group will traipse through the darkened halls by candlelight searching until the missing person suddenly turns up -- then another person will go missing and rinse repeat.  Oh yes, and then the killings start.

If all of this sounds a lot like THE CAT AND THE CANARY or countless other 1930's old dark house/reading of the will movies . . . . well, that's been pointed out by pretty much anyone who's seen this film so I don't need to elaborate.  In that sense, THE SEVENTH GRAVE seems very very old-fashioned for something made smack dab in the middle of the 1960's when Italian horror was full of gialli.  And that's where the oddness comes in.  For yes, this film IS very old-fashioned in its plot and seems like it's a much older movie than 1965.  However, then suddenly the film will burst it's staid old bonds and some quite violent bit of business will occur which immediately convinces that this is indeed a mid-sixties movie.  And this happens just often enough to make me very interested in the goings-on here.  Now, don't get me wrong -- there's nothing I like better than a black and white movie featuring nightgown-clad women wandering endlessly through the night down darkened corridors holding a lighted candle. I love that shit and have an enormously high tolerance for it.  And as I said before, the film looks stunning and all these scenes are rapturously sumptuous-looking (even if they apparently had a tiny little budget).  The sets, to me, looks really good.  And the location shooting of the Castle Balsorano standing in for the old Scottish castle looks stunningly good; some of the exterior 'tour through the grounds' shots reminded me of DEMENTIA 13's location for some reason.  THE SEVENTH GRAVE was only seen, if at all, in horrible quality tapings off the telly which were almost unwatchable but this new Severin box set gives us a gorgeous print that shows off cinematographer Aldo Greci's mastery of B&W gothic horror.  This is the kind of horror film I just eat up and is perfect for watching at night with all the lights turned off and only the flickering, silvery glow washing over the room in which you're watching.  The film is the one and only feature film of director Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo; although this wasn't known until fairly recently as the credit on the film itself is to somebody called 'Finney Cliff'. 

The mystery identity of this film's director was because Caracciolo had worked in the film industry during Mussolini's fascist era and Caracciolo unfortunately thought fascism was a pretty good thing.  So, he couldn't use his own name on any of the projects he did in the post-war period.  As a director, Caracciolo isn't very good and he never got the chance to really learn on the job since he died two years after completing THE SEVENTH GRAVE.  The cast consists of second stringers like Antonio Casale (who died memorably in THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY), Germana Dominici (who appeared in Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY), Gianni Dei (who besides acting also tried his hand as a pop star) and Nando Angelini (who appeared in IL SORPASSO as well as sleazefest BLOODY PIT OF HORROR with Mickey Hargitay).  All the actors here do a very good job bringing life and interest to their various characters as if they all realise they have snagged probably the biggest parts they're ever likely to get and give it their all.  Each actor gives their character a distinctness and likeability that lifts them all above faceless cannon fodder for a killer.  So yes, while THE SEVENTH GRAVE is no great shakes, I have a warm spot for it now having seen it.  I enjoyed it vastly more than I expected to.  While I realise most people will probably be bored with it and label it a bottom-of-the-barrel crapfest, for me THE SEVENTH GRAVE is a cozy little odd duck of a movie which plays like a 30's old dark house movie with sudden bursts of giallo.  And that I can kinda get down with.