The Monster of the Opera is a 1961 Italian horror supernatural film directed by Renato Polselli (Black Magic Rites; Mania; Delirium) from a screenplay co-written with Ernesto Gastaldi.
The movie stars Marco Mariani, Giuseppe Addobbati and Barbara Hawards.
The film had a troubled production and remained unreleased until 1964.
Initially conceived as a sequel of Polselli’s The Vampire and the Ballerina (1960), the film had the working title “Il vampiro dell’opera” (“The Vampire of the Opera”), but because of a perceived diminishing interest in vampire films, it was released with mostro (“monster”) replacing vampiro (“vampire”).
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Reviews:
“It builds on everything that made The Vampire and the Ballerina a fun time but is progressive in a sense with certain erotic and expressionistic elements that in contrast to its old-fashioned, classic look makes it feel ahead of its time […] Part gothic Italian horror, part Italian comedy, and part erotic madness, Il mostro dell’opera feels like a seed to Polselli’s characteristic mania style…” At the Mansion of Madness
“The movie brims with style; it’s full of bizarre camera angles and weird touches (the vampire threatens people with a big pitchfork), but the overall effect is one of consummate silliness, and I suspect that knowing what the characters were saying would make it all that much dumber.” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
” … a bunch of barely clad harpies are chained to a wall amid swathes of ground fog and try to get their plastic fangs into the heroine. Polselli also goes for broke in a ridiculously extended scene of the company dancing insanely under Stefano’s baleful influence.” Jonathan Rigby, Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema
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“When tension building has to give way to delivering shocks in the film’s second half, Polselli seems to lose interest and allows the movie to degenerate into a routine sexploitation effort.” Phil Hardy (editor), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror
“The erotic overtones of the vampire myth are delineated in a rather crude, awkward fashion. Not surprisingly, Polselli soon switched to sexploitation features which he directed under the pseudonym of Ralph Brown.” Lawrence McCallum, Italian Horror Films of the 1960s
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“Slaughter is a masterpiece of the genre, while Ballerina and Playgirls feature some silly shenanigans involving girls dancing, prancing, and fleeing in see-through nightgowns but also some stylish shots and creepy atmosphere – but this one offers very little in the entertainment department and is an overall goofy and frivolous effort.” Joseph Brando
Offline reading:
Bizarre Cinema! Horror all’italiana 1957 – 1979 – contains a chapter on an interview with Renato Polselli
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Original title:
Il mostro dell’opera
Cast and characters:
Marco Mariani [as Marc Marian] … Sandro – Death Smiles at Murder; Frankenstein ’80; Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key; What Have You Done to Solange?; Slaughter Hotel; Tomb of Torture
Giuseppe Addobbati [as John McDouglas] … Stefano – The Cat’s Victims; Kill, Baby… Kill!; Nightmare Castle
Barbara Hawards … Giulia
Alberto Archetti [as Albert Archet] … Achille – Mill of the Stone Women
Carla Cavalli … Aurora
Aldo Nicodemi … Aldo
Jody Excell … Yvette
Milena Vukotic … Carlotta – The House of the Yellow Carpet; Black Journal; Blood for Dracula; Spirits of the Dead
Olga Jala
Maureen Verrich
Elyane Pade
Renato Montalbano … Tony
