Mario Bava Movies
A former painter whose cinematic compositions were often as lush and gorgeous as any portrait, Italian cinematographer-turned-director Mario Bava developed a reputation as a master celluloid illusionist in addition to creating some of the most gothic and haunting films in Italian cinema history. His influence passing down through such directors as Dario Argento and Martin Scorsese decades after his death, Bava's skill at matte painting and camera trickery earned him a reputation as one of the most resourceful directors of his generation.The son of painter-turned-cinematographer Eugenio Bava (who photographed such silent era epics as Quo Vadis? [1914] in addition to serving as special-effects technician on the same year's Cabiria), Mario spent his youth immersed in film, eventually following in his father's footsteps after serving as his assistant for many years. Instilled with a strong sense of composition and a solid understanding of optical effects, Mario set about directing a series of short films before embarking on a successful career as a cinematographer. Bava Refined his skills for such directors as Jacques Tourneur and Riccardo Freda, and it was Freda who would ultimately give Bava his break as a director while shooting I, Vampiri (released stateside as The Devil's Commandment). Historically significant as the first Italian horror film of the sound era, Bava overtook directing duties following Freda's abandonment of the project after being denied an extension. After filming half of the film's 12-day schedule in a mere two days, Bava received a reputation as the man to call if a film needed rescuing. Though the film only found moderate success, it inspired a slew of gothic-themed horror films and Bava continued to salvage numerous films. Credited with saving Tourneur's La Battaglia di Maratona before once again being called upon to step in for Freda to salvage Caltiki (both 1959), Caltiki's producer was so grateful that he offered Bava the opportunity to make his directorial debut with the project of his choice. A follower of Russian literature, Bava utilized Nikolai Gogol's Vij and his affection for the lavish films of Hammer Studios as the springboard to what would become one of the finest films of his career, La Maschera del Demonio (Black Sunday). The resulting film, with its striking gothic visuals, superb black-and-white photography, and otherworldly beauty of star Barbara Steele, launched Bava's career full force and found international success. As beautiful as that film was, it was in color that Bava would create some of his most painterly and memorable images.
Utilizing primary colors to depict Hercules' journey into the depths of hell in Ercole al centro della terra (Hercules in the Haunted World) (1961) as well as recapturing the gothic sensibilities of Maschera in such films as the controversial La Frusta e il Corpo (The Whip and the Body), I Tre volti della paura (Black Sabbath) (both 1963), Operazione Paura (Curse of the Living Dead) (1966), and Gli Orrori del castello di Norimberga (Baron Blood) (1972), Bava would also gain credit as one of the forefathers of the lucrative Italian giallo film, named after the lurid crime novels that served as inspiration for the films. Sei donne per l'assassino (Blood and Black Lace) once again found Bava inspiring a popular trend in contemporary cinema, though as with Maschera, he would continue to explore new realms of film instead of becoming pigeonholed into one specific genre. Later tackling such genres as science fiction (1965's Terrore nello spazio [Planet of the Vampires]) and pop art (1966's Spie vengono dal semifreddo [Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs]), and 1968's Diabolik (Danger: Diabolik), the beauty of Bava's strikingly visual films could almost be considered paintings brought to life.
Such later Bava films as Antefatto (Bay of Blood) (1971) would predate the trend of American slasher films such as Friday the 13th (1980) by nearly a decade, with Friday and its sequels lifting many elements directly from Bava's film. Bava's last proper film as a director was the 1977 supernatural thriller Shock (released in the U.S. as the sequel to Beyond the Door), a project on which the veteran director offered his son Lamberto the opportunity to develop his skills by directing numerous scenes. Though Bava's style was unquestionably a key factor in inspiring the films of Dario Argento, the two unfortunately only worked together on one film. As an uncredited visual effects artist on Argento's Inferno (1980), Bava aided in creating one of cinema's closest equivalents to a nightmare captured on film.
Long after his death in 1980 resulting from a heart attack, Bava's legacy would live on through both his son and a "lost" film that never saw the light of day in his own lifetime. Though he had completed principal photography on Cani Arabbaiti (Rabid Dogs, later re-edited under the title Kidnapped), the death of one of its financers resulted in a freezing of the funds intended to complete the film and the film being locked away in a vault never to see completion. In 1998 an Italian film company acquired the funding to purchase the film and commenced to edit and release it on DVD to the joy of Bava fanatics worldwide. A nihilistic journey into the dark heart of greed and the grim effects it has on the motivations of humankind, Cani Arabbaiti showcased Bava at his nail-biting best as well as his remarkable versatility by providing a stark contrast to the films that established him as a master of gothic cinema. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A combination of alchemy, architecture, and horror, director Dario Argento's Inferno is a pulsing thriller filled with murder and supernatural mayhem. The peculiar proceedings are set into motion in both New York and Rome when two young women, Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) and Rose (Irene Miracle), find a book called The Three Mothers, a tome of alchemy written by an architect named Varelli. According to the book, Varelli built a trio of resting places for the Three Mothers, an evil trio whose identities remain at the core of the film's mystery. Rose's brother and Sara's boyfriend is Mark (Leigh McCloskey), a music student in Rome who jets to New York after Sara is murdered and Rose disappears. He follows up Rose's research on The Three Mothers and, with the help of his sister's neighbor, Elise (Daria Nicolodi), comes to the realization that the building they are in is one of Varelli's. Along the way, Mark encounters a variety of quirky characters including Elise's butler (Leopoldo Mastelloni), the building's maid (Alida Valli), a cat-hating bookseller named Kazanian (Sacha Pitoeff), and the infirm Professor Arnold (Feodor Chaliapin) and his nurse (Veronica Lazar). After a series of murders and a revelation that the butler and the maid have been plotting to steal Elise's jewels, Mark discovers a secret series of passages within the building. They lead him to its core where he finds the wheelchair-bound Professor Arnold, who explains that he is really the architect Varelli. After a violent struggle, the dying old man confesses to Mark that he is merely a servant to the Mothers. The building begins to burn out of control, but before Mark can escape, he discovers the shocking identity of the Three Mothers. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, (more)
This effective occult horror film was the final feature directed by the legendary Mario Bava. Daria Nicolodi gives her most convincing performance as Dora, who moves back into her old house with a new husband, Bruno (John Steiner), after spending time in a mental hospital. Strange things start happening, mostly involving her young son Marco (David Colin, Jr.), who seems to be possessed by the ghost of Dora's first husband Carlo, a heroin addict who committed suicide. Dora suffers from vivid hallucinations, and it soon becomes obvious that she is going completely mad, and that Bruno knows more about Carlo's death than he lets on. Bava stages the hallucination scenes with his trademark visual flair, and his son Lamberto Bava's script, co-written with Francesco Barbieri, Paola Brigenti and Dardano Sacchetti, handles Dora's shifting sense of reality with great skill and a subtlety rare for Italian horror films of the period. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Originally filmed for British television as a six-hour miniseries, Moses appeared in the U.S. in 1975 as a 2 1/2-hour theatrical release. God's lawgiver (Burt Lancaster) is chosen by God to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and into the promised land of Canaan. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quayle, (more)
- 1975
- R
This Italian horror outing is made even more horrible by the fact that the first two thirds were originally a complete feature, Lisa and the Devil by Mario Bava and the last third was tacked on later to capitalize on the continued popularity of The Exorcist by producer Alfredo Leone thereby nearly obliterating the spooky tone created in Bava's original. Innocent, voluptuous Lisa's travails begin when she sees a wax mannequin in her own image. She then sees a sinister fellow, whom she knows is the devil, hanging around nearby and runs for her life. Unfortunately, she ends up hiding in the mansion of a typical creepshow psycho family who prefer spending their evenings making love to everything and every one that moves, or doesn't move in the case of one necrophiliac. If that weren't creepy enough, Lisa gets a luck at the butler and realizes that he is old Satan himself. Surprise! Soon she finds herself possessed and doing the things that post Exorcist demonized movie stars are expected to including the obligatory projectile vomiting (this time it's frogs rather than pea soup), lasciviousness and a few levitation exercises until the brave exorcist arrives to cure her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
An unreleased suspense thriller from Italy's master of horror and fantasy, Mario Bava, Rabid Dogs makes its belated debut in this special DVD release. When a bank robbery goes awry for a pair of violent criminals, they take an innocent woman hostage, who must fight for her survival. Shot mostly inside a speeding car, this tense and claustrophobic drama was filmed in 1974 (five years before Bava's death), but shortly before completion the death of one of the principal financiers threw the project into limbo. In 1998, the film's elements were rediscovered and editing was completed using Bava's notes as a guide; the result is a film that takes a decidedly modern detour from Bava's traditional Gothic subject matter and gives a much broader perspective on the range of his talents. A few years later, the film was reworked and retitled Kidnapped for a brief theatrical run in the U.S. That version of the film would later be released on DVD by Anchor Bay, with the original, Rabid Dogs cut included as supplimental material. Curiously enough, the version of Rabid Dogs featured on the Kidnapped disc still differs from the version of the film previously released by Lucertola. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Riccardo Cucciolla, Lea Lander, (more)
- 1972
In the tradition of Akira Kurosawa's classic tale Rashomon comes this wild sex farce from Italy's master of the macabre, Mario Bava. Last night was a wild one for Tina (Daniela Giordano) and Gianni (Brett Halsey), but for the life of her, the confused woman can't quite recall how she ended up in bed with her handsome and mysterious date. Did the seemingly pleasant date lead to a night of passion-fueled consensual sex between Gianni and Tina, or did Gianni deliberately force himself on Tina in a horrific act of rape? Both the scratches on Gianni's forehead and Tina's torn dress seem to point to some mishap that may have occurred over the course of their date, but matters are infinitely complicated when Tina's overly protective mother and her nosey concierge chime in with two entirely different takes on the evening's events. Only when viewers witness the story from all four unique vantage points will they begin to understand the events that truly unfolded over the course of Tina and Gianni's lost evening together. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
This above-average horror film concerns a young couple (Antonio Cantafora, Elke Sommer) who manage to revive a cruel sorceror-Baron (Joseph Cotten) from the 1500s. Posing as a cripple, the Baron assimilates back into society and buys back his old castle, where he begins torturing and murdering innocent locals in his dungeon. Veteran filmmaker Mario Bava's direction is assured, and Euro-horror buffs will enjoy the cast, which includes Massimo Girotti ("Terence Hill" of spaghetti western fame), Luciano Pigozzi, Umberto Raho, and young Nicoletta Elmi (Profondo Rosso). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1972
In this chiller from Italian director Mario Bava, Elke Sommer stars as Lisa, a young tourist who keeps running into a strange bald man who carries around a mannequin. The bald man is Leandre (Telly Savalas), the butler at the estate of a blind Countess (Alida Valli) and her slightly off-kilter son Max (Alessio Orano). In a bizarre turn of events, Lisa kills a man in self-defense and winds up hitching a ride with Frances Lehaf, his wife Sophia (Sylva Koscina), and her chauffeur/lover George. Car troubles land them at the Countess' estate where Lisa is plagued by strange dreams and visions of the man she killed. More troubling for Lisa is that both the dead man and Max appear to know her. Meanwhile, the other guests begin to die: George is murdered by an unseen assailant, Sophia runs over her husband with the car, and then is dispatched herself by a killer who is revealed to be Max. Lisa awakens in Leandre's room full of dummies and runs off through the house. She encounters Max, who shows her the skeletal remains of Eleanor, the lover he killed for having an affair with his stepfather. Max believes that Lisa is Eleanor reincarnated. After an odd sex scene, he is confronted by his mother whom he winds up stabbing to death. Moments later, she reappears and the shock sends Max falling to his own death. Lisa awakens in the house, which now appears to have been abandoned for decades. She boards an airplane to head home, but in a chilling climax, she discovers the plane devoid of all passengers...except for a few old friends including the diabolical Leandre. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
- 1971
A family's murderous battle over some bayfront property is the subject of director Mario Bava's bloody horror-thriller, which many have cited as the grandfather of the modern slasher film. Claudine Auger is the scheming daughter of a murdered Countess; her staged suicide forms the basis of the film's plot. In a seemingly unrelated subplot, four hippies arrive in a dune buggy led by Brigitte Skay, who dances the Shake and swims naked before having her throat hacked open with a machete. Skay's boyfriend has his face chopped with the same machete and the other couple has a spear thrust through their bodies as they make love. All of these murder scenes were imitated in Steve Miner's Friday the 13th, Part 2, and the film's style influenced countless American slasher films of the 1970s and '80s. Bava also includes a strangulation by telephone cord, a gory axe decapitation, a man speared to a wall, and five other murders. Antefatto was a trendsetting film, and paved the way for literally hundreds of graphically violent imitations. The film exists in several versions, differing mainly in the extent of the bloodshed. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Genre specialist Mario Bava takes a rare trip out to the plains in this rousing comedy-Western that turns the work of iconic spaghetti Western specialist Sergio Leone on its head. When Roy Colt (Brett Halsey) and Winchester Jack (Charles Southwood) fail to make a living at living dishonestly, Roy resolves to dissolve the partnership and earn an honest dollar in Carson City. Unexpectedly greeted upon arrival at Carson City with a badge and a gun, newfound sheriff Roy gets that old familiar feeling when the nervous citizens entrust him with a replica of a stolen treasure map that is said to lead to a bounty of buried gold. Unfortunately for Roy, the mysterious Reverend Teodoro Corra, a dynamite-toting Russian outlaw; his old partner Jack; a Jewish desperado named Berenstein (Mauro Bosco); and a wanted Native American seductress (Marilù Tolo) are also gunning for the gold. By the time Roy reaches the Indian burial ground where the gold is said to be buried, it's anyone's guess as to who will get the gold first. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brett Halsey, Charles Southwood, (more)
Legendary horror director Mario Bava did not want to make this standard thriller, and it certainly bears the lackadaisical mark of a contractual-obligation film. The plot is yet another variant on the Ten Little Indians story, with an inventor taking a group of investors to an island, where they are murdered one by one by an unseen killer. There are picturesque beach scenes and some well-composed images of bodies hanging in a meat locker, but it has all been done before, and better. The visuals are stylish and the production design is sleek, but the familiar storyline drags and the film never reaches the delirious frenzy of such Bava classics as Antefatto despite the best efforts of a cast including Edwige Fenech, Renato Rossini, and William Berger.
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Rosso Segno Della Folia, an Italian horror film written, directed and photographed by Mario Bava, is the bloody story of an impotent man who turns to murder to vent his frustrations. The designer and owner of a fashion design business (Stephen Forsyth), frustrated with his own sexual failure, murders the new brides who have modelled his fashions. When he decides to murder his wife, she becomes the ghost who will not leave him alone. Director Bava, who began his career as a cinematographer, while directing mostly low-budget horror films, has become a cult figure among some fans and critics who admire his unique and beautiful visual style and his often very amusing exaggeration of the cliches of the genre. Rosso Segno Della Folia, released in the United States as Hatchet for a Honeymoon is not the best of Mario Bava's work, but this above-average horror film is a must see for those who love the genre and admire stylish horror films. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
Diabolik (John Phillip Law) is the criminal mastermind who has just pulled off a huge heist. He spends most of his free time with his girlfriend, Eva (Marisa Mell), in fond embrace. The police minister (Terry-Thomas) is approached by Valmont (Adolfo Celi), a master criminal who proposes to use his underworld connections to catch Diabolik for the police. In between their gratuitous lovemaking, he and the exotic Eva are chased by police and the mob in this plodding crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, (more)
- 1968
Plenty of campy humor enlivens Antonio Margheriti's tame giallo thriller about murders at a prestigious girl's boarding school. Mark Damon (The Fall of the House of Usher) is the studly riding instructor having an affair with one of the students (Eleonora Bron), an heiress who is the killer's primary target. Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still) investigates the crimes, as women are murdered in showers, thrown into pits of quicklime, and terrorized in aviaries. Other than copping out by featuring yet another overly obvious transvestite killer, it's not half bad. Genre stalwarts Luciano Pigozzi and Marisa Longo also appear. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Rennie, Mark Damon, (more)
- 1966
The Amazing Dr. G is an alternate title for the Italian-American spoof Dr. Goldfoot and His Girl Bombs. Vincent Price repeats his characterization of the megalomaniac Goldfoot from 1965's Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, and also plays a secondary role as a kidnapped US general. This time, Dr. G. intends to undermine America by unleashing an army of voluptuous, exploding female robots. The detonation device is located in the girls' belly buttons, which should indicate the level of humor around these parts. The popular Italian comedy team of Franco and Ciccio do their frenetic best to raise a few yocks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Price, Fabian, (more)
One of the more prominent works of Italy's premier horror stylist Mario Bava, this occult murder mystery interweaves elements of the traditional giallo thriller formula with an unusual Gothic ghost story. The tale is set in a modern-day Carpathian village rocked by a series of bizarre murders, in which the female victims are found with gold coins imbedded in their hearts. The coins are revealed to be talismans placed on the victims by the local sorceress (Fabienne Dali), meant to ward off the supernatural powers of the aged Baroness Graps (Giana Vivaldi). The baroness has been acting as an earthly liaison for the vengeful ghost of her murdered daughter, who wants to claim the villagers' souls -- with Erica Blanc next on the list. In order to free the village from the evil curse, Dali must find the sequestered baroness and destroy her. The film was released in the U.S. in two dubbed and re-edited versions, Kill, Baby, Kill! and Curse of the Living Dead (packaged as part of an "Orgy of the Living Dead" triple feature). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erica Blanc, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, (more)
This classic blend of science-fiction and horror belies its extremely low budget with buckets of atmosphere and some genuinely creepy setpieces. The story concerns the crews of two spaceships, who land on a foggy, seemingly deserted planet. What they don't know is that the planet was home to a race of vampiric aliens, who possess their minds, eventually rising from their strange, misty graves to seek human blood. Legendary director Mario Bava once again proves himself a master at atmospheric composition, using color, sound, and minimalistic sets in original and unnerving ways. Barry Sullivan stars with Angel Aranda and Brazilian actress Norma Bengell. The American version, running several minutes shorter than the original, was put together by Ib Melchior (The Angry Red Planet). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, (more)
Director Mario Bava's second thriller revolves around a fashion salon owned by wealthy Cristina (Eva Bartok) and her greedy lover Max (Cameron Mitchell). The salon is a front for cocaine-trafficking and blackmail, so when model Isabella (Lea Kruger) is viciously strangled, leaving a detailed diary behind, many of the people connected with the salon become very nervous. Isabella's roommate Nicole (Arianna Gorini) finds the diary and soon has her throat clawed out with a piece of medieval armor. Peggy (Mary Arden), who borrowed abortion money from Isabella, is tortured and has her face pressed into a red-hot iron. The bodies continue to pile up until a conspiracy is exposed and the perpetrators start getting their just desserts. Luciano Pigozzi, Massimo Righi, and Claude Dantes are among the cast. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, (more)
This anthology features three chilling horror stories. "Il Telefono" is credited to Guy de Maupassant, although he never wrote such a story, and concerns a woman (Michele Mercier) receiving telephone calls from beyond the grave. "Wurdulak", by Alexei Tolstoi, stars Boris Karloff as an aging vampire who can only feed on those he loves. Co-starring Mark Damon and Susy Andersen, it is clearly the best story of the three. The final tale, "La Goccia d'Acqua," is falsely credited to Anton Chekhov. It features Jacqueline Pierreux stealing a ring from a corpse she is preparing for burial, only to be murdered by the old woman's ghost. The American version differs in four major areas: the print is shorter, the stories appear in a different order, there is a linking device with Karloff speaking directly to the audience from a foggy void, and Roberto Nicolosi's musical score is replaced with one by lounge-icon Les Baxter. The American release of the film is also missing a comic coda featuring Karloff riding on horseback (or is he?); this appears in most Eurpoean prints of the film, including Mario Bava's original cut. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Michele Mercier, (more)
- 1962
Generally considered the first real giallo film, Mario Bava's stylish thriller stars Leticia Roman as Nora, who travels to Rome to visit her sick aunt. The aunt dies that night, and Nora ends up witnessing a murder. The police and kindly Dr. Bassi (John Saxon) don't believe her, since there is no body, so she goes to stay with her aunt's friends, the Cravens. Along the way, there are several more murders tied to a decade-long string of killings of victims chosen in alphabetical order by surname. The surprising ending is worth staying around for, as is an amusing supporting performance by Valentina Cortese. Bava would go on to further codify many of the giallo genre's conventions in Sei Donne per l'Assassino the following year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Aladdin (Donald O'Connor) is a poor young man living in ancient Bagdad, who is given to flights of imagination, and taken with tales of the wealthy and powerful -- in many ways, he's still a boy, and so caught up in his daydreaming that he doesn't realize how his one-time childhood playmate Djalma (Noelle Adam), now a grown young woman, loves him (even if her merchant father thinks he's a worthless loafer). In a moment of indulgence, his mother buys Aladdin an old lamp so that he can have light at night "like a rich man." He accidentally discovers that the lamp contains a genie $Vittorio De Sica), who will grant him three wishes -- but he is so scatterbrained, that he can't figure out exactly how he called the genie in the first place. Aladdin and Djalma both end up headed for Basra and the wedding of the young Prince Malouk (Mario Girotti) to the princess (Michele Mercier), and both are caught up in the plans of the evil Grand Vizier (Fausto Tozzi) to kill the prince and marry the princess himself. Those plans, helped by a malevolent old magician (Raymond Bussieres), include the use of two full-size magical dolls, one a dancing wonder and the other with a deadly embrace. And only Aladdin and his genie, and the brave young prince, can stand in his way. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald O'Connor, Noëlle Adam, (more)
Italian director Mario Bava took a brief hiatus from horror films to make this fairly interesting Viking-themed adventure. Iron (Cameron Mitchell) is a Viking leader whose long-lost brother Erik (Giorgio Ardisson) was raised by Queen Alice of England. Alice's counselor, Gunnar (Andrea Checchi) betrays her and helps the Vikings take over, while the shipwrecked Erik is nursed back to health by Rama (Alice Kessleri), the twin sister of Iron's wife Daja (Ellen Kessleri). Naturally, Erik returns home and must fight Iron and defeat Gunnar in order to save the country. It doesn't quite work out that way, however, as the ruthless counselor kills Iron, leading the Vikings and British to join forces with Erik and take Gunnar down. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Mitchell, Andrea Checchi, (more)
Generally considered to be the foremost example of Italian Gothic horror, this darkly atmospheric black-and-white chiller put director Mario Bava on the international map and made the bewitching Barbara Steele a star. Steele plays Princess Asa, a high priestess of Satan who is gruesomely executed in 1600s Moldavia by having a spiked mask hammered into her face. Before she dies, Asa vows revenge on the family who killed her and returns from the grave two centuries later to keep her promise. In a striking resurrection scene replete with bats, scorpions and fog, Asa rises from the tomb to claim her bloody vengeance. With vampires, bubbling flesh, dank crypts, undead servants and torch-bearing mobs, the plot is a little ripe, but the visuals are Bava's primary consideration. The atmosphere is so heavy and the imagery so dense that the film becomes nearly too rich in texture, but the sheer, ghastly beauty of it all is entrancing. Although this was only the second of Bava's twenty-six films as director, it is undoubtedly his best and the one upon which most of his considerable reputation rests. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Steele, John Richardson, (more)
Just over a decade before she would gain fame and some fortune as Alexis Carrington in television's Dynasty series, Joan Collins starred as Esther in this melodramatic, routine Biblical story. The setting is Persia in the 4th century BC, as Esther comes to the attention of the recently widowed King Ahasuerus. The king has been trying to stifle and defeat the campaign of hatred fomented against the Jews by his evil minister Haman (Sergio Fantoni). Before the King can pair off with Esther and defeat the villainous Haman, there are several intervening adventures and an additional, attractive woman who competes for attention. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, Richard Egan, (more)
