The Long Hair of Death

Long Hair of Death

1964

Director- Antonio Margheriti

Cast- Barbara Steele, George Ardisson, Halina Zalewska, Laura Nucci, Giuliano Raffaelli,  Umberto Raho, Nello Pazzafini

From Italy

          

     Ever beautiful gothic beauty Barbara Steele plays Helen, a young woman whose mother is about to be burned for witchcraft. Helen goes to the feudal lord, Count Humbolt, to beg for mercy. The Count blames her mother for the death of his brother. Helen says she can prove that her mother is innocent. The Count says he’ll listen to her, but first he decides to have his way with her. While he has his way with her, Helen’s mother is burned anyway. As the flames consume her, Helen’s mother pronounces a curse on the village and the Humbolt family. To hide the shame of what he has done, the Count murders Helen. Helen’s younger sister, Lisabeth, is now alone in the world, being raised by a woman of the court, in the castle of the man who murdered her mother and sister.

         

     A few years go by and Lisabeth has not only become a beautiful young woman, but also the spitting image of her mother. The Count’s son, Kurt, has his eye on Lisabeth and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. He isn’t smitten with her in a romantic sense but is more like a possessive child who wants a new toy. Lisabeth refuses his advances so, as the Lord’s son, he marries her and she has no choice. As her husband, he has his way with her. Meanwhile, the curse that her mother pronounced has come to fruition. The Count is in failing health and can feel death’s icy fingers closing on him and a plague is ravaging the village.

           

     During a sermon attended by the nobility a storm comes up. The doors of the church swing open and a young woman is standing there, the spitting image of Helen, whom the Count murdered. Seeing her, his heart finally fails and he dies. She says that her name is Mary and that she has become lost after her carriage was overturned on the road.

            

     She is taken into the castle and Kurt’s infatuation with Lisabeth is forgotten as he shifts his attentions to Mary. She plays coy and his desire for her increases. They finally seal the deal on their lust and he hatches a plot to kill his wife Lisabeth so that he can have Mary all of the time. He carries out his plot, murdering her in her sleep. The only problem is, even though he never sees her again, everyone else in the castle claims to see her and talk to her and acts as if nothing is wrong. Is his wife dead or not? And who is this Mary that looks like the dead Helen? All of these mysteries are solved in the film’s conclusion.

       

   

     This is a very moody film. It’s forgotten, I think, in the shadow of the superior Black Sunday, another Italian gothic Barbara Steele story. The Long Hair of Death has a lot going for it though. It is very creepy with a macabre musical score. The 15^th century setting with its dark castle, hidden passages and dusty crypts, create the right mood. A perfect film if you’ve just watched Black Sunday and are still hungry for more Barbara Steele.