Mephisto Waltz

Mephisto Waltz

1971

Director- Paul Wendkos

Cast- Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Curd Jürgens, Bradford Dillman, Kathleen Widdoes, Pamelyn Ferdin

            

     Myles (Alan Alda) is a failed concert pianist turned music journalist. Paula (Jacqueline Bisset) is his supportive and sarcastic wife.  Myles is doing an interview with an aging aristocratic pianist, Duncan Ely (Curd Jürgens). Duncan comments that Myles has the perfect hands for a pianist and after hearing him play, compliments his skill (something the critics never did). His beautiful daughter, Roxanne (Barbara Perkins) agrees with him.

            

     Duncan and Roxanne start pulling Myles and Paula into their social circle, filled with the jaded super rich. Paula is weary of all of this sudden attention but Myles eats it up. In truth, Duncan is a Satanist who struck an interesting bargain with the devil. He maintains an ongoing incestuous relationship with his daughter Roxanne, and to make sure that they can keep it going they have developed a ritual where Duncan’s soul takes over Myles’ body. This isn’t a spoiler, you figure that out pretty early in the film. Besides, as soon as you see Curd Jürgens on the screen (probably best known to American audiences as the villain in the Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me ), you know he’s up to no good.

            

     The real conflict of the film is what happens with Myles’ wife, Paula. How long will it take her to figure out what has happened? What will she do when she discovers the truth? What do Duncan (now in Myles’ body) and Roxanne have in store for her? Though I thought the majority of the film was pretty predictable, Paula’s ultimate solution caught me off guard.

           

     This is not a “scary” movie with lots of jumps and frights. This is more of a cerebral thriller along the lines of The Ninth Gate (though not as well done as that film). For many people it will be a little unsettling to see Alan Alda (known best as the joking doctor from M.A.S.H.) play a villain.  The highlight of the film is Jacqueline Bisset, who does a good job taking her character through the changes of happy to confused to paranoid.

           

     In the sea of Satanic conspiracy movies that came out from the late 60s to late 70s, this film can easily be lost. It can’t compare to the better known films of the genre like Rosemary’s Baby or The Omen. However, if you want a film that you haven’t seen a hundred times, this might interest you.

   

Perdita Durango (Dance with the Devil)

  

Perdita Durango (Dance with the Devil)

1997

Director- Álex de la Iglesia

From Spain /Mexico

Cast- Rosie Perez, Javier Bardem, Aimee Graham, Harley Cross, James Gandolfini, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Demián Bichir, Santiago Segura,

            

     Those familiar with Álex de la Iglesia’s work (Errementari, Witching & Bitching and Day of the Beast) will probably be surprised by this film. Though it does have his usual dark humor, it ventures into territories foreign to those better known films. If you didn’t know better you’d think it was an early Robert Rodriquez film. You may also be familiar with the character of Perdita Durango as Isabella Rossellini’s character from Wild at Heart. Both stories are based on the works of Barry Gifford.

Perdita Durango (Rosie Perez) is a free spirit who lives according to her own whims and easily gives herself over to her passions whether it is sex or violence. She meets Romeo (Javier Bardem), a criminal and self-styled  Santeria priest. He views his ceremonies as a kind of science that provides him with good luck. And who knows, maybe they do. Several times in the film, people aiming to do him harm meet with unfortunate (one might say comical) accidents. His rituals seem more show than substance however. That is, until Perdita ups his game and they decide to carry out a human sacrifice. Romeo has been hired to smuggle a truckload of fetuses (you read that right) from Mexico to Las Vegas, and he hopes the human sacrifice will bring him extra luck.

They kidnap two American teenagers (Aimee Graham and Harley Cross). They intend to eventually use them for their human sacrifice. Until then, the kids serve as sexual playthings for Romeo and Perdita. The kids eventually begin to undergo a kind of Stockholm syndrome and Romeo and Perdita start to develop a soft side for them (not so soft though that they are going to let them go).

            

     Their journey takes them through the American southwest and they are followed by a persistent DEA agent (Gandolfini). Eventually the consequences of all of their violence catch up with them but not before a string of bodies are left in their wake.

            

     Javier Bardem would become famous (and win an Oscar)10 years later as the assassin in No Country for Old Men. It’s interesting to see him still relatively early in his career, even with the tragic haircut. James Gandolfini would play another detective the very next year in the Satanic thriller, Fallen, with Denzel Washington. He would then become famous as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos.

            

     Rosie Perez, on the other hand, was a little more seasoned actor when this film was made and had already garnered critical praise for several roles, including an Oscar nomination. Rosie is both sexy and dangerous in this film. You can never tell what she will do or how she will react. It would be interesting to watch this movie back to back with Wild at Heart and compare her performance to Isabella Rossellini’s.

            

     Dance with the Devil is a multi-genre film; crime, horror, and dark comedy and it moves back and forth fluidly. Considering that the main characters engage in rape and murder, the film can’t be dismissed as mere escapist fun, yet the film never quite becomes a completely serious story. It’s best to view it as Perdita views herself. She does what she wants when she wants and if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else then oh well.

            

     There are a few versions of the film. The unrated American version (Dance with the Devil) is a few minutes longer (coming it at slightly over 2 hours) than the regular version. The Spanish version, titled Perdita Durango, is a few minutes longer than the American unrated version and has slightly more explicit sex and a little different ending involving a death bed hallucination.

Fun fact- Harley Cross plays Martin Sheen’s son in The Believers. In that film he is kidnapped by a Santeria cult.

Fun fact #2- Old school music fans will appreciate the appearance of the grandfather of shock rock, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins in a supporting role.