The Whip and the Body (1963)

starring: Christopher Lee

with Daliah Lavi and Tony Kendall

Long time readers of my page will already know of my ‘special’ relationship with actor Christopher Lee. So naturally, it was only a matter of time until I got round to reviewing one of his films. The problem is, the man has a huge, huge body of work. Where to begin?

I immediately ruled the Jesus Franco films out. The thought of sitting through another Castle of Fu Manchu was just too horrid to contemplate. I also considered one of his Hammer films, for which he is famous, which narrowed it down to, like, ¾ of his output. I eventually narrowed it down to ten choices, mostly Hammer films, and opened it up to friends and Net-acquaintances to choose.

The public has chosen, and they chose The Whip And The Body.

The Whip And The Body is an early entry from famed Italian horror director Mario Bava (operating here under the ridiculous pseudonym John M. Old). Coming close on the heels of smash success with the groundbreaking Black Sunday, it was one of his first colour features (after Hercules In The Haunted World, also featuring Lee). The Whip And The Body was likewise groundbreaking in that its blatantly sadomasochistic themes were really pushing it for 1963. True, only five years down the line a film like this would seem tame, but at the time it was considered ‘shocking.’

Indeed, for many years, it has been available only in various butchered forms, heavily (and incomprehensibly) edited versions using alternate titles like What! or Night Is The Phantom. At last, VCI stepped in and put together an unedited DVD version for all to see.

Our setting is some manner of baroque seaside castle, seemingly in the same nonexistent Germanic country where Kill Baby Kill also takes place. A shadowy figure is riding up the beach silhouetted against a glorious Technicolor™ sunset. Meanwhile inside, elderly maid Georgia is poring over an ornate dagger she has preserved in a glass jar. It was the dagger her daughter used to off herself, and she blames the master’s estranged son Kurt for her suicide. Apparently the two had had a torrid love affair before he cast her aside and ran off. Of course, who should the cloaked rider turn out to be but prodigal son Kurt himself, played by our own Christopher Lee?

Kurt has returned to something of a snake’s nest. He’s returned ostensibly to wish his goody-goody brother Christian (Tony Kendall) well on his new marriage to raven-haired beauty Nevenka (played by Barbara Steele-manqué Daliah Lavi). But Father thinks surely there must be some ulterior motive, and brings up the doomed romance between him and Tanya (Georgia’s ill-fated daughter). In the end, they allow him to stay. ‘I’ve never had a warmer welcome,’ he comments dryly.

Later on, Kurt accosts his sweet young, blond cousin Katia, and accuses her of still holding a torch for Christian. She denies everything and storms out. Enter Georgia, who shows naught but contempt for the new arrival. ‘You’ll die the same way you made my daughter die,’ she spits out coldly.

Then that night, Kurt sneaks into his father’s room via a hidden, sliding panel connecting with his room through the fireplace. He wishes to discuss business with dear old dad, returning his rights to title and property and what-have-you. Dear old dad flat out refuses him, though, and orders him to leave his bedchamber at once.

The next morning, Nevenka and Katia are riding their horses on the beach. Nevenka confronts Katia, accusing her of having something against her. Katia denies it, but coldly. The two part ways, Katia returning to the castle and Nevenka going down to the waterside. She sits down on a rock and has a good, long think, swirling her whip in the sand, when suddenly a boot comes down on the end of the whip. It’s Kurt, of course, staring her down with those piercing eyes of his. It’s here we learn that they, too, have had a romantic past. They soon fall into an embrace, and she’s so annoyed that she lashes him across the face with her whip.

Kurt seizes the end of the whip and advances on Nevenka. She stumbles and falls backward onto the rocks. He begins lashing her repeatedly, and hard. ‘You haven’t changed, I see,’ he says, ‘You always loved violence.’ He tosses his cloak aside and starts whipping her more furiously, tearing her flimsy cotton blouse. She starts making demi-orgasmic sounds. Then she looks back at him with a lustful gaze as he descends on her, kissing her again. The scene ends with a close-up of the discarded whip, with sea waves lapping the shore in the background.

Whoa! Pretty strong stuff for 1963! Seriously, the scene borders on the pornographic, even though no actual nudity or sex is shown.

Later, we learn that Nevenka has not returned, and they’re organizing a search party to find her. Kurt claims no knowledge of her whereabouts, in spite of holding her whip, which he claims he found outside the front gate. While the others are off searching for Nevenka, Kurt returns to his room, but briefly peeps in on his father, apparently sleeping. But once Kurt has moved on, we see that Father was only fake-sleeping. Immediately, he rises from bed and pulls down the dead-bolt locks on the moving wall Kurt used to barge into his room the previous night.

In his room, Kurt hears ghostly voices calling his name as he prepares for bed. He thrusts the front door open and, finding no-one, then turns his attention to the French doors opening to the balcony, which have burst open with a gust of wind. He shuts them, only to become enveloped in a curtain, which he pulls aside only to discover a dagger in his neck. Good-bye, Kurt.

Wow, only twenty minutes in? That’s one short movie!

Of course, this isn’t the end of the story. Losat, the Peter Lorre look-alike servant, finally finds Nevenka that night paralyzed with shock out on the beach. They return her to her bedchamber and revive her, and she immediately starts calling out Kurt’s name. They send Losat out to find Kurt, which he does, obviously quite dead.

Red-hooded men bear his coffin the next morning as an orthodox priest reads the rites. The camera use here implies pointed glances from one mourner to another, as though everyone suspects the other of murdering Kurt. After sealing Kurt in the crypt, the family’s patriarch is shown closing up the dagger that did the deed in a locked cabinet. Immediately, Christian enters and confronts him, as much as telling him he suspects him. Father is incensed by the mere suggestion of murder, and he tells Christian to get out, his face increasingly lit with more and more red light.

That night, Nevenka, her bed bathed in ice-blue light, is haunted by sharp, whip-like sounds. In a suspenseful scene, she tiptoes back to Kurt’s room, only to find it empty and with covered furniture. Then the balcony doors burst open again, just as they did before Kurt’s death, showing the dangling vines outside lashing whip-like in the wind.

The next night, Georgia says that Losat saw something strange in the chapel. Upon hearing this, Nevenka plays a discord at the piano, then turns around and sees Kurt’s spectral form outside the window. Later on, in her own bed, she has another visitation from Kurt, tracking mud fresh from the grave into her room. She spots his shadow, brandishing a whip, silhouetted against the window, but as soon as she looks away it’s gone. But just as soon as she collects herself, his spectral hand starts reaching out to her. He strokes her hair and tears her nightdress. Her subsequent screams rouse Christian, who comes to her aid. She tells him what happened, and points out the muddy footprints, which of course turn out not really to be there.

The day after, she returns to Kurt’s grave to lay a rose down on his grave. As she does so, she notices muddy footprints outside it. And upon returning to the castle, she overhears Christian talking to Katia, saying that it’s she he’s always loved. Katia admits that she loved him too. ‘But you’re married now,’ she adds.

As Nevenka inspects herself in her mirror, suddenly Kurt’s reflection shows up beside her. She threatens him with scissors, which he grabs away from her. He starts to whip her savagely, demanding, ‘Call him, and tell him you’ve always been mine!’ She claims not to want him even as she moans orgiastically, clutching the bedsheets with a rapturous look in her eyes. He whips and whips her like a madman, then she looks back at him as though he were the tenderest lover that ever existed. He moves in to kiss her, first passing through blue, then green and finally red light as his lips fill the screen.

So, what exactly is going on here? Is Nevenka plain nuts, or is someone trying to drive her insane? Or is Kurt’s ghost really visiting her? And who was it that murdered Kurt? Nearly everyone’s a suspect. One can’t even rule out suicide. So, what’s the poop? Well, I ain’t a-tellin’. To find out, you just have to watch the film!

First things first: this is definitely Christopher Lee’s show. Even when he doesn’t have any lines, he steals any scene he’s in. The look on his face as he’s frantically whipping his lady love will send icy chills down your spine. My biggest disappointment, as with most viewers of this film, is that none of the dubs, either in the English or Italian tracks, feature the actual voice of Christopher Lee. And for anyone who has ever heard him speak should know, that is an unforgivable crime.

As for Daliah Lavi, well, she’s not Barbara Steele exactly. She’s not bad, really, but her…shall we say expressionistic style of acting can get a bit over the top at times. I almost had to hold back the laughter upon seeing her facial expression when CL’s reflection appeared behind her. But for the most part her acting is adequate if not spectacular, though her looks of loving reverie as she’s being flogged by Christopher Lee are definitely convincing, and add a whole new level of sickness to the already rather depraved proceedings.

The DVD is loaded with extras, including trailers and a commentary track which I haven’t had the pleasure to listen to. It even has the totally cheesy intro to What!, the American TV edit. Certainly a lot of love and care has gone into bringing this lost film to DVD. The print is nearly pristine, a few mars on the print here and there, otherwise it looks crystal-clear. Not bad for a forty-year-old film.

So, yeah…kind of a sick-o premise, but very well done and beautifully photographed. Bava’s use of colour is nothing less than spectacular. His films are not gaudy acrylics but rather understated watercolours, with soft shades of diaphanous light rather than oversaturated hues adding texture to the images. If you’ve seen other films of the period (Kill Baby Kill, Blood And Black Lace, etc.) you know what to expect. In all, it’s a well-done and haunting ghost story, with more of a compelling plot than one might imagine.

Second opinions: Last Drive In On The Left, DVD Savant, horrordvds.com.

IMDB entry for The Whip and the Body

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