I remember seeing this in the theater—it was the first time I explicitly heard "Women's Liberation" mentioned in (or maybe around) a movie!
I mainly loved it, except the scene when a pre-Dame Diana Rigg and Oliver Reed finally hook up gets a BIT rapey, even to my early teen late-Sixties eyes. Yes, she ultimately consents, but Reed acts like the kind of man who wouldn't have stopped if she hadn't.
I didn't discuss this with anybody at the time because—what could I have said without sounding like I was an unmanly wuss? "Women's Lib" was still largely treated as a joke by the broader culture during that period, and most people would have thought what happened was perfectly consensual. They were both in the same bed, half-dressed—of COURSE they were going to have sex if he wanted it!
I loved Diana Rigg when she played Mrs Peel in The Avengers! I loved her in the Bond flick On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (with George Lazenby as Bond).
That being said, it would seem fitting if I could find and watch this film too!!
It's free with ads on Tubi, free on Plex (if you can get past Plex demanding you shut your ad blocker off even once you have!), and free with Amazon Prime on Amazon Prime Video. Apple TV, Google Play TV, and Fandango all charge to see it starting at US$3.99.
The Blu-Ray's on Amazon.com at $19.99, or through Arrow Video for $28.00.
James Coburn made a bunch of movies on that level of quality. “Duck you suckers” and the Flint movies come to mind. You might like those if you haven’t seen them.
Diana Rigg as on the Avengers! Loved her. And Telly Savalas! He was always eating a sucker or was it a tootsie roll pop? I’ll make a note to watch this!
I thought Savalas didn't start the whole lollipop bit until Mario Bava's LISA AND THE DEVIL in 1973 (re-edited with an "Exorcist" subplot by producer Alfred Leone and called HOUSE OF EXORCISM in the U.S.!). Savalas was trying to quit (or cut back on or something) smoking around that time, and would suck on lollies as a substitute—which led to some comical scenes in the movie where he'd be smoking until somebody came up to him, whereupon he'd hastily substitute the lolly.
To be fair, most people didn't in its original form! While Leone insists HOUSE OF EXORCISM was a YUGE global hit (he also makes some passive-aggressive backhands at Bava, saying things like "Give Mario a half-million, he's a genius—give him a million? He's a disaster!"), its box office is listed at 90M Lira, which doing a little calculation on the Internet comes out to US$132,353 in 1975 dollars. The original LISA AND THE DEVIL, cut to appease Spanish and Italian censors, is either missing sex scenes (Spain) or violent scenes (Italy), and wasn't successful at the time. There's been a critical re-evaluation of the movie since, and many film types (myself included) think it's one of Mario Bava's best.
The "exorcist" plot starring Robert Alda (Alan's father, who lived in Italy at that time) feels bolted on, and pretty much completely gets rid of a lot of the dark humor of Bava's original—much of that courtesy of Savalas, who plays Leandro, an amusingly obsequious butler to a decaying Italian noble family who was pro-Fascist during WWII...who just happens to moonlight as Satan! Telly Savalas elevates the entire film with his fun, energetic performance that bears more than a passing resemblance to the wily thieving servants of *Commedia dell'arte*.
I saw this about a year ago when I should have been doing the homework for my Real Analysis class. Great movie.
I remember seeing this in the theater—it was the first time I explicitly heard "Women's Liberation" mentioned in (or maybe around) a movie!
I mainly loved it, except the scene when a pre-Dame Diana Rigg and Oliver Reed finally hook up gets a BIT rapey, even to my early teen late-Sixties eyes. Yes, she ultimately consents, but Reed acts like the kind of man who wouldn't have stopped if she hadn't.
I didn't discuss this with anybody at the time because—what could I have said without sounding like I was an unmanly wuss? "Women's Lib" was still largely treated as a joke by the broader culture during that period, and most people would have thought what happened was perfectly consensual. They were both in the same bed, half-dressed—of COURSE they were going to have sex if he wanted it!
I loved Diana Rigg when she played Mrs Peel in The Avengers! I loved her in the Bond flick On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (with George Lazenby as Bond).
That being said, it would seem fitting if I could find and watch this film too!!
It's free with ads on Tubi, free on Plex (if you can get past Plex demanding you shut your ad blocker off even once you have!), and free with Amazon Prime on Amazon Prime Video. Apple TV, Google Play TV, and Fandango all charge to see it starting at US$3.99.
The Blu-Ray's on Amazon.com at $19.99, or through Arrow Video for $28.00.
Thanks for this info!
James Coburn made a bunch of movies on that level of quality. “Duck you suckers” and the Flint movies come to mind. You might like those if you haven’t seen them.
Oh, directed by Sergio Leone, that is a gold star!
I will go a’hunting today
Diana Rigg as on the Avengers! Loved her. And Telly Savalas! He was always eating a sucker or was it a tootsie roll pop? I’ll make a note to watch this!
I thought Savalas didn't start the whole lollipop bit until Mario Bava's LISA AND THE DEVIL in 1973 (re-edited with an "Exorcist" subplot by producer Alfred Leone and called HOUSE OF EXORCISM in the U.S.!). Savalas was trying to quit (or cut back on or something) smoking around that time, and would suck on lollies as a substitute—which led to some comical scenes in the movie where he'd be smoking until somebody came up to him, whereupon he'd hastily substitute the lolly.
Interesting. I never saw Lisa and the Devil….
To be fair, most people didn't in its original form! While Leone insists HOUSE OF EXORCISM was a YUGE global hit (he also makes some passive-aggressive backhands at Bava, saying things like "Give Mario a half-million, he's a genius—give him a million? He's a disaster!"), its box office is listed at 90M Lira, which doing a little calculation on the Internet comes out to US$132,353 in 1975 dollars. The original LISA AND THE DEVIL, cut to appease Spanish and Italian censors, is either missing sex scenes (Spain) or violent scenes (Italy), and wasn't successful at the time. There's been a critical re-evaluation of the movie since, and many film types (myself included) think it's one of Mario Bava's best.
The "exorcist" plot starring Robert Alda (Alan's father, who lived in Italy at that time) feels bolted on, and pretty much completely gets rid of a lot of the dark humor of Bava's original—much of that courtesy of Savalas, who plays Leandro, an amusingly obsequious butler to a decaying Italian noble family who was pro-Fascist during WWII...who just happens to moonlight as Satan! Telly Savalas elevates the entire film with his fun, energetic performance that bears more than a passing resemblance to the wily thieving servants of *Commedia dell'arte*.