Directed by Mario Bava, Black Sabbath is an Italian thriller starring, most notably, Boris Karloff. Released in Italy as Il Tre Volti Della Paura, The Three Faces of Fear, in 1963. American International Pictures released a re-dubbed and re-edited version for American audiences in 1964 under the title Black Sabbath.
Bava wrote and directed the very first of the Giallo films. Black Sabbath was one of the earliest entries in this category. Conceived as a horror anthology, three short stories The Telephone, The Wurdulak and Drop of Water were released together as a feature length film. AIP had seen recent success with Roger Corman’s 1962 Poe trilogy Tales of Terror. Boris Karloff was under contract with AIP at the time. They decided that producing another horror anthology starring him would be a success. Wanting to attract more European audiences AIP partnered with Galatea and Emmepi Film of Rome and Société Cinématographique Lyre of Paris. They took the production to Rome. Bava co-wrote the script with Alberto Bevilacqua and Marcello Fondato. The end result was a trilogy of terror with Karloff acting as horror host, as well as starring in one of the stories.
The Telephone
The Telephone is classic giallo material. Starring Michele Mercier as Rosy, a French call girl terrorized one night by threatening phone calls from an ex-lover who escaped from prison for the pleasure of killing her. Sociéte contracted Mercier for the film, but she previously worked with Bava on The Wonders of Aladdin. The origins to the story of The Telephone are shrouded in mystery. Credited to F. G. Snyder in the Italian version, but credited to Guy de Maupassant in the AIP version.
The Wurdurlak
Set in the 19th century Russia, The Wurdurlak is a gothic horror story. Boris Karloff stars as Gorka. Gorka, the head of a large family, has gone missing for a number of days after setting out to fight a local beast called the Wurdalak. Returning home wounded, Gorka begins to terrorize his family. The Wurdalak is a loose adaptation from Aleksey Tolstoy’s gothic novella “Sem’ya vurdala’ka”, “The Family of the Vourdalak”. It also stars American actor Mark Damon as Vladimir D’Urfe. AIP brought on Damon after staring in Roger Corman’s House of Usher.
The Drop of Water
The Drop of Water is a bone-chilling tale of the supernatural. Visions from beyond the grave haunt a London nurse after she steals from the dead. Jacqueline Pierreux stars as Nurse Helen Chester. A living corpse terrorizes Chester after she steals a sapphire ring from it. Société brought on Pierreux because of her popularity as a French actress. For many years this story’s origins were a bit of a mystery. Although the film credits Ivan Chekov, Bava would later take credit for the story himself. But Italian critic Antonio Bruscini traced the stories origin to a short entitled “Dalle tre alle tre e mezzo”, “Between Three and Three-Thirty” which was part of the 1960 anthology book “Storie di fantasmi”, “Ghost Stories”. British historian Julian Granger has since identified the author as Franco Lucentini.
The production of Black Sabbath would become the standard formula for Italian productions during the mid-twentieth century. The cast was multinational, the audio and dialogue was crafted specifically to be dubbed in various languages. With small budgets and short production schedules these films became the perfect representation of their pulpy published predecessors.
I Tre Volti Della Paura was released in Italy on August 13, 1953 it earned 103.5 million Italian lira during it’s theatrical debut. AIP would release the English version, Black Sabbath, on May, 6 1964. Being a Boris Karloff movie Black Sabbath became a regular classic on Creature Feature broadcasts from local television stations across the United States during the 1960’s and 70’s. Many of the shows hosts would use Karloff’s narrator from this movie as a model filling there performances with cheeky humor and horror related puns.
Black Sabbath the AIP version and Il Tre Volti Della Paura the Italian version have seen many releases since it’s premier in 1953. From VHS & Beta tapes to DVD and Blu-ray disc.
Image Entertainment in released the Italian version on DVD in 2000. In 2013 Kino Lober released both version on Blu-ray and DVD. Arrow Films also released both versions on Blu-ray and DVD the same year. And with the recent resurgence of interest in Italian horror movies and their accompanying music I have no doubt this and other movies like it will be presented in spectacular fashion, pristinely preserved for our viewing pleasure.
