IMDb RATING
6.5/10
1.9K
YOUR RATING
Paris. Young girls are found dead, drained from their blood. A journalist investigates these murders while the beautiful Gisele, from a noble family, tries to seduce him.Paris. Young girls are found dead, drained from their blood. A journalist investigates these murders while the beautiful Gisele, from a noble family, tries to seduce him.Paris. Young girls are found dead, drained from their blood. A journalist investigates these murders while the beautiful Gisele, from a noble family, tries to seduce him.
Carlo D'Angelo
- L'ispettore Chantal
- (as Carlo d'Angelo)
Angelo Galassi
- Ronald Fontaine
- (as Angiolo Galassi)
Antoine Balpêtré
- Professor Julien du Grand
- (as Antoine Balpetré de la Comédie Française)
Armando Annuale
- Un uomo anziano al funerale
- (uncredited)
Larry Boston
- Unknown Role
- (uncredited)
Aristide Catoni
- Porter
- (uncredited)
Riccardo Freda
- Il dottore
- (uncredited)
Bert Goldstein
- Maitre D'
- (uncredited)
Ronny Holiday
- Nora
- (uncredited)
Joy Holliday
- Anita
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was the first Italian made horror film of the sound era.
- Crazy creditsEnglish dubbed version 'The Devil's Commandment' is credited to director Riccardo Freda's pseudonym Robert Hampton.
- Alternate versionsOriginal Italian version is 82-minutes long. US distributor re-edited the film, inserting new footage starring Al Lewis and Ronny & Joy Holliday, shortened it to 70 minutes and released it as "Devil's Commandment". The differences are as follows:
- Alternate opening scene in which Joseph (played by a body double) stalks a women to her apartment, kills her in the bathtub, and has the body disposed of.
- Several dialogue-heavy scenes are cut or trimmed.
- The scene where Lantin brings the police back to the apartment he tailed Joseph back to is cut.
- The scene where the blind beggar is questioned by the police, and the subsequent house raid, are cut.
- A newly-shot sequence where a woman goes to a nightclub and is subsequently killed by Joseph.
- A newly-shot sequence where one of Dr. Du Grand's assistants (Lewis) forces himself on Lorette (played by a body double).
- Added insert shots of rats crawling toward Lorette.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre (2000)
Featured review
Kicking it all off
I found out through painstaking research (reading it on the internet) that this is the first Italian horror film of the sound era, and that director Freda walked off set and left Mario Bava to finish the film.
A bunch of girls have turned up dead throughout town, with all their blood drained from them. The cops are baffled, but a young plucky, happy go lucky jerk journalist is out to make a name for himself and catch the killer. He keeps being hit on by a young Duchess as their families are historically linked somehow, but he's not interested (his mate is though). Little does the guy know that the killings are somehow linked to the Duchess's castle, and it's all going to come to a head.
Actually the film starts of kind of like a giallo. The victims are killed in a strange way that leaves the police baffled. There's a few suspects that leads to the actual culprit who is a mystery to the viewer. There's even a bit of sleuthing on the part of the journalist. Things then slide into gothic horror territory, what with the creepy castle with the mood lighting and secret passages.
This is a very good looking film thanks to Bava, who even at this early stage seems to be a master of visual composition and lighting. I don't know who did the 'aging' effects either, but it's the true standout of this film and had me wondering how they hell they managed to do that back in the fifties. Other than that, it did strike me as a little dull. A good looking little dull film with some good special effects that was first out of the gate. This is a dull review too. Some people love it though, so don't listen to me.
Paul Muller was good in it as the junky guy though, and at the age of ninety-five, he still walks this Earth. Unless he died years ago and someone in his family is claiming his pension.
Actually the film starts of kind of like a giallo. The victims are killed in a strange way that leaves the police baffled. There's a few suspects that leads to the actual culprit who is a mystery to the viewer. There's even a bit of sleuthing on the part of the journalist. Things then slide into gothic horror territory, what with the creepy castle with the mood lighting and secret passages.
This is a very good looking film thanks to Bava, who even at this early stage seems to be a master of visual composition and lighting. I don't know who did the 'aging' effects either, but it's the true standout of this film and had me wondering how they hell they managed to do that back in the fifties. Other than that, it did strike me as a little dull. A good looking little dull film with some good special effects that was first out of the gate. This is a dull review too. Some people love it though, so don't listen to me.
Paul Muller was good in it as the junky guy though, and at the age of ninety-five, he still walks this Earth. Unless he died years ago and someone in his family is claiming his pension.
helpful•20
- Bezenby
- Feb 3, 2018
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Vampires
- Filming locations
- Titanus Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy(Studio, as Titanus - Appia)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 22 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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