Mp3 Tuesday!-- some minor internet problems and other distractions precluded me from uploading this on Friday. I hope it's just as enjoyable -- the swanky, swinging, and sadean Theme from The Bloody Pit of Horror (Il Boia Scarlatto) (Gino Peguri) 3.6M
At a certain moment of excess, I conjectured that if Michelangelo Antonioni was a third-rate hack who toiled in relative anonymity in the papier-mache depths of Cinecitta, where Monica Vitti wouldn't even give him the time of day as she rushed by him on her way to the set of her comedy with Alberto Sordi, he could have possibly made Il Boia Scarlatto, aka The Bloody Pit of Horror. The notion, on the face of it, is of course quite absurd, ridiculous even. But through sleepy late-night slits for eyes, though the imagination may be cloudier, I thought I saw the stamp of Antonioni.
Syrupy and sinister languor marks each minute like a stain. Like Antonioni's upper-class creations, the artists and models of Il Boia Scarlatto who meander through the long hallways and corridors of Travis Anderson's (Mickey Hargitay) odd castle find little joy or emotion in their lives. Ennui rules their day. So does cynicism. Even the act of love provides little solace or even anything resembling human interaction (indeed a woman's empty stare as her lover busses her neck mirrors the expressions of Monica Vitti and Jeanne Moreau in similar situations in Antonioni's early 60s films).
Ironically, it is only when confronted with physical torture and horrible deaths do our characters exhibit any pathos. Indeed, it often plumbs the depths of utter despair: "Why is this happening?" a woman cries out as boiling oil is poured over her bare back. "I can't stand this anymore!" "Please don't! I don't want to die like this!" the impresario screams as he's roasted alive. "Mercy!"
Then again, the existential distress our characters exhibit may not be intentional on the filmmakers' part (in this case director Massimo Pupillo, and writers Romano Migliorini and Roberto Natale), but merely the byproduct of a weak and silly script and even weaker and sillier actors. The film has garnered a certain reputation as a "cult classic" (a term I tend to dislike, but I'll use anyway), if only because of Mickey Hargitay's maniacal performance. It's also interesting that it refers to Hargitay's own history as a "muscleman in costume films" in the character he plays. In fact, one can see Il Boia Scarlatto as an outgrowth of the peplum genre, or Italian sword and sandal films, or an attempt to hybrid this genre (on its last legs in the mid-60s) with the gothic horror that was popular in Italy at the time. In any case, most people call it camp nowadays, but there's also a fringe following that focuses on the cheesecake and torture chamber aspect, which seems harmless on the surface, but gets pretty ugly when you dig a little deeper.
The music was by Gino Peguri, who has about 16 films to his credit, usually westerns in the 60s and softcore porn in the 70s. His first soundtrack was for a mondo documentary called Italia Proibita in 1963. Il Boia Scarlatto was his second score for a film, and one can hear the mondo influence. Scenes of depravity are set against soft swingy lounge tunes. Peguri's only bow to horror music convention is the skeletal sound of a discordant guitar, which sort of sounds like early 80s NYC downtown no wave. After the main credits, we hear some sweet cocktail music as our characters make their way to the castle where most of them will meet their horrible fates. Nothing like a sense of foreboding.