"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne"

Howdy. Time to investigate something directed by Walerian Borowczyk, a director whose work I'd never seen and frankly, didn't know much about. I did know that his stuff seems to be loved and reviled in equal measure, so the term "polarizing" seems to apply.

TSCODJAMO (how's that acronym?) is another take on the famous Robert Louis Stevenson novel, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," which you might have already gathered. And this film adaptation was released in 1981, with Udo Kier as Jekyll, and supporting performances from Patrick Magee as a somewhat over-animated general and Howard Vernon as a physician. The "Miss Osbourne" of the title is Jekyll's fiancee (named after Stevenson's wife), played by Marina Pierro.

Most of the story will be familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of the book or other adaptations. This particular version is heavy on the, uh.....kink, let's say. Hyde is even played by a completely different actor with a close-cropped Moe Howard do. There's a whole lotta blood-lettin', rapin' and other general mischief. And someone else gets in on the act, too.....guess who?

The movie is engaging visually, although so much light is used in most shots that an almost blown-out video effect exists for most of the runtime. I'm unfamiliar with Borowczyk's other efforts, so I'm not sure if this is typical of films with his stamp on them or not. Maybe I'll investigate "The Beast" or "Immoral Tales" soon.

In all, the movie is an odd mash-up of art and exploitation, and according to what I've read of Borowczyk, seems indicative of a lot of his live-action career (he made many stop-motion animated films, as well). There's a lot to look at in the movie, but I'm not sure how successful it really is. I wasn't bored, I'll say that much.

"Slaughter Hotel"

Oh, man....over three months since the last post? Get regular, Lance. Regular, like after a good dose of Haley's M-O. Regular, man.

"Slaughter Hotel" is a giallo from 1971, directed by Fernando diLeo, known much more for his Italian crime pics than anything giallo. I'm not sure if he made any other gialli, but this one....is....interesting.

All the standard pieces of gialli are present in the movie, but at best, they're clumsily put together. It's almost as if diLeo, et.al. had a checklist to go down and make sure requirements were met. What we get is a film that's shaky in structure but does have some nice moments....along with some embarrassing ones.

The nice moments are mainly in the photography itself. The movie takes place in a "rest home," a mental hospital for disturbed young women, all of the Italian giallo "hottie" persuasion. Rosalba Neri and Margaret Lee are standouts in this particular category. Lots of gratuitous nudity and inserted shots of masturbation, in a couple of instances. You can tell it's not the actual actresses involved in this, and you can also hear an off-camera producer yelling "I needa more-a play-with-herself-a!" (Well, figuratively.) Frankly, after viewing the movie, I felt like I needed a bath.

So, back to the photography. The setting is a nice sort of castle-converted-to-group home, although, oddly, there is a room full of medieval torture devices, including an iron maiden and various knives and axes. Just the thing to have in a home for the loony. Klaus Kinski stars but really doesn't have a whole lot to do. He's the definite red herring with his hair styled the way it is (I'm not giving away anything there, believe me), and he plays a good guy. Imagine, a loony bin, with Klaus Kinski as the kindly doctor. Wow.

So, all in all, I'll say that this is one of the most uneven movies I've ever seen. It's worth watching for the good stuff, especially if you're a giallo fan, but many scenes, in particular the reveal-of-the-killer resolution, are almost eye-rollingly bad. I give it 2 1/2 out of 5. It's a 50-50 proposition at best, but I'd be willing to bet I'll watch it again someday.

Here's a soundtrack snippet: