Sunday, February 17, 2013

THE LORELEY’S GRASP (1974) movie review




Loreley's Grasp, The (aka When the Screaming Stops) (1974) d. di Ossorio, Amando (Spain)

Well, when this Spanish film’s title (originally released in the U.S. as When the Screaming Stops) first came up, my immediate thought was of a girl in one of my high school classes named Lorelei and how nice it would have been to be in her grasp, but that’s neither here nor there. Although, the bevy of sexy senoritas on display in Amando di Ossorio’s feature about a legendary monster that feeds upon the hearts of her victims are nothing to sneeze at either.


Despite plenty of gore and female nudity on hand, di Ossorio’s pacing moves in fits and starts, by turns silly and redundant.

(Oh, look, there’s the creature’s scaly claw upon the door sill...again.)

When the murders start, the local girls’ school headmistress(honey-haired honey Silvia Tortosa) hires hunky Tony Kendall to stand guard over her charges, to their giggling delight. He soon learns that the mysterious sexy stranger in town, Helga Liné, has a few surprises beneath her luscious petticoats, and we’re not just talking about her sexy swimwear.


By the time we end up in the underground (and underwater) cathedral populated by cast members who look like they stumbled off a sword n’ sandals flick, viewers’ patience might well have been stretched as thin as the strings dangling from Miss Liné’s green string bikini.


Minor complaints aside, BCI Eclipses’s 2007 DVD release is gorgeous to look at, with lovely colors and shadows filling the canvas.


No comments:

Post a Comment