Director: Emilio P. Miraglia
Writers: Fabio Pittorru, Massimo Felisatti, Emilio P. Miraglia
Producer: Antonio Sarno
Cast: Anthony Steffen, Marina Malfatti, Enzo Tarascio, Erika Blanc, Maria Teresa Toffano, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Joan C. Davis, Roberto Maldera, Umberto Raho, Paola Natale, Ettore Bevilacqua, Brizio Montinaro
Widower Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) is obsessed by the memory of his late wife Evelyn (Paola Natale). She had been unfaithful to him before she died during childbirth trying to give him an heir. A mix of grief, guilt, and anger over Evelyn caused Alan to have a mental breakdown. Once released from the psychiatric ward, Alan picks up redheaded prostitutes that remind him of Evelyn. He brings them back to his rundown country estate to abuse and kill them. Alan’s deadly Evelyn obsession seems to be brought under control once he meets and impulsively marries Gladys (Marina Malfatti). However, strange manifestations of Evelyn continue to torment Alan and threaten his sanity again.
The Flashback Fanatic movie review
Undoubtedly her routine has been an influence on the fine art of exotic dancing the world over. Decades later in a favorite strip club of mine, I thrilled to a voluptuous Amazon named Debbie. Her Halloween performance began with the same ritual of the dancer inside of a black coffin being carried out onto the dance floor from which she would emerge and begin to strut her stuff. Erika Blanc has continued to make the world a better place with just one striptease.
Believe it or not, The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave is about other stuff than Erika Blanc’s dancing. It's hard to believe that any director would be brave enough to even attempt to carry on with the rest of the film after showcasing such a spectacle that is bound to outshine all cinema achievements past, present, and future. However, Emilio P. Miraglia, being the professional that he is, does carry on and direct over an hour and a half of other scenes and situations, some of which don’t even involve Erika Blanc. I will now toast the man’s fortitude with a J&B Scotch cocktail before moving on…
Like most giallo films, this one features characters of the upper class living posh lives full of parties and easy sex. They dress in flamboyant fashions, drive luxury automobiles, and live in swanky and comfortable quarters. However, the reason I can’t really root for any of the characters here is not due to wealth-envy; it is because we know next to nothing about anyone except Alan. This is the guy that is the closest thing to a sympathetic character in this flick, and he’s a psychotic sadist and murderer!
This movie confounds expectations and keeps one wondering what are its genre goals. Madness and murder are introduced early on. The “hero” Lord Alan Cunningham tries to move on from his obsession that has institutionalized him once and now led to his current crimes. Just when he seems to be on the path to normalcy and happiness, things get even stranger when his dead wife Evelyn starts haunting him.
All of the main characters in this movie are corrupt or ineffectual, and many of them are also victimized. Ultimately, this is a very pessimistic film that seems to be criticizing the morality of well-to-do people while showing how some of them never pay for their sins.
Offbeat even by giallo standards, The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave keeps you guessing as only Euro-horror can. Its mix of the kinky, psychotic, murderous, gothic, and supernatural is made even more outré by the slippery morality at work here. Once the story is over, you will probably think that you must have missed something, but you haven’t; it simply refuses to give us the comfort of justice dealt to all the perpetrators of nastiness. That omission is almost as remarkable a distinction for this movie as Erika Blanc’s out-of-the-coffin striptease routine.
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