Lisa and the Devil

Lisa and the Devil (1973)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Mario Bava

Starring: Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas, Sylva Koscina, Alessio Orano, Alida Valli

From: Several different European companies

A Mario Bava film that was designed to be a nightmare; for years this is what I’ve heard about Lisa and the Devil. As I am a regular subscriber to Shudder and Arrow’s streaming platform, they should especially be used around this time of year; this is on the former. Justifiably, not everyone is a fan of a dream logic film in general-they aren’t always for me. Yet, I was intoxicated by this journey.

Elke Sommer is with a tour group visiting Toledo, Spain; it’s a town filled w/ ancient buildings. They look at a large fresco painting where Satan looks like Telly Savalas; she wanders off, and sees Telly Savalas in a store. She is lost, hitches a ride with a couple & their chauffeur, and ends up stuck at a villa where Telly is the butler for Alida Valli and her son Alain Delon… excuse me, I mean Alessio Orano, although it’s not a giant leap to suggest the origin of his infrequent acting career.

I won’t reveal much more concerning the plot, except that mistaken identity occurs more than once, including a life-sized dummy that Savalas carries around which bears a resemblance to a mysterious dude wandering about. Of course it’s a weird film not to all tastes; me, I was transfixed by this bizarre, ghoulish tale. The sets and the setting: both great. They give off plenty of spooky vibes. There’s also the novelty of seeing Telly sucking on a lollipop and he’s not playing Kojak; it was a real-life solution to his stopping smoking.

To clarify, of course I am reviewing the original cut of the movie as directed by Mario Bava; the distinction has to be made as at a later time, producer Alfredo Leone (no relation to Sergio) wanted a new cut of the movie to capitalize on a certain movie… Bava acquiesced and allowed the creation of The House of Exorcism, to the point that his son Lamberto assisted w/ the task of filming new scenes where Sommer is possessed by Satan and Robert Alda is among those attempting to assist them. From my understanding, those new moments do not fit in w/ the original footage whatsoever so “not even bothering” seems to be the most logical choice.

This is one of those Bava joints that does not include the bold lighting choices. That is never a deal-breaker for me anyhow, but especially not so when this unique story was so captivating.