The Rarest Film of Legendary Director Aldo Lado

  

Original Italian Title: SEPOLTA VIVA [Buried Alive]

director: Aldo Lado
starring: Agostina Belli · Maurizio Bonuglia · Fred Robsahm · Laura Betti · Jose Quaglio
music: Ennio Morricone

  

Duke Philippe Cambyse weds Christine, the daughter of a fisherman. Not everyone is pleased with his decision to taint royal blood by marrying below his social rank. But Christine - never forgetting her past - becomes the favorite of the community when she convinces Duke Philippe to reduce taxes and assist the impoverished farmers. Philippe's younger brothers, Ferdinand and Gael, soon realize the marriage is threatening their wealth and - worst - it will eventually cost them the family inheritance. They decide to get rid of the woman by imprisoning her in a 'haunted' tower and convincing the Duke that she had died while he was in Paris on business.

This is easily the rarest of Aldo Lado's films. He found success immediately during the Giallo boom with his two thrillers SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS and WHO SAW HER DIE?, two movies that quickly established him as an A-List director. And perhaps that was the problem. Lado did not want to be known as a Giallo director. After those two hits, he convinced producer Alessandro Altieri to greenlight this historical actioner (co-written with documentary filmmaker Claudio Masenza) as his departure from the thriller genre. The sweeping story - more in common with an Alexandre Dumas tale - is an elaborate project, far removed from the 'Lado style' [usually characterized by a dry, unemotional tone]. Despite the excellent performances and breathtaking scope, the film failed to achieve distribution outside of Europe. For the years to come, Mr Lado would continue to avoid making the traditional Giallo (eventually returning to it for his CIRCLE OF FEAR in 1992), instead he brought his unique filmmaking style to horror movies (NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS) and quirky genre projects like the cannibal 'true-crime' love story LOVE RITUAL.

Fred Robsahm, playing Duke Philippe Cambyse here, comes from the Spaghetti Westerns. He starred in BLACK KILLER before this film. Fred and Agostina Belli became 'an item' during BURIED ALIVE and they married shortly after the wrap. Miss Belli was already established before this project. Her first major production was Jose L Merino's CASTLE WITH THE DOORS OF FIRE (1970). She followed with NIGHT OF THE DEVILS and FIFTH CORD before headlining in WHEN LOVE IS LUST with Ewa Aulin and Femin Benussi. After that sex scorcher she tackled this role, the tormented Duchess Christine.

  

     

An Italian film in Spanish and Italian with English subtitles; widescreen format (16:9),
100 minutes, encoded for ALL REGION NTSC, playable on any American machine

  

Nudity/Violence/Sexual Brutality
for Adult Audiences