MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN (1962) Giorgio Ferroni rarity
3466DVD
(Arguably)
The Best Euro Horror Film of the '60s
Original Italian
Title: IL MULINO DELLE DONNE DI PIETRA
director: Giorgio Ferroni
starring: Pierre Brice · Scilla Gabel · Danny Carrell
· Herbert A. E. Böhme · Liana Orfei · Marco
Guglielmi
A journalist named
Hans (played by Pierre Brice) arrives in a town near Amsterdam to write
a story on the renown sculptor, Professor Val. He lives as a recluse inside
an old mill house [a macabre tourist attraction that the locals call the
Mill of the Stone Women]. As Hans begins his research, he meets
the professor's seductive daughter. He immediately recognizes that sometime
is 'not quite right' with the beautiful young woman, yet Hans begins feeling
a lustful passion for her despite a commitment to his true love, local
college student Lisa Lotta. Slowly Hans becomes aware of mysterious experiments
conducted by Professor Val and his assistant Dr. Boles. He also notices
that an unusual number of local women are disappearing...
Giorgio Ferroni was
one of Italy's grand directors, starting his career in the mid 1930s,
specializing in documentary films. He helmed 25 such projects before deciding
to direct a feature film. That production turned out to be this film which
he began in 1960 (released in 1962). It was a painstaking motion picture
which took over a year to shoot due to Ferroni's obsession with 'blazing'
color, crispy photography and set design. The result is a film that could
arguably be the best horror film of the '60s. After this motion picture,
Giorgio flirted briefly with peplums (LION
OF THEBES and HERO
OF ROME) before turning his interests to Spaghetti Westerns. Operating
mostly under the Calvin Jackson Padget pseudonym he made numerous legendary
westerns but is best known for BLOOD
ON THE SILVER DOLLAR. He would make only one more horror film,
NIGHT
OF THE DEVILS before his death in August 1983 at age 73.
An
Italian film, in English language; widescreen format (16:9), uncut (96
minutes), DVD encoded for ALL REGION NTSC WORLD FORMAT; extras include
original theatrical trailer.
Violence/Nudity/Sexual
Situations
recommended for Mature Audiences
