A White Dress for Marialé

1972 [ITALIAN]

Horror / Mystery / Thriller

3
IMDb Rating 5.7/10 10 868 868

dream dreams murder whodunit giallo

Plot summary

A woman, who witnessed her father kill himself as a child, invites several friends to her husband's secluded castle. Unbeknownst to them, she has a sinister motive for the invitation.

Director

Romano Scavolini Photo
Romano Scavolini

Top cast

Carla Mancini Photo
Carla Mancini as Woman reading a book
Ivan Rassimov Photo
Ivan Rassimov as Massimo
Giancarlo Bonuglia Photo
Giancarlo Bonuglia as Jo
Edilio Kim Photo
Edilio Kim as Gustavo
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
830.81 MB
1280*544
Italian 2.0
NR
Subtitles it  
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds 1
1.51 GB
1920*816
Italian 2.0
NR
Subtitles it  
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by The_Void 7 / 10

Good start and end - shame about the middle part!

Romano Scavolini would go on to make the disappointing Video Nasty 'Nightmares in a Damaged Brain', but before that he made this film. Spirits of the Dead is a psychological drama come Giallo and focuses in the bizarre happenings inside a large mansion during a party. The film has shades of Mario Bava, though despite the grandeur of the setting and the strange costumes worn during the partygoers in the main part of the movie; Romano Scavolini is no Mario Bava and the film remains only an imitation of the Italian master. The plot has two sides to it and we begin at a setting in the past as a young girl named Mariale witnesses her father murder two lovers before shooting himself in the head. We then fast forward some years and a grown up Mariale is living in a mansion with her husband Paolo. She has mental problems and is often given drugs to quell the problem. She invites a group of friends to stay at the house with her and her husband, but the party soon degenerates into an orgy and it's not long before the guests are being picked off one by one.The first ten minutes made me believe that this one was going to be an interesting little Giallo. The characters are all introduced rather quickly and we are soon made to believe that not everything is as it should be. However, the film then builds into the orgy; which makes up the bulk of it, and it's not long before intrigue turns to tedium. The film tries to put the focus on the characters and this is a problem because, as is the case with many Giallo's, the characters aren't interesting enough in their own right to build a film around. The cast is not bad, however; Giallo regular Evelyn Stewart takes up the lead role well, and gets good back up from the likes of Luigi Pistilli and Ivan Rassimov. The film doesn't really get going until the final twenty minutes; and by then it is unfortunately a case of too little too late. This type of film is famous for over the top and stylish death scenes; but Spirits of Death doesn't really deliver in that respect, with only a single death scene in a swimming pool of any real note. Overall, this is not one of the better known Giallo's and I'm not really surprised. I wouldn't call it one of the worst of the genre; but it's not one of the best either and I'd only recommend this to hardcore Giallo fans.
Reviewed by lonchaney20 6 / 10

Disappointing Gothic giallo from Romano Scavolini

When this film started up I figured I was in for something special. It opens with an Argento-esquire scene of childhood trauma, featuring none other than the legendary Gianni Dei as the lover of Mariale's mother! Having seen this guy in two other movies (Giallo a Venezia and Patrick Still Lives), I can't help but assume there's a clause in every one of his contracts stating he must spend at least one scene naked. After all, how else can you explain why he's lying around naked while his lover is fully clothed in the white dress of the title? You've also got to love the hilariously flamboyant way in which Dei reacts to getting shot. The rest of the film proves to be less interesting. We're basically subjected to 50 minutes of some costumed morons gallivanting about a castle while Luigi Pistilli stands in the corner and frowns. I think these scenes were supposed to be intense, and certainly the mounting hysteria of the participants suggests this, but I found them to be pretty mundane. Things start to pick up a bit when the first murder occurs late in the film, and it's executed in an interesting manner comparable to the opening attack of Luigi Bazzoni's The Fifth Cord (only not quite as good). Unfortunately all the subsequent set-pieces are about as ho-hum as they come. The ending proves to be pretty great though, probably because the forgettable cast has been narrowed down to genre greats Luigi Pistilli and Ivan Rassimov. Here the drama reaches its natural, inevitable conclusion, but it's still highly effective if predictable. This might appeal to fans of The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (except me, apparently) as it too is a Gothic giallo set on an isolated estate, with a protagonist's troubled past coming back to haunt them. I personally found The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave to be far superior (the insane ending excepted), due to a better script and far more appealing cast. Both films feature stunning soundtracks, Evelyn's by the great Bruno Nicolai and this film's by Fiorenzo Carpi (orchestrated by Bruno Nicolai). All in all I was pretty disappointed, but I'd suggest that fans of the giallo and Italian horror films check it out. Though it lacks a good structure, it still boasts some very good direction by Romano Scavolini (and the aforementioned soundtrack). And Luigi Pistilli is always awesome.
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