The dubbed horror film by the Italian maestro Mario Bava normally titled "Lisa & the Devil (but it has many alternate titles) used to turn up periodically -- usually in chopped about form -- on television, but it has been some years since I last viewed it. While from my point of view it is not amongst his best, it is an interesting movie and full of the visual bravura touches for which Bava is known. A tourist in Spain played by Elke Sommer wanders away from her tour group and hitches a ride with an aristocratic couple; when their car breaks down they are invited to stay on the grounds of an isolated mansion where Telly Savalas (who looks exactly like the devil on the fresco in the town square) is the major domo and where the always welcome Alida Valli is the blind grande dame living with her slightly demented son. The family, we discover, is obsessed with death and there are various corpses lying about to be disposed of -- and even more by the end of the movie. While Ms. Sommer is hardly a great actress and, if the truth be told, Savalas is also something of an embarrassment (sucking his trademark lollipop before Kojak), the film is still an exciting watch as an example of Bava's aesthetic eye.
Fast forward a few years and the film's producer,Alfredo Leone, decides that what the world really needs is the "producer's cut", and the net result is the abomination called "House of Exorcism" where some of the footage from the first movie is intercut with a story of the Sommer character being possessed a la Linda Blair and being exorcised by priest Robert Alda (who does not appear in the first film). So the viewer has in fact two stories and two Ms. Sommers for the price of one and these do not really fuse together at any point; plus there is a great deal more nudity and sexual scenes than can be found in the earlier cut. These additions were shot separately by Leone and the film now credits someone called "Mickey Lion" as the director; while people seem to assume that the Sommer character is still played by the same actress with horrible caked make-up, my own feeling is that a "ringer" was employed for the cursing, writhing, and emoting. Not only are the front credits different from the earlier version, but the ending has been totally changed -- and the original one, set on a deserted jumbo jet, was really quite effective. In short, avoid this later cut should it ever come your way.
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