The Witch (Circa 1966)

When I was a kid, one of the joys of my young life was coming home from school on a Friday night, knowing that if I had good marks in all my classes, I could stay up late and watch my two favorite shows. My first favorite was, hands down, Start Trek, but after it went off, there was a local show that I loved to watch, called "Shock Theater". You could find the title of the movie they were showing that night in the tv guide, so I had my nose in that magazine on Monday mornings, planning my weekend ahead.

This show was definitely not any kind of an award winner. It started with a fade-in to a dimly lit room with candlelight flickering, and a coffin. The lid would slowly creak open and a relatively handsome man, with long hair, piercing eyes and a beard and mustache, would sit up in the coffin. He would deliver a monologue about the movie that he was showing that night, and then it would flash to commercials.

When it came back on, it was typically some black and white monster movie, or lame horror flick, but Lord help me, I loved them so. I guess my mom figured they were relatively safe, considering how old they were, but I'm here to tell you, one movie premiered when I was 9, that I was never really able to put out of my mind. It was my first experience with sensuality and domestic violence and it left me with a lot of questions I would never be brave enough to ask. (If my mother had any idea the kind of smut I had access to with those old horror films she'd have popped her cork for sure!)

Decades went by. I had forgotten about the movie, so when I came across it on YouTube the other day, I had to watch it.

The movie is set in Italy in the 1960's and centers around author/womanizer named "Sergio", (played by Richard Johnson). He is lured into the palatial home of the Countessa, Consuelo Lorente, (played by Sarah Feratti), when she posts an advertisement for someone who could speak and read a number of specific languages and who could do a number of other specific things that fit him perfectly.

Richard Johnson has seen this woman following him around and when he sees her at the news stand one day, he tries to catch up to her and isn't able to get there before she gets into a car and her driver takes her away. After speaking with the guy who ran the newspaper stand, he discovers an ad and answers it. Once he meets Countessa Consuelo, the two of them find it difficult to come to terms on what his salary should be, (as luck would have it, his girlfriend had just put him out and he was between books at the time), but she convinces him to think about it.

She then swallows a vile poison right in front of him and passes out.

Distraught by her actions, Sergio phones a doctor and looks around to see if there is anyone to help him get her off the floor and into a bedroom. Out of the shadows slinks a beautiful young woman named "Aura", (pronounced 'Ow-RAH, and played by Italian actress Rosanna Schiaffino).

Her cat-like grace and beauty immediately have the hero captivated. Together, he and Aura get the countessa into bed and Sergio decides to wait for the doctor to make sure the lady is ok. Aura assures him that her mother has done this before and would be fine, but she does help him get her into bed. She convinces him to have a look around at the library they're hoping to hire him to organize, and promises to stay with her mother until the doctor comes.

As Sergio wanders the beautiful home, he once again runs into Aura and it is a delicious encounter. There's a little back and forth about the job they need him to do and pretty soon, they're talking in breathy tones, kissing and she appears to be about to let him have his way with her. Aura's one demand is that they have to do it without "touching" with their hands. What this constitutes is a little creative disrobing with their teeth. I'm not going to lie, at nine-years-old, that was the most erotic scene I had ever witnessed.

As the two are just getting going, a man named Fabrizio, (played by Gian Maria Volontè) walks in, wearing his robe and slippers, looking terribly confused and hurt. He grabs Aura away from Sergio and begins questioning where she's been for so long and kissing her hands as if Sergio isn't even in the room... as if he hadn't just caught them in a lover's embrace with Aura's dress half off her shoulder.

Before it's over, she's telling Fabrizio that she didn't want that man to touch her, that she had clawed and bit and scratched to get away. Of course, ever the gentleman, Sergio confirms the story to protect Aura's honor but, he's still a womanizing jerk. He protects her honor in this scene stating that he had a severe sexual appetite and went as far as to apologize to the other man, but later in the film, he literally punches her like a man a few times.

The overall jist of the movie is that the countessa is several hundred years old. Ever so often, once the man she has chosen has begun to bore her, she trades up for a newer model. The story lands right in the middle of the black widow trope, but with a really cool twist. There's plenty of suspense in this film, and the tension between Aura and her two lovers is incredibly sensual, but at times takes a violent turn with a hint of voyeurism in a few scenes.

A little over half way through the movie, I began to understand that Fabrizio is going to have to die so that the two ladies could then have, (and subsequently break), the obstinate, high-minded Sergio.

Sergio catches Fabrizio harming Aura, (probably deservingly so), during their fencing lessons and a fight ensues, after which, the countessa relieves Fabrizio of his duties and instructs Sergio to remove him from the home. Not wanting to leave Aura, Fabrizio begs her to keep him but she refuses, sending him off the deep end. He grabs Aura, dragging her through the maze of this large house, beating on her and crying out for her to love him, with Sergio hot on his heels.

When Fabrizio falls and cracks his head, the whole plot takes a macabre twist. Sergio wants to go to the police and explain that this was an accident. The countessa refuses of course because, (a): she doesn't want the cops crawling all over her home and her valuable antiques and (b) Aura's reputation would be ruined. They convince Sergio to dump Fabrizio's body on the train tracks and let the train do the disposal work. While this actually works and the trouble with police appears no longer to be a threat, Sergio has fallen in love with Aura and still can't figure out a way to get her out of the house away from her mother.

In the background of all this, I think I should mention that there are cats all over the grounds of this mansion. They're constantly howling when there's an outdoor scene and early in the film, Aura expresses her fear of them. Sergio keeps finding tortured dead cats, which is disturbing in and of itself. I have watched the film twice now and I still don't understand the cat thing or it's relevance to the plot, except to show what a ruthless hag the countessa really is. It does add a super creepy vibe to the whole thing, especially when the camera occasionally picks up a glimpse of her in the garden, dragging one by a rope out of her piazza.

Once Sergio has done their bidding, Aura begins to taunt him about being less a man that Fabrizio and about missing him and wishing he'd come back. Sergio threatens to punch her if she ever utters that name again because it reminds him of the horrible thing he did, trying to protect her. Of course, Aura's response is to keep driving at him until he eventually punches her in the face a couple of times. It was HARD to watch as an adult so I have no idea how I survived that scene as a kid.

Afterward, Aura disappears for a while, leaving him at the mercy of her mother. Sergio begins to spiral into self-doubt at her absence and constantly begs Consuelo to bring her back. Of course the old woman does nothing but run the man down and tell him how ignorant he is and what a poor job he does. No matter how hard he tries, it's never enough and her abuse has seemingly taken whatever womanizing, self-confidence he has right out of him, leaving an unsure, miserable wretch in his place.

One afternoon, Sergio finds Aura back... in the arms of a younger, better-looking man. Like Fabrizio before him, he is so happy to see her, then it begins to sink in that this has been going on for hundreds of years and that someone has to break the cycle.

He runs upstairs, grabbing Consuelo by her wrist and dragging her out of the estate, to the front gates. Here, he binds her to the gates and begins stacking everything he can find in front of her that he thinks will burn.

He lights a fire and as Consuelo screams from inside the flames, the vision of Aura appears and you begin to become aware of the fact that they were the same person. Totally killer twist at the end. Of course there are some red herrings alluding to this, but when I was watching it as a kid, I was so worked up over the sex scenes and the violence, I didn't catch it.

Anyway, I have to say that out of all the old movies I've seen this one isn't half bad. It has suspense, mystery, intrigue, romance, action, adventure and even magic.

From the beginning the stage is set for a tragedy with the sad-eyed Richard Johnson playing opposite the feline grace of Rosanna Schiafinni. From the offset the story pulls you in by exposing this great library full of stories that have traveled through the ages, and then it quickly escalates into a faster pace, and a few back stories, and before you know it, you're actually hoping Sergio does get to be with Aura for the rest of his life, even if you know somewhere deep down... he can't. If you're into old spooky films you can't go wrong with this one, but don't let your kids watch it. It's pretty steamy and it is rated R.

All these years alter, I still don't know what my mom was thinking!