La maschera del demonio

We are in 1830. Doctor Chomas and his assistant Gorobec are heading to Moscow, in order to participate to a scientific convention, but they are forced to stop in a ruined chapel with the sarcophagus of an old witch. Chomas accidentally breaks the crystal of the grave and a few drops of his blood fall on the body of the witch, who comes back to life. The two of them find a shelter in a castle near there, where Katia, the great niece of the witch, lives together with her father and brother. The revenant, who is bloodthirsty, triggers a series of murders: she makes Chomas kill the ill father, Katia’s brother ends up on the bottom of a gorge and an old servant is found hanged. Katia’s fate seems to be written; but Gorobec, who has fallen in love with her, looks for help at a minister’s of a village nearby. He teaches him the secret to get rid of the witch and to give eternal rest to her victims. In the meantime, the witch takes Katia. When Gorobec gets to the sarcophagus, he releases the girl and kills the witch.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

I didn’t want to be a director, because I think you must be a genius, and I was happy being an operator, I even used to earn a lot of money. I learned all the tricks of the trade. Many years before, I had read Il Vij by Gogol, which is a great story and a film that still has to be made. I read it to Silvi Marina, to my little children, there was no television, yet. The two poor little things slept in one half of the bed, because they were too scared. At the time, Dracula was out, so I thought about making a horror movie. I had Il Vij, it was my first film as a director, I had to take a really serious step, because otherwise it could have been over for me, both as a director and an operator. La maschera del demonio came out, there was only the name of the protagonist from Il Vij, it was a whole new story. Five billions at box office in America and I was the director. That was the only film that I took great care of, it was entirely shoot with the Dolly, which isn’t used anymore because of time and money. There were 60 signs for the trucks, the high-low. The stagehand used to go crazy, but with the Dolly you get the shots right, you can lift and lower. I used to make the photography and I was very quick, it would take me as long as seven minutes to put the light, twelve minutes to do a whole hall. Photography, in a horror film, makes 70% of the work, it gives the atmosphere.
I remember when I saw Barbara Steele for the first time at the Grand Hotel. I’m a simple man, I can’t make scenes. I’m not Roman, I was born in Sanremo, but I became a Roman because I’ve been living here for 55 years. I like simple things. She was scared of Italians, she was crazy. One day she didn’t want to come to work because someone told her that I had a magic film, which made people naked. I told her that if I had a film like that, I would have been a billionaire. Maybe they told her I made tricks, or something like that. We needed someone weird and we chose her from the pictures. Everyone would want fake teeth, but I changed that, because they were already ridiculous.
The great secret with actors is to shoot only close-ups on the first day, left eye, right eye, even without film. So you can conquer them you be become a great director. I learned a lot by working with many directors. I came so close to Mario Soldati that he used to put lights for me and I was the director. He was an amazing operator. I also worked with a few bad examples, I learnt what to do and what not to: I used to make the editing by myself, it is the best thing, I shoot based on the way I already imagine the editing. I saw again La maschera del demonio five years ago, because the Americans came and wanted to make it a colour film. I turned it down because my son and I couldn’t stop laughing while watching it. Except for a few rare masterpieces, Charlot’s films or All quiet on the Western front, when you watch films from ten years before you laugh, and a horror film is already out-of-date after two years.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Director: Mario Bava.
Plot: Marcello Coscia, dal racconto "Il Vij" di Nikolaj Gogol.
Screenplay: Marcello Coscia, Mario Bava, Ennio De Concini, Mario Serandrei.
Director of photography: Mario Bava.
Art director: Giorgio Giovannini.
Costume designer: Tina Doriedo Grani.
Editor: Mario Serandrei.
Music: Roberto Nicolosi.
Cast and characters: Barbara Steele (Katia - la strega), John Richardson (Andrej Gorobec), Ivo Garrani (il padre di Katia), Andrea Checchi (dottor Chomas), Arturo Dominici (Javutich), Clara Bindi (la locandiera), Enrico Oliveri (Costantino, fratello di Katia), Mario Passante (il cocchiere), Tino Bianchi (il domestico), Antonio Pierfederici, Renato Terra, Germana Dominici.
Production company: Massimo De Rita per la Galatea - Jolly.
Italian distribution: Unidis.