After the shockingly violent and sexual nature of his transgressive giallo Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), Italian director Mario Bava returned to the kinder, gentler trappings of old-fashioned gothic horror with his next film, Baron Blood. Although set in modern times, its chief location — a medieval castle in Austria — gives the film the ambiance of a classic Universal or Hammer production. So does Bava's restraint in telling the story. Twitch featured a naked woman being hacked up with a machete (amongst many other things); the mayhem in Baron Blood is strictly PG-rated material.
Handsome college grad Peter Kleist (Antonio Cantafora) travels from the U.S. to visit his ancestral home in rural Austria. With his uncle, Prof. Karl Hummel (Massimo Gerotti), he tours an ancient castle once owned by his forebears, now being renovated for sale at auction. 300 years ago it was the fortress of the notorious Otto von Kleist, an evil nobleman called "Baron Blood" by the local populace he terrorized in a reign of torture and murder. His crimes were such that the people finally revolted, storming the castle and subjecting the Baron to his own implements of pain before burning him alive.
Peter is obsessed with an occult angle to the legend of the Baron's death. Supposedly a witch whom von Kleist had condemned to the stake placed a curse on him before being consumed by the flames; a certain incantation will bring the Baron's corpse back to life so that he can be tortured anew in atonement. Peter has brought with him a centuries-old parchment containing the words of the spell and, enlisting a pretty architectural student (Elke Sommer) in a late-night visit to the dungeon, speaks the incantation. At first unbeknownst to them, the hideously disfigured Baron does rise from his grave, killing a number of people as he skulks about the castle grounds in a black cape and hat. Later the couple starts to believe that he's really come back and that their own lives are in danger. Meanwhile a strange elderly millionaire, Herr Becker (Joseph Cotton), shows up out of the blue to purchase the castle. He plans to restore Baron Blood's torture chamber to its original condition...
Except for perhaps Antonio Margheriti (The Virgin of Nuremberg), nobody knew their way around a castle, crypt, or night-shrouded cemetery like Mario Bava. A craftsman of profound visual acumen, Bava — whose wizardry at creating the illusion of opulence with but a pittance is legendary — makes excellent use of his locations, steeping the film in a rich gothic atmosphere. This is particularly evident in Baron Blood's two most effective set-pieces: when caretaker Fritz (Luciano Pigozzi) discovers a body hanging in the stairwell, only to get a rude pointer from the Baron personally; and the stalker-like pursuit of Sommer through the fogbound alleyways of the local village. Other than these standout scenes the film is well-mounted but mostly bland, even routine. Without injecting any sleaze or ultraviolence into the proceedings, there's really not much else Bava could do (given the rather basic plot) but make it look great and give it the proper ambiance. At 100 minutes it runs a tad long; 10 or even 15 minutes could've easily been shaved to quicken the pace without compromising the bare-boned scenario. Composer Stelvio Cipriani's score is especially undistinguished, actually hurting the film with its inappropriately bouncy (and kitschy) opening/closing theme, which sounds like it belongs in a sex comedy set on the sunny Riviera.
Though evidently game, the grandfatherly Cotton is much less effective here as the monstrous villain than he is in more sympathetic genre roles (The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Lady Frankenstein). He just doesn't seem the type who'd derive sadistic thrills from torturing people. (And does a lousy job of 'air-slapping' one victim, missing by an obvious country mile. Vincent Price reportedly turned down the part; it's a given, I think, to suggest the film would've been considerably better for his presence, with Cotton more suited to the Uncle Karl role.) The best performance is by Rada Rassimov (The Cat o' Nine Tails) in a small but crucial supporting role as a medium who, at the behest of the protagonists, summons the spirit of the dead witch to learn a way of sending the Baron back to Hell. Buxom blonde Elke Sommer (Bava's Lisa and the Devil) is a real honey — and a decent actress, too, with a sexy German accent — but her hoarse, raspy screaming starts to grate after awhile... and she does a lot of screaming.
A must-see for Bava admirers, Baron Blood only barely achieves time-waster status for gothic horror fans in general. They've seen this type of story many, many times before. And without any serious gore or T&A to 'sex' things up it may prove a bit of a snoozer.
