Seddok, l'erede di Satana (1960) aka Atom Age Vampire
CONTAINS SPOILERS
As another IMDb reviewer has written, this film is only "recommended for horror fans." The basic story is very familiar: hubris and the use of questionable, experimental methods to return an injured woman's (Susanne Loret) unblemished beauty leads to murder, mayhem, madness and moral decay. Done better - in places - than the 'Atom Age Vampire' title implies, which is probably more descriptive of the US (1963 drive-ins?) marketing than the film's plot. The actual facial injury is not horrific, or even particularly ugly but still causes great distress - Gloria Grahame would have understood perfectly - and it provides Ms. Loret a couple of opportunities to do Veronica Lake and mask it quite attractively with a fall of hair. It also provides more than a couple of moments of unintentional humor.
It is also refreshing to see some small restraint on the gratuitous destruction of the protagonists; the negative side effects, (and funnier makeup), of tampering in inappropriate domains ultimately falls on the tamperer, (where they belong), and not the innocent accident victim. Since Loret's character is a dancer/stripper/etc that could have been used as a pretext, (certainly if this had been a 1960 US production), to turn her into a cardboard cutout labeled Harlot &/or Sin of Vanity and treat her like Dorian Gray or Victor Frankenstein along with the arrogant scientist (Alberto Lupo). Instead, in the end she is apparently cured and free to live happily ever after.
Browsing IMDb I learned there exists, (or existed), an original, uncut, un-dubbed 105 minute version, which I will probably never see, but doubt that the omission will be one of my deathbed regrets. However, there is an entry for this movie at Wikipedia which states:
"Although no 105 minute print has ever been found, it is believed by some that the 105 minute running time was because the deleted VHS release on Acme Video stated a run time of ±105 Mins. (when it meant 1 Hour and 5 minutes)."
The article is supported by the reasonably solid sounding reference: Science Fiction Film Source Book, David Wingrove, Longman Group Ltd., 1985. At any rate the question has apparently been under scrutiny for 30+ years.
Just in case this isn't tiresome enough, the US video release was snipped to 72 minutes, and when it made it to DVD was further reduced to 69 minutes....but 1 hr + 5 m = 65 m =/= 69 m, so perhaps the argument above that the 105 minute version never existed is flawed. There are depths to be plumbed here by a courageous investigator.
The film is out of copyright, (maybe nobody wanted to bother renewing it), and is available from the Internet Archive – their copy is probably ripped from VHS or other tape media but the quality is quite good, (well, watchable), and it is the full 5220 seconds.
XYZ
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