Bloody Pit of Horror (1965) Il boia scarlatto (original title)

Director:

Massimo Pupillo

Writers:

Romano Migliorini (story)
Roberto Natale (story)

Release Date:

28 November 1965 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

He was a homicidal maniac who LIVED TO KILL!

Plot:

A photographer and his models go to an old, abandoned castle to shoot some sexy covers for horror novels...

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Model | Photographer | Trap | Nudity

Cast

Mickey Hargitay	...	Travis Anderson
Walter Brandi	...	Rick (as Walter Brandt)
Luisa Baratto	...	Edith (as Louise Barret)
Rita Klein	...	Nancy
Alfredo Rizzo	...	Daniel Parks (as Alfred Rice)
Barbara Nelli	...	Suzy (as Barbara Nelly)
Moa Tahi	...	Kinojo
Femi Benussi	...	Annie (as Femi Martin)
Ralph Zucker	...	Dermott - The photographer
Nando Angelini	...	Perry (as Nik Angel)
Albert Gordon
Gino Turini		(as John Turner)
Roberto Messina		(as Robert Messenger)

Directed by
Massimo Pupillo		(as Max Hunter)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Romano Migliorini		story, screenplay and adaptation (as Robert McLoren)
Roberto Natale		story, screenplay and adaptation (as Robert Christmas)

Produced by
Francesco Merli	....	producer
Felix C. Ziffer	....	executive producer
Ralph Zucker	....	producer

Original Music by
Gino Peguri

Cinematography by
Luciano Trasatti		(as John Collins)

Film Editing by
Mariano Arditi		(as Robert Ardis)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Massimo Castellani	....	first assistant director

Special Effects by
Carlo Rambaldi	....	special effects makeup

Music Department
Gino Peguri	....	conductor

Production Companies

• International Entertainment
• M.B.S. Cinematografica

Distributors

• M.B.S. Cinematografica (1965) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Cosmopolis Films (1965) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Astral Films (1967) (Canada) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Hanns Eckelkamp Filmproduktion (1967) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Pacemaker Pictures (1967) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (1993) (USA) (VHS) (uncut version) (Frank Henenlotter's Sexy Shockers from the Vaults, Vol. 13)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (2000) (USA) (DVD) (special edition)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• FilmAnnex (2006) (worldwide) (all media)
• Alpha Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Mill Creek Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• Vidimax Home Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Il boia scarlatto" - Italy (original title)
"The Red Hangman" - USA (promotional title)

Runtime:

87 min | USA:74 min (cut version)

Country:

Italy | USA

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:(Banned) (1967) | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18 (nf)

Filming Locations:

Balsorano Castle, L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy

Company:

International Entertainment

Trivia:

The film was refused a UK cinema certificate in 1967.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator:On this fifth day of December in the year of our Lord sixteen hundred and forty-eight, by the power vested in us by our noble sovereign, this tribunal of Artena sentences you, the Crimson Executioner, to death. You will die by one of the very instruments you devised to torture and kill your innocent victims...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987) (V)

What's your name again? The Crimson…who??

Terrific, cheesy exploit-entertainment, this trashy…sorry BLOODY pit of horror! It's typical & campy Italian smut from the mid-60's; the era during which talented directors like Mario Bava ("Black Sunday") and Antonio Margheriti ("The Virgin of Nuremberg") scored big film-hits with their atmospheric Gothic horror movies. The less gifted but nonetheless ambitious directors naturally wanted to cash in on this successful trend and that resulted in fun flicks like this one. "The Bloody Pit of Horror" benefices from a great castle setting and some excellent scenery (marvelous torture devices), yet all the rest genuinely defines laughably inept and amateurish film-making. Regardless of the Gothic surrounding, the film doesn't contain one moment of tension and all the "gruesome" torture sequences end as randomly as they started. The one and ONLY reason why this film is comical instead of scary is due to the main character. The legendary Mickey Hargitay, who sadly passed away recently, portrays one of the oddest madmen ever to hit the TV-screen. His character Travis Anderson firmly believes he's the reincarnation of a medieval lunatic and submits a group of photographers & models that trespass his castle to some severely maniacal torture, using the ancient devices in his dungeon. His name is the Crimson Executioner (although Little Red Riding Hood would have been a much more appropriate name) and he clearly WORSHIPS himself. Whenever he's not playing torture games on his guests, he admires himself in one of the numerous mirrors of his castle or covers his exceptionally muscled chest in gooey massage oil. He never says "I" but always uses his full nickname to start even the shortest new sentence. "The Crimson Executioner will do this", "The Crimson Executioner shall that", "The Crimson Executioner bla bla bla…" Surely this film doesn't evoke many sentiments of fright or disturbance, but it's enormous fun to observe and at least it's never boring. The version I own on DVD suffers from one of the worst dubbing jobs in the history of cinema and the dialogs aren't exactly highly intellectual, either. For instance, two males open an eerie Iron Maiden coffin and the lifeless body of a young girl falls out. One of them says: "no one can daresay this was an accident!" Gee, you think? Needless to say "The Bloody Pit of Horror" is exclusively recommend to fans of trashy cult cinema. I'm sure the Marquis de Sade himself would have loved it.