MovieChat Forums > La mansión de la niebla (1973) Discussion > Misunderstood (SPOILER WARNINGS!!)

Misunderstood (SPOILER WARNINGS!!)


SPOILER WARNINGS!!
SPOILER WARNINGS!!
SPOILER WARNINGS!!


I don't think this movie ever really had any gobs of nudity or excessive gore: I think it was always intended to be a PG/PG-13ish sort of affair that maybe a family could go see, rather than the usual boobs & blood exploitation approach usually associated with Euro Horror circa 1972: See HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE, DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE and even THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (which seems to have been the inspiration for the film), all of which were definitely made for grown-ups.

MURDER MANSION has more of a "juvenile" feel to it involving trying to solve a creepy mystery at this creepy old house. A lot of people make reference to Scooby-Doo sort of plot elements and that also gets me thinking that maybe what we're actually seeing on the surviving Avco/Embassy print really is about all there was to the movie. I'd hazard to say that perhaps some flashes of toplessness were removed in two specific spots, but there really isn't any opportunity in the script for blatant sexuality, and all of the murders are pretty cut & dried as they are.

Don't get me wrong: The surviving prints are inadequate, there really is no acceptable version of the film for us to see only varying degrees of unacceptableness. The film was definitely filmed widescreen, there are a couple of instances of pan/scan camera movement towards the end so a fullscreen transfer is really not appropriate. It needs to be restored, but what I am getting at is that if/when it is don't expect a peep show to suddenly turn up with Ingrid Garbo losing her bedsheet, and don't hold out hope for people being dismembered onscreen.

In fact they sort of make a visual joke about that when Albert Dalbes chops up the dummy that was hanging in the tunnel. The story also doesn't really call for any of that, and I think they specifically decided to make a more low-key production here. It's a nice change of pace, actually.

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I agree. This film managed to be quite enjoyable and engrossing despite the serious lack of graphic gore and nudity; there's an endearingly earnest quality to this movie that's impossible to either resist or dislike.

"We're all part Shatner/And part James Dean/Part Warren Oates/And Steven McQueen"

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It's like Silent night, Bloody night in this regard.
As bizarre as it gets, and sometimes that's enough.

Your sarcasm has driven me to idiocy.

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