As with last week’s Moviedrome Monday entry (The Parallax View in this case), this one also includes a youtube link to Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox’s intro to this film, which is The Long Hair of Death – a 1964 black-and-white Italian horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti (sometimes known as Anthony M. Dawson or Anthony Daisies). The episode’s original airdate was July 24, 1988 (read here). Here, Cox talks about it’s similarities to The Wicker Man (another Moviedrome entry that I covered – read here) and delves a little bit into the background of it’s lead British actress Barbara Steele (read here and here). Cox is correct that horror films made up a good portion of his work (his then previous one being Castle of Blood – co-directed with Sergio Corbucci from that same year), but Margheriti has also tackled other genres including action, Eurospy, giallo, science fiction, spaghetti westerns (though he briefly talks about one of them in his introduction), sword and sandal films and war movies serve as many examples according to wikipedia’s entry on him (read here). Both Margheriti and The Long Hair of Death has often been implicitly dismissed as a pale imitation of Italian horror maestro Mario Bava and his works (read here). Having only seen a few of his films, I can not really comment on that. Nevertheless, I have no problem in praising The Long Hair of Death as a visually atmospheric horror film and I think many people can agree with that sentiment – at least those who have seen this film.
Here is a youtube link to Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to The Long Hair of Death
Here is a youtube link to The Long Hair of Death’s U.S. trailer (I could not find the Italian one)
cinematiccoffee 
I had never even heard of this film, John. The trailer was fun though. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
I don’t know this film or any film by the director. I enjoyed the trailer. It reminded me of Corman’s The Pit and the Pendulum and a tad bit–just a tad–of The Abominable Dr. Phibes. The vibe of it. Of course one is a Black Comedy and one is pure horror, but both are influenced by giallo. About the only Italian Horror (giallo) I’ve watched are a few Dario Argento films which I like a lot.
Did you like the tongue-in-cheek ending of Alex Cox’s intro to The Long Hair of Death? 🙂 Anyway, thanks for dropping by 🙂
Dario Argento has done a lot of great stuff 🙂 I have not seen many films by Antonio Margheriti, but I have seen The Long Hair of Death and yes, you are right, something about it does remind one of Roger Corman’s The Pit and the Pendulum. Anyway, thanks for dropping by 🙂
Interesting. I enjoyed the Moviedrome introduction. Like Alex Cox I also wonder why more films aren’t made in black and white. I didn’t know anything about director Margheriti or actress Barbara Steele before reading your post. Alex is obviously quite taken with Barbara, as he waxes lyrical about her big eyes and incredible cheekbones. I might watch The Long Hair of Death just to gaze upon this “amazing looking woman.”
I have not seen many films by Margheriti either, but I have seen that one 🙂 And yes, both you and Alex Cox are right about Barbara Steele 🙂 Anyway, thanks for dropping by 🙂
What a great intro. Not one of the Moviedromes I managed to see back in the day. Hopefully I’ll get to it one day soon. He’s so right about film looking better in black and white, they at least don’t date as fast. And the monochrome can look so gorgeous.
I also love the way Cox ends his intro 🙂 Very tongue-in-cheek 🙂 Anyway, thanks for dropping by 🙂