Wednesday, June 6, 2012

UN OMBRA NELL'OMBRA - "Ring Of Darkness" - "SATAN'S WIFE" (1979)

"Un Ombra Nell'Ombra" or in English, "Satan's Wife" is an interesting gal, but she just ain't that much fun!! The music for this feature was written by a well known name deep down here, Stelvio Cipriani!!! Where to start and where to stop? Stelvio has over 200 insane titles to his composing credit like "12 + 1," "Overrun," "Whirlpool," "The Beast," "The Lickerish Quartet," "The Devil Has Seven Faces," etc etc. The list goes on and on!

Here's an intimate moment from the wedding ceremony!

The Devil's gang signs!! This looks like one of those awkward moments when you go to shake somebody's hand and you don't know which kind of hand shake they are going to use!

The 13 year old actress Lara Wendel as Daria Rhodes is the only thing that makes this movie even remotely interesting! You know what they say about if looks could kill! Lara's got that look down pat!!

"Satan's Wife" is not a film without talent, "Miss Great Britain," 1950, Anne Heywood, towards the end of her career plays Daria's Mother, Carlotta Rhodes! Anne Heywood's name at birth was Violet Pretty, but after her first film in 1951, "Bikini Baby," she changed it! Anne played The Brain's wife in "The Brain" and had the role of Fulvia in "Carthage In Flames!" Back in the day, she even posed for Playboy!

The priest summoned to do the exorcism is played by none other than John Phillip Law who we know from "Barbarella" and "Danger: Diabolik!"

My, my, that is quite a headdress she has on!!

If you have some kind of insane burning desire to see every devil worshiping "Exorcist" wannabe flick ever made, then put this one on your list for sure!! Not at the top, but on there somewhere!!

Flaming pitchforks almighty, it's the God Damn Devil his self!!

A more than generous portion of this film is dedicated to ceremonies conducted in the altogether, and nudity is not necessarily a worthwhile substitution for a good script in my humble opinion!

I think I read that the producers of this film stirred themselves up a bit of controversy because Lara Wendel briefly appeared nude in a couple of scenes!

I don't quite get it, but Lara Wendel is a hard one to find information about! Born Daniela Rachele Barnes, her parents were both actors. Her Mother was Britta (Wendel) Barnes who was in two Italian flicks, and her father was former professional football player turned actor, Walter Barnes! Walter was a big man and was in "Captain Sinbad" as Rolf, and many of the western TV shows of the 60's, like "Maverick," and "Gunsmoke!"

This looks like a shot from a lost "Married With Children" episode titled something like "Al Goes To Hell!"

Lara's name was a combination of the last two letters of her first name Daniela, and the first two letters of her middle name Rachele! Here's that look again, notched up a gear!!

So I guess you probably figured it out, if Daria's Mom is "Satan's Wife," that makes Daria the daughter of The Devil, and not one to be trifled with!!

Among Lara Wendel's credits are "Fellini's Intervista" and Dario Argento's "Tenebre!" I have no idea where she is or what she's doing these days, but we'd love to do an interview with her!!

That's one cab fare you should have probably skipped, Amigo!! How ironic, today is 6-6-12..........

1 comment:

Greg Goodsell said...

The best Anne Heywood film is I WANT WHAT I WANT, where she plays a man who wants to become a woman. This was long before Felicity Huffman did the same thing in TRANSAMERICA. Her producer husband was a real perv, and pushed her to appear in some real sick flicks like GOOD LUCK, MISS WYCKOFF, aka THE SHAMING.

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