I tre volti della paura [1963]

Country of Origin: Italy / France
Year of Production: 1963
Running Times: 88 mins
Length: 2556 metres
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: Technicolor
Ratio: 1.78:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Emmepi Cinematografica / Galatea Film / Lyre Cinematografica
Producers: Salvatore Billitteri, Paolo Mercuri
Production Manager: Paolo Mercuri

SCRIPT
Script: Mario Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Marcello Fondato
Stories: The Drop of Water by Ivan Chekhov; The Telephone by F.G. Snyder; Sem'ya vurdalaka by Aleksei Tolstoy

DIRECTION
Director: Mario Bava

PHOTOGRAPHY
Directors of Photography: Ubaldo Terzano, Mario Bava [uncredited]
Camera Operators: Enrico Fontana, Mario Mancini
Lab: Technicolor

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Mario Serandrei
Assistant Editor: Lina Caterini

MUSIC
Music: Roberto Nicolosi, Les Baxter [US version]
US Version Music Editor: Eve Newman

SOUND
Sound: Mario Messina
US Version Music Coordinator: Al Simms
US Version Sound Editors: Alfred R. Bird, Ernest Reichert, Kay Rose

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Otello Fava
Hair: Renata Magnanti
Costume Designer: Tina Grani

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Riccardo Dominici
Assistant Production Designer: Francesco Bronzi
Art Director: Giorgio Giovannini
Set Dresser: Riccardo Domenici

LOCATIONS
Studio: Titanus Farnesina Studios, Rome, Italy

CAST
IL TELEFONO
Michèle Mercier [Rosy]
Lidia Alfonsi [Mary]
Milo Quesada [Frank - uncredited]

IL WURDULAK
Boris Karloff [Gorca]
Mark Damon [Vladimire d'Urfe]
Susy Andersen [Sdenka]
Massimo Righi [Pietro]
Glauco Onorato [Giorgio]
Rika Dialina [Maria]

LA GOCCIA D'ACQUA
Jacqueline Pierreux [Helen Chester]
Milly Monti [Miss Perkins' maid]
Gustavo De Nardo [Police Inspector]
Harriet Medin [neighbour]

An anthology of three short horror stories. The Telephone: a young woman is terrorized by an escaped prisoner from her past who taunts her in vicious telephone calls. The Wurdulak: in the nineteenth century, a Russian count becomes involved in a family's ongoing struggle with a vicious clan of vampires. A Drop of Water: a nurse steals a ring from the body a recently deceased old medium, only to face a terrifying visitation from beyond the grave.

As you'd expect from Bava, I tre volti della paura has style a-plenty, but it also has more than its fair share of genuinely creepy, disturbing and outright terrifying moments. The Telephone, though a taut thriller which saw Bava practising some of the giallo moves that he would perfect in later films, is the weakest part of the film, though that's not say it isn't a very fine piece of work. The Wurdulak is a wonderful Gothic nightmare, with Karloff in great form, but the stand-out episode has to be the remarkable A Drop of Water. It's image of the dead woman rising from her bed and gliding across the room is quite simply terrifying. Another gem from one of the Italian masters.

UK
Theatrical Distributors: Warner-Pathe/Anglo-Amalgamated

USA
Theatrical Distributors: AIP
Video Distributors: Network Enterprises; Sinister Cinema; Something Weird Video
Laserdisc Distributors: Image Entertainment [ID 7651 HB]
DVD Distributors: Image Entertainment [ID 5941 AODVD]

West Germany
Theatrical Distributors: Anolis Entertainment

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Italy
Rating: VM14

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: X

USA
Rating: unrated

West Germany
Rating: 16

1963
February
27: Italy – filming begins

March
31: Italy – filming ends

August
12: Italy - passed by the censor board
17: Italy – theatrical release

1964
May
6: USA – theatrical release

August
21: West Germany – theatrical release

1965
November
17: France – theatrical release

1966
April
25: Sweden – theatrical release

1991
April
4: USA - laserdisc release [Image Entertainment [ID 7651 HB]]

2000
August
1: USA - DVD release [Image Entertainment [ID 5941 AODVD]]

The most gruesome day in the calendar!

Not Since 'FRANKENSTEIN' Have You Seen Such Horror!

A story that goes beyond the boundaries of the Supernatural to the half-world of the living dead... Where a woman's soul inhabits a fly's body... where vampires suck only the blood of those they love dearest.

Black Christmas
Black Sabbath – US title
Die Drei Gesichter der Furcht - German title
I skräckens klor - Swedish title
Der Ring der Verdammten - Austrian title
The Three Faces of Fear
The Three Faces of Terror
Las tres caras del miedo - Spanish title
Les trois visages de la peur - French title

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
Don't Scream It's Only a Movie [1989]
Il rosso segno della follia [1969]
Shiver and Shudder Show [2001]

SEE ALSO
La notte dei diavoli [1972]
Papa, umer ded moroz [1992]
Schock [1977]

MAGAZINES

Cinematographie Francaise no.2138 [27 November1965] p.11 [France]
review

Fangoria no.198 [November 2000] p.65 [USA]
DVD review [by Michael Gingold]

Film Francais no.1121 [3 December 1965] p.15 [France]
review

Kine Weekly no.2980 [12 November 1964] p.8 [UK]
credits, review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.31 no.371 [December 1964] pp.179-180 [UK]
credits, synopsis, review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.53 no.624 [January 1986] pp.24-25 [UK]
credits, synopsis, review

Video Watchdog no.5 [May / June 1991] pp.32-59 [USA]
illustrated article [Black Sabbath: The UnMaking of Mario Bava's The Three Faces of Fear by Tim Lucas with translations by Alan Upchurch]

KEYWORDS

anthologies, children, corpses, dogs, escaped prisoners, flies, ghosts, mediums, nurses, rings, russia, severed heads, stalkers, strangulation, telephones, vampires, wurdalak

Last Updated: 12 November, 2007