The Mephisto Waltz (1971)

From my favorite movies..

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Entertaining movie, but rather dumb towards the end, due to extreme leaps in logic. I haven't read the book this was based on, so maybe the actions of the wife at the end make better sense in print, but I highly doubt it. Basically, Jacqueline Bisset loses Alan Alda and his body to Curt Jurgens, so she takes over Barbara Parkin's body so she can still be with Alan Alda's body, even though Alan Alda's body now comes with Curt Jurgens inside, like swapping Pentium for Athlon - Alan Alda is no longer running the system.So this question remains: is Alan Alda's body so hot that no matter who he is now, Jacqueline Bisset has to have it no matter what?

Music journalist Myles Clarkson (Alda) goes to interview the dying master of the piano Duncan Ely (Jurgens). Ely is impressed with Myles and notices he has the hands of a pianist. Myles becomes good friends with both Ely and his pretty daughter Roxanne (Parkins). All of this is making Myles wife Paula (Bissett) very suspicious of Myles' new odd friends. Once Ely passes, Paula begins to see a change in Myles personality. Suddenly, Myles is able to play as well as Ely could and eventually takes up his concert duties. There is an obvious attraction between Myles and Roxanne. Paula does some investigation and discovers that Ely and Roxanne made a deal with the devil so Ely could live on, as Duncan Ely's soul has invaded Myles body. Desperate to get her husband back, Paula turns to darkness and makes her own deal with the devil. Thoroughly strange film from Director Paul Wendkos weaves a slow, but hypnotic spell. Told from the perspective of Paula the wife (A stunning looking Bissett), the audience is forced to look through her eyes into this bizarre world of devil worship. Wendkos does a good job of keeping the audience off balance with dogs wearing masks, crazy parties, and bizarre dreams, and shooting this all with extremely wide angle photography which captures the feeling of dread. Jerry Goldsmith offers up an effective and moody score which predates his Oscar winning score for "The Omen" which you can certainly hear in flashes here. The film has a leisurely pace which may turn off some viewers, and the horror is more weird and strange than shocking or gruesome. There are some decent payoffs for patient viewers and enough creativity to come recommended.

Too bad this neglected horror film got lost in the wake of the similarly themed Rosemany's Baby. Modestly successful journalist Alan Alda suddenly becomes a successful concert pianist following a chance meeting with piano virtuoso Duncan Ely (Curt Jergens) and his darkly seductive daughter, Roxanne (Barbara Parkins). His growing involvement with the wealthy family and their strange friends eventually comes between Alda and his loving wife, Paula (Jackie Bissett). As sinister events unravel, Paula is drawn deeper into a web of diabolic happenings until the threads come together in a surprising and oddly gratifying climax.The script is tight and well-thought out, with the exception of Dillman's role as Roxanne's ex-husband. After all, if the diabolists are so sexually compelling, how could he divorce her. And though director Paul Wendkos occasionally goes overboard with the camera tricks, the scenes are stylishly done, especially the banquet with its snatches of pretentious banter, and the New Years party with its erotic grotesqueries bound to end in an orgy. And underneath it all lies an undercurrent of evil, even during the brightest splashes of sunlight.Though Alda gets star billing, it's actually Bissett's movie, which she carries off in finely shaded fashion. Her scenes with the ominously silent Roxanne (just count Parkins' few lines) amount to an exquisite model of civilized contempt, minus the fisticuffs. Alda too, shines, as he acts out Ely's imperious manner at just the right moments, proving in those pre-MASH days that he was more than the humorously caustic Hawkeye Pierce.As good as the movie is, I can't help wondering if it might have been even better had the mystery not been exposed as early as it is. Suppose the script had skipped the transference ritual and simply had Alda take on Ely's characteristics without explanation, such that the audience would have to ponder what's going on, instead of having it handed to them. There may have been good reasons for not taking this mystery route, but at least it's worth considering.Still and all, Waltz remains a fine example of movie horror done in both color and sunny surroundings, and with a lot of style and conviction. Too bad, it's slipped into movieland's version of yester-year oblivion. It deserves better. And, if nothing else, the script raises the scary question of whether dogs really are man's (woman's) best friend.

Quinn Martin Productions venture into theatrical films as opposed to its television work is a tidy little entry in the Satanic genre which the late 1960s and early 1970s were chock full of and it is sad that we do not see such films today.The stunning beauty Barbara Parkins and the irrepressible Curt Jürgens steal the show and turn in performances that dwarf the rest of the cast. This is a low budget film and yet without all of today's special effects it is readily more thrilling and frightening than the typical horror film of contemporary American film.Thank heavens it is on DVD I saw it originally and now eagerly seek to have it for my collection.