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Last House on the Beach (The) AKA La Settima donna (1978)
R2 - Austria - Sazuma Productions Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (5th May 2007). |
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The Film
 Little did Wes Craven know back then, that his low budget feature “The Last House on the Left (1972)” would become one of the landmark horror-films and a very influential piece of work for the other directors. In all fairness, that particular film was influenced from Ingmar Bergman´s “The Virgin Spring AKA Jungfrukällan (1960)”, but Craven of course made the subject matter more nasty and disturbing. It was also the title that started to live on its own life, when other films exploited it in their marketing. There was “The Last House on Dead End Street (1977)” and especially Italian films were re-named to the American audiences imitating the title. There were “The Last House on the Left, Part II”, “Hitchhike: Last House on the Left”, “The Last House Near the Lake”, and - “The Last House on the Beach AKA La Settima donna (1978)” (also known as “Terror”) from director Franco Prosperi (e.g. “Professional Killer AKA Tecnica di un omicidio (1966)”). There were also films like “Night Train Murders AKA L' Ultimo treno della notte (1975)” and “The House on the Edge of the Park AKA La Casa sperduta nel parco (1980)”, purely taking the core from “The Last House on the Left”. If anything, Italians knew how to borrow back in the days. “The Last House on the Beach” also takes the essence from “The Last House on the Left”, which basically means that the group of criminal psychopaths are on the run after a violent crime and seek a hiding place. When some random place is chosen, the men start to terrorise and abuse the people in the house. This will more or less go on all through the movie - until someone fights back and the revenge is dished cold. The leader Aldo (Ray Lovelock - from e.g. “The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue AKA Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti (1974)”, “Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man AKA Uomini si nasce poliziotti si muore (1976)” and “The Cassandra Crossing (1976)”), psychotic Walter (Flavio Andreini) and almost child-like Nino (Stefano Cedrati) rob the bank in the opening scene, leaving the trail of chaos and blood behind. The scene full of adrenalin cuts quite cleverly to the suave and sexy scene, where a group of young women are enjoying the sun in their bikinis. Before things go as far as them being topless, Sister Cristina (Florinda Bolkan - e.g. “The Damned AKA La Caduta degli dei (1969)”, “A Lizard in a Woman's Skin AKA Una Lucertola con la pelle di donna (1971)” and “Don't Torture a Duckling AKA Non Si Sevizia Un Paperino (1972)”) interrupts. With these two quite different scenes, the audience is already prepared to what will happen next. Ruthless criminals and innocent women will cross paths, when the car used in the robbery is about to break down and the men drive to the nearest remote house in the hills, right near the beach. The women - college students having an acting seminar, will wake up to the upcoming horrors, when the housemaid is soon brutally murdered by Walter. Things are getting more complicated when Nino is stabbed by one of the women, who is just horrified, protecting herself when Nino tries to harass her. After that, the atmosphere cools down a bit, when Aldo takes charge. It´s evident that the criminals are safe at least for a few days before the bus ride is coming to pick the students. This is just calm before the storm, since soon the men will find out that the teacher Cristina is actually “Sister Cristina” and humiliate her by stripping her naked and then re-dressing her in her nun´s uniform. Things are only getting worse, since Aldo and Walter end up also raping her later on. This won´t be their last attack toward the women, even when Aldo is trying to control the situation to some degree. Nino´s wound is also starting to get infected. The situation is about to explode.. “The Last House on the Beach” is an above average “Euro cult”-affair, relying more on the psychological terror than exploitation. It´s also doing a good job of keeping things confusing for the audience, not knowing what will really happen next (you know that it´ll be something unpleasant, but not really what or when). There are a few surprises. A couple of nastier scenes are included (the film is definitely no walk through the park), but the film doesn´t rely on them, just showing a series of explicit and disturbing images all the film through. Some of the violence happens off-screen and often the scenes of sexual violation are quite psychedelic, which will soften the blow. They´re effective and horrifying, but doesn´t really cross the line where they would go too far. They serve the story more than exploitative values. The characters have also more to them than at first appears, e.g. Aldo is the leader and the “voice of reason” at the beginning, but his manipulative (e.g. towards one of the girls Matilde (Luisa Maneri - as Annaluisa Pesce)) and dark side will come out in the open when the film progresses. At some point I started to wonder whether they can´t make up their mind with the character of Aldo, meaning what is his true nature, but the director obviously doesn´t want to reveal everything (e.g. in the opening scenes of the robbery, you can only see the feet of the criminals - and for a reason). The pacing of the film is not fully a success, since after the “action” of the first part of the film, the story goes to stand still for a while and there are a few silly scenes (e.g. everyone watching the striptease-show from the TV). The tension is partly lost. The film is fortunately starting to pick up the speed soon and terror is taking over. The music by composer Roberto Pregadio is a big part of the film and often one song plays throughout the whole sequence (e.g. the totally different score at the “robbery scene” and then in the “sunbathing scene”). The score works well for the movie. Ray Lovelock was one of the leading men in the Italian “Euro cult”-days (he´s still working constantly in the Italian TV) and a fans favourite for many. He also did “Meet Him and Die AKA Pronto ad uccidere (1976)” with director Franco Prosperi. This talented and handsome actor is the key for making the film work, along with his co-star, the Brazilian born Florinda Bolkan. She is also a very familiar face for many fans and probably one of the best actresses from the Italian horror and exploitation films from the 1970s (she also appeared in many classic European films, not just in “Euro cult”). Her role is a bit one-dimensional, but essential for the film. “The Last House on the Beach” keeps its tight hold almost throughout the film (only letting it slip for a few times somewhere in the middle) and manages to deliver an effective ending. Actors, direction and the visual world are all solid as well, making this a pretty essential film for your “Euro cult”-collection.
Video
Austrian “Sazuma Productions” has released “No.2” in their new “Italian Genre Cinema Collection”-line and things are again looking good. Presented remastered - in Anamorphic 2.35:1 - the transfer is very clean, the blacks are bold and sharpness is in a good level. Glimpses of edge enhancement are present and perhaps the transfer is very slightly dark, but nothing major. The film is often using some “cooler” colours, so the image is not that vivid (colours are still quite natural). The “dual layer” disc is coded “R2”, and it has 18 chapters. The film runs 86:09 minutes (PAL), and it´s using Italian opening credits and for some reason English end credits. I also compared this new release to the older Japanese DVD from “Media Suits”. “Sazuma” is an improvement in almost all departments and it has also better extras. Japanese-release has more film artifacts and print damage, it looks soft and compressed and generally somewhat murkier. This shows that the proper remastering and professional authoring can do wonders for any film. Do note, that it has been reported (thanks to DVDManiacs-forum), that both “Sazuma” and Japanese DVD are missing one brief shot of “typing hands” before the criminals enter the bank at the beginning. This shot was included at least in the old UK VHS from “CineHollywood”. Ray Lovelock credit (“theme song”) in it's opening titles is also absent.
Audio
Three audio options are included, all Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Italian, English, and German. For some reason the English track is not listed in the back cover, nor in the main menu, but it´s still there. English and German subtitles are included. I chose the Italian track, which sounded more natural for me. To me e.g. Ray Lovelock spoke Italian in the film and based on the extras he also dubbed his own track (other two thugs were dubbed by other voice-actors). Perhaps Florinda Bolkan spoke English on some scenes, but frankly I couldn´t always tell (which probably means that the English track is also a relatively good choice and partly the “matter of taste” which one you´ll choose). In any case, the Italian track is very clean, only with minor hiss and only if you start to really listen. English track has more hiss in the background and perhaps the dialogue is a bit more muffled, but in the end it´s also in good shape. All in all, both Italian and English tracks are sounding pretty good, considering that age of the film.
Extras
You can choose English or German menu, and even remove the menu-transitions to make all to run smoother. The DVD comes in a 2-disc digi-pack in a cardboard slipcover. “Holy Beauty vs. The Evil Beasts” -featurette runs 28:33 minutes and is in Italian (with optional English or German subtitles). It´s the interview with Ray Lovelock who, among the fellow actors like Franco Nero and Gianni Garko, is great in interviews. Lovelock starts telling about his name (which is real, since his father was English and mother Italian), his dreams as a young boy (become a professional soccer-player) and the start of his acting career (working in commercials at the 13-14 years of age and later as an extra). His first proper speaking role was in “Django, Kill... If You Live, Shoot! AKA Se sei vivo spara (1967)” along with another Italian cult-figure Tomas Milian. It´s also interesting to hear that Lovelock and Milian once had a band together, where Lovelock was the singer (in that time, many actors were encouraged to make records in Italy). Lovelock actually declined for many roles at the start of his career, until his agent started to choose a few films for him and his career took off. He also talks about “The Last House on the Beach” and his character, along with his relationship with director Prosperi and also about the other actors. It´s interesting to hear that the ending scene was originally filmed in one take with many cameras, but the negatives were damaged (or something like that). They had to re-shoot the scene. He also talks about the violence in the movies back then, which was often “part of the show” for him (there were “bad guys” and “good guys”). Since he´s a father now and everything, his thoughts have obviously changed, but he clearly doesn´t regret his work to in some of the more violent movies. “The Last House on the Beach” also was a very pleasant experience for him. -2 theatrical trailers are included (no subtitles); Italian (2:45 min) and German (2:47 min). -German alternate opening credits runs 0:55 seconds and they´re just plain text on the purely red background. Music also seems to be different and apparently it has a different dubbing than the film’s actual German language track. -Poster gallery includes 11 photos; 1 Italian poster, 2 German posters (of some kind), 2 press materials (of some kind), 3 Italian lobby cards and 3 German VHS-material. DVD credits rounds up the proper extras (as a minor hint, in there you can find an discount code to the Sazuma.com online-store). -One Easter Egg is included; Highlight the “Holy Beauty vs. The Evil Beasts”-text and press “left”. The face of Lovelock will be highlighted. Press enter and you´ll get the “Let´s Rock with Ray” karaoke music video (3:20 minutes) of the song that he sings in the film: “Place for the Landing”. Karaoke lyrics work within the subtitles-stream, so you can listen to the song without them also. Digi-pack also includes 8-page booklet, with liner notes by Christian Kessler in both English (“Of Nuns and Jackals”) and in German. Bonus disc (CD): Great addition is The Original Soundtrack from composer Roberto Pregadio, licensed trough “Beat Records”. Here´s the track list: 1 - La Settima Donna (vocals by Edda Dell'Orso) (2:26 min) 2 - Place for the Landing (vocals by Ray Lovelock) (3:15 min) 3 - Lo Spogliarello (3:03 min) 4 - Favolosa Festa di Danza (4:37 min) 5 - Costretti a Fare l´Amore (1:52 min) 6 - Un Pomeriggio di Sole (4:17 min) 7 - La Fuga (3:49 min) 8 - Perfide Bestie (2:57 min) 9 - La Settima Donna (Ripresa) (2:25 min) 10 - Favolosa Festa di Danza (Versione Alternativa) (4:38 min) 11 - La Fuga (Versione Alternativa) (3:49 min)
Overall
With this release and the earlier “Suspected Death of a Minor AKA Morte sospetta di una minorenne (1975)”, “Sazuma Productions” has shown that it´s putting some time and effort to their releases, giving the “Euro cult”-fans something to rejoice. As a film, “The Last House on the Beach” is not a masterpiece, but a film that has some tension, violence and nastiness and good actors - all done in Italian way. This DVD is available at .
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