After watching Terror-Creatures from the Grave last night,I got set to continue exploring the Barbara Steele box set. Recently seeing his very good Euro Spy movie Operazione Goldman,I was pleased to find a title which had Steele team-up with director Antonio Margheriti,which led to me cutting the hairs of death.View on the film:Displaying his eye for attention-grabbing openings by surrounding the viewer with flickering flames that place them in the middle of the burning, director Antonio Margheriti reunites with his regular cinematographer collaborator Riccardo Pallottini to brew an icy Gothic Horror vibe via stylishly shooting tracking shots from the ground up that place a bewitching "floating" expression on Karnstein. Appearing to visibly lose interest during the romantic mid-section,Margheriti and Pallottini re-gain their footing in the slithering ending, with ghostly dissolves being triggered by zoom-ins over rats and bugs running along the decaying practical effects.Stamped with the mark by Margheriti (who did un-credited re-writes) that he found the script poor quality, the writers Ernesto Gastaldi and Tonino Valerii appear undecided over what the film should be,as the beginning and the ending offers a lively Gothic Horror revenge tale of the Karnstein,that is toned down in the middle for an ill-fitting attempt at costume drama romance. Arrogantly snarling at the Karnstein's,George Ardisson gives a very good performance as Baron Kurt Humboldt,who stands out by Ardisson allowing a level of fear to be cast across his face. Playing two roles again, Barbara Steele gives a transfixing performance as the Karnstein's,whose ambiguities Steele turns into starling screams as the long hair of death grows.

This spooky Italian Gothic chiller is, quite simply, one of the best of its kind. Directed by veteran Antonio Margheriti (under his popular pseudonym of Anthony Dawson), everything works to this film's favour, from the low-key musical score which suggests rather than frightens, to the crisp black and white photography which brings out all the unknown shadows and flickering light sources (my only complaint with the lighting was when a character is carrying a candle but he's lit up by what obviously is a torch. This is ruined by an unfortunate inability to keep the light and the candle next to each other). This film's style brings it very close to the feel of BLACK Sunday.The plot, it has to be said, is nothing new, but it mixes in all the staple ingredients we know and love of the gothics. From the burning of the witch at the film's opening, to the inescapable finale, which reminds one of THE WICKER MAN, everything is present and correct. Fans of these particular films will be delighted by the endless parade of macabre images, from an apparently breathing corpse (it turns out to have rats scurrying around inside it), to an excellent moment where lightning strikes and opens a grave, revealing a corpse inside. The corpse then regenerates into a human being.The acting is above standard, the characters are enticing, even breaking through the obvious dubbing barrier. Barbara Steele is, as usual, the best actress in the film, and enjoys herself as first an apparently frightened victim, to a cold-blooded murderer, to finally a figure of vengeance. The twist in the tale - that she is a spirit, come to seek revenge - is obvious to spot well in advance, but this ruins nothing of the fun. George Ardisson is also very good as the strong, arrogant noble, who has been turned into a quivering wreck by the spirits at the end of this film. THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH is everything a film buff could wish for, and plenty more besides. Track it down immediately and see what you're missing out on.

"I lunghi capelli della morte" by Antonio Margheriti is a classic b/w Gothic movie. Take a flickering candle, go down into the crypt, past the spider webs - and you wouldn't be surprised if Bela Lugosi was lurking in the shadow. Actually it's Barbara Steele which you can't complain about, either. Giorgio Ardisson plays Kurt, the son of a Count, who commits a murder, blames it on a witch, the witch is burnt and leaves a terrible curse behind - maybe the story is not something new, but it matters most in this movie to show how a man is slowly trapped in a revenge plan - so slowly that for most of the running time, he doesn't even realize the torment already began. That not much is happening, as sometimes reviewers do say, is done on purpose: Kurt would like to move, but he is becoming aware more and more of his helplessness, his inability to hide. "I lunghi capelli della morte" is a movie with intensity, atmosphere and beauty in its black and white imagery, and while I just wanted to check out the first chapter for the disc quality when the DVD arrived in the mail, I ended up watching it till the end - it was mesmerizing and really that good. Fans of the genre, don't miss it!

Long Hair of Death is a great film. I have to disagree with other reviewers regarding this, both those here on the IMDb and some in printed publications. This is 1960s Italian horror at its very best and, to me, that means it is among the very best, period. I can understand why many in today's impatient, multi-task oriented audience would not like slow moving, atmospheric films which are very dull compared to the current era's action and gore oriented offerings. Films such as these require a cultivated taste of sorts and I realize they are not for everybody.Long Hair of Death is outstanding because it is exactly what those who do not like it say that it is. It is slow moving, contains little action and there are long periods of -- not much. Not much, except for a feeling of dread and unease that begins immediately after the story begins and does not end until literally the film's end. The slowness is the main reason the viewer sits in uncomfortable agony waiting for something bad to happen, which eventually does. The story concerns a woman burnt at the stake in 16th century Italy, falsely accused of murder. That she happens to be a count's wife and the count's son the real villain of the story are of great importance in the storyline. Giorgio Ardisson as the evil Kurt Humboldt is one of the big screen's most despicable characters, as throughout the film he commits multiple murder and rape, but sadly most persons not interested in obscure cinema will never know this or experience his splendid performance. The great Barbara Steele (How I wish she had done a greater body of work!) plays a dual role, her characters being pretty much the same as they were in 1960's Black Sunday, (La Maschera del Demonio), as Helen Karnstein, wife of Count Humboldt and also as her daughter Mary. Again, the story is pretty much the same as Black Sunday, with the emphasis being on the executed Helen and the curse she places upon the Count and his son Kurt Humboldt. Daughter Mary, who is a lookalike for her mother, assists in the revenge by playing upon the Count's guilt to destroy him emotionally and getting Kurt to fall in love with her. The fact that Kurt is already married to Mary's sister Elizabeth, herself abused by Kurt, adds dramatically to the sense of moral decay in the Humboldt castle.The ultimate revenge is as creative as it is brutal. Watch the film to see what it is, I won't provide SPOILERS here.Barbara Steele remains to this day the standard which all horror (scream) queens are judged, and that is interesting because she does very little screaming and performs little if any violence in her films. She is to horror acting what Alfred Hitchcock was to suspense directing. They frighten you with "What if . . . ," instead of actual brutality and exaggerated acting. From the moment she first appears on screen in any of her films one knows trouble will soon follow and it has nothing to do with anything she says or does. Whatever "it" is, she has it in abundance. Long Hair of Death will remind some viewers of 1972's Lisa and the Devil, (Lisa e il Diavolo) another story of a decaying household but set to modern times. One wonders how much better that film would have been with Ms. Steele in the lead instead of Elke Sommer, a fine actress but out of her depth in psychological horror. Director Antonio Margheriti has never received the credit he deserves as a fine director of subdued horror. Margheriti will take you on a painstaking walk through the dreariest of castles and make you feel the suspense of every hesitant step and so it is with Long hair of Death. I recently viewed Long Hair of Death after having not seen it in awhile and was emotionally drained by the time the end credits rolled. If you are unfamiliar with this type of film and are unimpressed with the sensationalism of today's cinema, then find Long Hair of Death or any of the other fine films of Margheriti or Mario Bava. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised and join me in my admiration of Italian horror cinema of this period.