Some exotic, operatic music opens this film in dramatic style, and makes frequent returns throughout. Sometimes it is used as the soundtrack, and it is also heard by the hero Mario often overpowering him. But who knows what it signifies?
Cihangir Gaffari's Mario is a magnificently bouffanted, heroically moustachioed slice of the 1970s. He explores the caverns and mountainous wastes of the film's title, medallion glinting in the sunshine. He is Peter Wyndgarde and Engelbert Humperdinck rolled into one. As a character, he is solid rather than likeable, and certainly not as belittling to his female co-star as many males in films of this era - even if he is just as glamorous. Delia is played by Patty Shepard, who has become a prolific face in Spanish, Italian and French horror. Possibly her most notable performance remains the vampire Countess in Paul Naschy's successful and influential 'La Noche de Walpurgis'. Here, together with Gaffari, they make a good team, with Delia rarely reduced to 'the screamer' - although the various set-pieces give her good reason to!
Raúl Artigot's story meanders and is occasionally incomprehensible. However, alongside 'The Devil's Wedding Night' (with which this film shares a DVD), it is more about moments than a linear, flowing narrative. The first sequence, for example, featuring a petulant child being indulged by her ineffectual mother, doesn't appear to have anything to do with anything that happens subsequently! Equally, Mario's first meeting with Delia is similarly murky: fresh from breaking up with his girlfriend Carla (Mónica Randall - who I think is the mother from the preceding prologue), the photographer stumbles across the sunbathing Delia and proceeds to take photos of her near-nakedness, which she is perfectly happy about. Grounds for an ongoing relationship, clearly!
After this, the two of them travel to the mountain as part of Mario's unspecified assignment and encounter all manner of creepy characters, including a tone-deaf innkeeper and a mysterious old woman (all convincingly played), before a grand finale which appears to tie all the events together - except it doesn't really. I enjoyed this, much as I enjoy a lot of European horror from this period. My score is 7 out of 10.
Cihangir Gaffari's Mario is a magnificently bouffanted, heroically moustachioed slice of the 1970s. He explores the caverns and mountainous wastes of the film's title, medallion glinting in the sunshine. He is Peter Wyndgarde and Engelbert Humperdinck rolled into one. As a character, he is solid rather than likeable, and certainly not as belittling to his female co-star as many males in films of this era - even if he is just as glamorous. Delia is played by Patty Shepard, who has become a prolific face in Spanish, Italian and French horror. Possibly her most notable performance remains the vampire Countess in Paul Naschy's successful and influential 'La Noche de Walpurgis'. Here, together with Gaffari, they make a good team, with Delia rarely reduced to 'the screamer' - although the various set-pieces give her good reason to!
Raúl Artigot's story meanders and is occasionally incomprehensible. However, alongside 'The Devil's Wedding Night' (with which this film shares a DVD), it is more about moments than a linear, flowing narrative. The first sequence, for example, featuring a petulant child being indulged by her ineffectual mother, doesn't appear to have anything to do with anything that happens subsequently! Equally, Mario's first meeting with Delia is similarly murky: fresh from breaking up with his girlfriend Carla (Mónica Randall - who I think is the mother from the preceding prologue), the photographer stumbles across the sunbathing Delia and proceeds to take photos of her near-nakedness, which she is perfectly happy about. Grounds for an ongoing relationship, clearly!
After this, the two of them travel to the mountain as part of Mario's unspecified assignment and encounter all manner of creepy characters, including a tone-deaf innkeeper and a mysterious old woman (all convincingly played), before a grand finale which appears to tie all the events together - except it doesn't really. I enjoyed this, much as I enjoy a lot of European horror from this period. My score is 7 out of 10.