Shudder Saturday: Mill Of The Stone Women (1960)

Starting in much the same way as many other horror movies from the '60s and '70s, Mill Of The Stone Women has a young man, Hans (Pierre Brice), arriving in a small town to learn more about a talented local, Professor Gregorius Wahl (Herbert A. E. Böhme). Professor Wahl is famous for his sculptures, a carousel of female figures that gives the film its title, but it turns out that he also has a very beautiful daughter, Elfie (Scilla Gabel). Hans has his head turned, of course, but then starts to experience some strange events that soon have him doubting his sanity. He may have also endangered Elfie, although she's arguably placed in greatest danger by her protective father. There's a chance that Dr. Loren Bohlem (Wolfgang Preiss) could help, but he seems to be in the pocket of the Professor.

There isn't anyone here, either in front of the camera or behind it, that I can say I recognise. That isn't a comment on the careers of those involved. It's a reminder that, no matter how I strive to improve my overall knowledge of cinema from a variety of locations and time periods, I still have a number of major blind spots. European genre movies of this time period, be they horrors, Westerns, or the popular pepla flicks, would be one of those blind spots. Every day is a school day though, and I feel good for finally marking Mill Of The Stone Women off my watchlist, especially as I have had the Blu-ray sitting on my shelf for a year or so now.

With a number of writers giving input to the story, but the main idea coming from Remigio Del Grosso, what you get here is a riff on material that has already been used well in a handful of other movies, ranging from outright horror to black comedy, that I won't namecheck here, because to know the central idea would spoil the macabre delights of the grand finale. The situation with Elfie is the new spanner in the works, as it were, but sometimes feels like a mere distraction from the real dastardliness that our beleaguered hero has yet to find out about.

Brice is fine, but he's arguably the least of the main players. Not his fault, it's just that those who are more mysterious and/or villainous, are more fun. Böhme plays his character with an amusingly constant level of irritation and impatience, Preiss hangs around so long that you know his character is in cahoots with the Professor for some secretive reason, and Gabel gets to spend most of her time looking very pretty and fragile. Dany Carrel also impresses, playing Liselotte (girlfriend of Hans), and Liana Orfei is a local woman named Annelore who finds herself in a bit of a predicament that helps to spur on the action needed in the third act.

Director Giorgio Ferroni does a decent job, although I did wish at times that this had leaned even further into a thick and spooky atmosphere (it feels impressively off-kilter for a lot of the runtime though), and there's some pleasant, and fitting, music from Carlo Innocenzi. I can see why many people like this. I think it's missing something to make it truly great though, whether that is some extra insanity throughout, some moments dwelling on the nastier elements, or just a load of dry ice and more shadows displayed in every scene. I look forward to a rewatch one day, however, and may come to appreciate it even more as I delve into some bonus features and find out a bit more about what it took to get it made.

7/10

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