Mill of the Stone Women

Starring:Pierre Brice, Scilla Gabel, Wolfgang Preiss, Dany Carrel, Liana Orfei, Marco Guglielmi, Olga Solbelli, Robert Boehme, Herbert A.E. BÃ¶hme
Director: Giorgio Ferroni
Studio: Mondo Macabre
Product Type: DVD

Customer Reviews:

Atmospheric Italian classic.......2007-06-23

A classic example of gothic Italian horror from the '60s. This was originally released in 1960, which would prove to be a seminal year for Italian horror. Mario Bava's directorial debut, Black Sunday, was also released this year. Mill Of The Stone Women was directed by Giorgio Ferroni, who would go on to direct one other horror film in 1972, Night Of The Devils. He was more well known for his "peplum" (Italian heroic fantasy movies) and westerns. The story concerns a young researcher named Hans who travels to a remote village (in 1890's era Holland) in search of a strange tourist attraction - The Carousel of Stone Women. The "carousel" is a large mechanical device featuring life-sized moving statues of famous and notorious female historical figures; and the whole attraction is housed within a windmill, owned and operated by an eccentric art professor named Gregorius Wahl. Wahl welcomes the young researcher, giving him a tour of the mill and allowing him access to diagrams of the machine, which his father had built. Wahl gives Hans five days to study the machine, after which time he must leave the mill. It turns out Wahl has a daughter, Elfy, who ends up becoming attached to Hans. Hans realizes Elfy may be mentally disturbed or perhaps something else altogether. I won't go into anymore of the plot for those who haven't seen it, but it's a movie worth seeking out, especially for those who like the atmospheric gothic films of Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, and Antonio Margheriti. It was shot in Technicolor, and it makes good use of the process with some great visual set pieces.

Ich bin der Hans im Glück.......2006-11-07

This film has many things going for it, including a good story, outstanding score and some decent performances. The story concerns a young man, Hans von Harnim, who travels to a rural town near Amsterdam in order to complete some final work for the centenary edition of a book. The book was authored by a man, whose grandson has carried on the scientific work contained within it. This grandson, Professor Wahl, gives Mr. Harnim a week to gather the information for the book. It is during this time that Mr. Harnim encounters the professor's daughter, Elfi, whom very few people have actually seen. It appears Elfi is in frail health and must lead a life quite different from other young women her age. With a little encouragement, she falls in love with our young Mr. Harnim. Alas, he belongs to another woman (the beautiful Dany Carrel) and Elfi doesn't take his rebuff lightly. Eventually we find out why the locals call the mill `the Mill of the Stone Women.' The story begins rather slowly, though eventually gets around to mounting some good suspense. The last half hour makes this one at least worth renting. I would like to have seen this shot in black and white, which would have made the atmosphere much creepier. Nonetheless, the Mondo Macabro DVD picture looks very good and the list of available soundtracks is impressive, including UK English, US English and French soundtracks. The French soundtrack appears to be the original, though sometimes the characters inexplicably switch to English. These sections are dubbed and appear awkward, though are infrequent enough to be very distracting. The DVD itself deserves an extra ½ star for the care taken.

Aesthetically wrought gothic saga........2006-02-17

Without question an inappropriate, inane, or pulpy comic book style title has waylaid many a significant and otherwise worthy terror film. "Curse of the Cat People," remains affixed to a story of child psychology, "Kill Baby Kill," remains affixed to a wondrous 19th century European ghost story, and here, perhaps worst of all, "Mill of the Stone Women," is the awkward moniker stuck to this artistically accomplished film.

With a clunky title like "Mill of the Stone Women," it is scarcely any wonder that the film has remained largely unknown,unremarked upon, and unavailable for nearly 50 years ! What a pity, for here is a story produced with such an aesthetically accomplished loving care that each frame breathes a compositional beauty of the highest standard.

The felicitous combination of Arrigo Equini's art direction and Pier Ludovico Pavoni's photography in this picture, recalls the best of Jack Asher, Floyd Crosby, Mario Bava, Bernard Robinson, and Daniel Haller and has, in not a few of the tableaux rendered here, even surpassed these masters. Even Mario Praz would probably approve!

From the opening shot of the windmill on the lake under a leaden sky, to its shadowy, beautifully appointed interior parlors, complete with the anti-heroine, Scilla Gabel, peaking mournfully through the portieres--while the soundtrack gives forth with a disquieting numinous wail--the film rarely fails to sound the genuine Gothic note.

Add to that one of the most disturbing, (far more so than "House of Wax") use of a waxworks yet seen on the screen. For here we have, not merely figures of unsettling visage, but figures that mechanically encircle a stage--Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Mary Queen of Scots, sallying threateningly towards the camera in a nightmarish parade--all to the accompaniment of a tune that might have been composed by Truman Capote! There are many exquisite scenes to savor: Miss Scabra's blood red boudoir, a scene of her beneath the lid of a dusty glass coffin holding yellow roses against her very dead, old ivory like complexion, a laboratory sequence that pulls out all the stops, a charming stop at a beer garden type pub, complete with accordions and pretzel stands, a climactic fire with the dummies melting in grotesque close-ups, not to mention a beautifully costumed, very accomplished, and handsome cast of players.

Miss Gabel seems very much in the Gina Lollobrigida mold, but manages facial expressions of such uncanny yearning that is easy to imagine Mr. Brice falling under her spell. In this sense, she joins company with Barbara Steele, as one of the very few women able to combine beauty and eeriness in equal measure.

Pierre Brice approaches his assignment with convincing earnestness and looks very much like a cross between Stephen Boyd and Horst Buchold.

A special compliment should be paid to the Technicolor here, which never shrieks, but delivers cold blues and unearthly reds in a fashion that favorably recalls Pressburger's "Tales of Hoffmann." And take a good look at the hutch in the ante-room of Mr. Brice's bedroom; it is the same one featured in Jacqueline Pierreux's parlor in Bava's "Black Sabbath"--the one she keeps her liquor in. Perhaps Mr. Brice had a yard sale! In any case, to fans of the genre, this film is highly recommended.

Brilliant-- a real classic..........2004-10-11

I had seen this some 20+ years ago (at least) and had never forgotten it-- except I didn't know it's NAME. I'd seen it on TV eons ago and loved the "wax museum"-like chamber of horrors carousel. I'd always associated it with wax-museum movies in my memory and explored them all never able to find this movie. Ultimately I realized it was probably an obscure foreign film (I'm in the US) that would be pretty hard to locate. But then I came across some reviews of other Mondo Macabro titles (the publisher) and read the synopsis of Mill of the Stone Women. Not realizing it was this old classic I had been seeking, I ordered it and was pleased to find out it was the movie I had long been looking for.

And, I realized some things about it I had not known or forgotten-- one, it was in COLOR-- I saw it on a B&W TV originally, and it was even better than I remembered-- I had forgotten most everything but the "carousel."

The quality of this release by Mondo Macabro is excellent considering the movie's age, with perhaps some slight color fading or shift but not enough to detract. They also included three audio tracks, a UK english dub, a US english dub and the original French (it's an Italian-French co-op). English subtitles as well, though I haven't compared them with the various tracks to see how good they are...

This disc is a real gem, I'm sure glad I finally found this movie. Never would have guessed the name though-- the original French was Le Moulin des Supplices, and "supplices" doesn't really seem to translate to "stone women," the term "torture" comes up most often in the online translating dictionaries.

The scenes are mostly shot inside a Dutch windmill building (octagonal?) so there are huge wooden cranking gears and no square corners and perhaps a bit claustrophobic etc... Nice ambiance, dated spooky flick that holds up well over time-- though you can pretty much disregard the comments on the cover about "notorious" topless shots of one of the stars, as it's a bit of a stretch-- a corner of a nipple shows a little in one scene that you'll miss if you blink. Apparently what was notorious about it was it was used as a still image on a poster for the Japanese market and caused some controversy. Apparently over the years this movie has had several bad alternate soundtracks made, this one appears to be the original and I see no reason to have messed with it, I thought it was pretty good. Extras-- there are a couple of interesting alternate scenes-- not set up so you can watch it in total with them in as they are single-language-- a short French language-only scene that was cut and a US version of the "hallucination" sequence which was made cheesier with some out-of-focus transfers apparently to make it easier for the US audience to figure out it was supposed to be hallucinatory...

Great flick--, if you like dated spooky and mysterious ambiance, this one should rank rather high on your list, IMHO...

evocative Euro horror film.......2004-10-07

The movie trailer tag-line for this film was "Why do warm-blooded beauties suddenly turn to stone?" Well, you can generally bet there is an evil scientist behind these to dos! This creepy Gothic tale is directed by Italian director Giorgio Ferroni, is also known by a passel of other names - Drops of Blood, Horrible Mill Women, Horror of the Stone Women, Le Moulin des Supplices, and has that spooky feel of the Mario Bava era. Hans von Arnam (Pierre Brice) arrives in the small town outside of Amsterdam, to research and write a story about a reclusive sculptor, one Prof. Gregorius Wahl (Robert Boehme). Wahl lives on an island in an old mill, the locals, in typical hushed tones, call the Mill of the Stone Women. Hans meets the professor's gorgeous daughter, Elfi Wahl (Scilla Gabel) and quickly falls in love with her (big surprise, yeah!). As Hans grows to know Wahl and his daughter, he learns the surreptitious Dr. Loren Bolem (Wolfgang Preiss) and Wahl are conduction some sort of experiments. As they putter in the lab, local women continue to disappear. The setting is very evocative of the black and white work done by Bava, and since I had seen this film only in B&W release, I was shocked to find it was actually in colour!

As Hans becomes aware of the secret behind the Professors "lifelike" statues, tensions mount. Like Vincent Price's The Tingler, it features an "acid trip", which is quite dated and comes off more humorous than scary.

It's a tad slow in places, and by today's horror standards very trite, but the fog-shrouded landscapes and sinister mill make this one enjoyable trip for connoisseurs of old horror films.

Average customer rating:

Atmospheric Italian classic
Ich bin der Hans im Glück
Aesthetically wrought gothic saga.
Brilliant-- a real classic...
evocative Euro horror film

Mill of the Stone Women
Starring: Pierre Brice , Scilla Gabel , Wolfgang Preiss , Dany Carrel , and Robert Boehme
Director: Giorgio Ferroni
Manufacturer: Mondo Macabre
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001DMX1A
Release Date: 2004-03-16

Description

Presented here for the first time ever in its full-length uncut version, this is one of the great films of Italian Gothic horror. In the style of the late Mario Bava, this unforgettable classic contains scenes that rank among the very best the genre has to offer. In sparkling Technicolor (struck from a negative untouched for nearly 40 years), the film emerges as a truly stunning piece of cinematic mastery - as well as a nightmare-inducing vision of hell. A young artist is hired to do a study of a famous local landmark, a windmill that contains stone statues of notorious female monsters of the past. One day he meets a mysterious, dangerously beautiful woman at the mill. Before long, he is drawn into her clutches. Just what is the terrible secret that keeps her hiding from the world? English & French with English subtitles

Customer Reviews:

Atmospheric Italian classic.......2007-06-23

Ich bin der Hans im Glück.......2006-11-07

Aesthetically wrought gothic saga........2006-02-17

Brilliant-- a real classic..........2004-10-11

evocative Euro horror film.......2004-10-07

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