FEBRUARY 3, 2022
GENRE: THRILLER
SOURCE: BLU-RAY (OWN COLLECTION)
One of my New Year's resolutions is to make a serious dent, if not completely obliterate, the dreaded "pile" that has long since become an overflowing box. For those uninitiated (or have forgotten since I haven't done one in a minute), these shorter "FTP" ("from the pile") reviews are derived from this surplus of discs that I've accumulated over the years; unwatched films that I either got for review (unrequested; if I *ask* for them I get to them right away), won at trivia, bought from a clearance sale, etc. The thinking is that these movies aren't *likely* to be ones I'll keep forever, but I can't handle the unknown element of getting rid of them without seeing them - there could be a Cathy's Curse-level treasure in there! So every now and then I grab one at random, such is the case for An Angel For Satan (Italian: Un angelo per Satana), and hope for the best.
And it's an ideal "pile" movie! By which I mean I enjoyed it but probably won't want to watch it again, so I have little need to make space for it on the permanent shelf. It's most famous for being Barbara Steele's swan song in the "Italian gothic" sub-genre that she began with Black Sunday, and luckily for her she went out on a high note with a role that lets her run the gamut. In some scenes she's a sweet, innocent love interest, in others she's devilishly conning every man in town to do her bidding. Sometimes she goes back and forth within a single scene, coming on to a guy and then angrily pushing him away when he responds, but being that this is Ms. Steele in her prime, we never once question why it's so easy for her to sway them or keep coming back after she's been so cruel. We get it.
The mystery of the film is why she is acting like this; sometimes she even identifies herself with a different name entirely, so is she possessed? Is there an evil twin? The answer isn't... too exciting (notice that "supernatural" or anything like that does not appear in the genre listing), but it's fun going on the ride all the same as she systematically turns everyone with a penis against each other or their pre-existing loved ones - a guy who seemingly loves his wife and children is later seen slapping them around in disgust that they're tying him down when he could be with Steele's character, heh.
Whatever the cause for her behavior is, it seems to have something to do with a statue that the hero, Roberto (Anthony Steffen) has been tasked with restoring. A stranger to the area, hired for an artistic task, he quickly falls for the local beauty and even has a lengthy bout of fever, so it unfortunately reminded me more than once of Mill of the Stone Women, which I only watched a few weeks ago. Whether it was a direct influence on this film I have no idea, and this isn't a carbon copy or anything like that, but the atmosphere and general vibe of the whole thing was similar enough to leave me feeling with deja vu more than once, so I wonder if I'd be more into it had it been months or even years between seeing the two films.
Severin's Blu has a pair of commentaries, one with Steele and two moderators (Severin guru David Gregory and historian David Del Valle), the other with Kat Ellinger. Naturally, the former is the more enjoyable; the specifics of what's on screen are rarely addressed but it's kind of hilarious to hear Steele getting increasingly bored with the process, shifting in her seat and seemingly even moving further away from the mic for a while as if she got up to make a sandwich or something. Her recollections are spotty (not an issue; they liken it to trying to specifically remember the first three weeks of 5th grade, i.e. who can blame her for not remembering every movie she did 50+ years ago) but the stories she does offer are a delight, and sometimes it's just funny to hear her interrupt one of their largely unrelated thoughts to actually point out something on screen. As for Ellinger, as I've said in the past I find historian commentaries are more fun when they're paired with someone, so as a solo effort it can be a little too academic/dry for my tastes, especially as she too rarely bothers with what is happening in the movie. There's also an interview with one of the poor sods that falls under Steele's spell in the movie, which is fun because my man hates horror and only did this one because his character didn't get involved with the scary stuff.
This is the sort of movie I think I'd enjoy more as part of a set of Steele's films or something, where the appeal of the whole package makes up for this or that shortcoming within the films themselves. On its own, it's understandable why it's more known as her last go round with this type of movie as opposed to being remembered for its actual plot or other characters. The disc is lovingly remastered, and it has a few hours' worth of extras for those who are so inclined... but all for a movie that doesn't quite have that same kind of pull that Black Sunday or some of the others from that era offer.
What say you?
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