The Italian director Mario Bava was born in the coastal northern Italian town of San Remo. His father, Eugenio Bava (1886-1966), was a cinematographer in the early days of the Italian film industry. Bava was trained as a painter, and when he eventually followed his father into film photography his artistic background led him to a strong belief in the importance of visual composition in filmmaking. Other than a series of short films in the 1940s which he directed, Bava was a cinematographer until 1960. He developed a reputation as a special effects genius, and was able to use optical trickery to great success. Among the directors for whom Bava photographed films were Paolo Heusch Riccardo Freda Jacques Tourneur and Raoul Walsh . While working with Freda on I vampiri (1956) in 1956, the director left the project after an argument with the producers and the film mostly unfinished. Bava stepped in and directed the majority of the movie, finishing it on schedule. This film, also known as "The Devil's Commandment," inspired a wave of gothic Italian horror films. After a similar incident occurred on Freda's Caltiki in 1959, and Bava's having been credited with "saving" Tourneur's La battaglia di Maratona (1959), Galatea urged Bava to direct any film he wanted with their financing. The film that emerged, La maschera del demonio (1960), is one his most well known as well as one of his best. This widely influential movie also started the horror career of a beautiful but then unknown British actress named Barbara Steele . While La maschera del demonio (1960) is a black and white film, it was in the color milieu that the director excelled. The projects which followed began to develop stunning photography, making great use of lighting, set design, and camera positioning to compliment mise-en-scenes bathed in deep primaries. Through works such as Ercole al centro della terra (1961), La frusta e il corpo (1963), and Terrore nello spazio (1965), Bava's films took on the look of works of art. In the films La ragazza che sapeva troppo (1963) and Sei donne per l'assassino (1964), he created the style and substance of the giallo, a genre which would be perfected in the later films of 'Dario Argento'. Bava worked in many popular genres, including viking films, peplum, spaghetti westerns, action, and even softcore, but it is his horror films and giallo mystery films which stand out and for which he is best remembered. Recommended are Black Sunday, The Whip and the Body, Blood and Black Lace, Operazione paura (1966), Reazione a catena (1971), and Lisa e il diavolo (1974). Bava's son Lamberto served as his assistant on most of his films since 1965, and since 1980 has been a director himself. Lamberto Bava's films include Macabre, Demons, and Body Puzzle. But after the commercial failure of his later films, as well as the unreleased works of Rabid Dogs, Bava went into a decline and by 1975, retired from filmmaking all together. He was persuaded to come out of retirement at the request of his son, Lamberto, to direct Shock, as well as a made-for-Italian television movie. Mario Bava died from a sudden heart attack on April 27, 1980 at age 65. With his death, an era in Italian filmmaking had come to a close.
Father of director Lamberto Bava .Son of Eugenio Bava .He trained as a painter and was able to execute a number of matte and glass paintings for his films.He became a director of photography in 1939.Dino De Laurentiis originally approached Bava to handle the special effects of King Kong (1976). Bava did not want to leave Italy so he turned down the offer. He recommended Carlo Rambaldi.
In psychedelic swinging 60s style, the dreaded thief (and killer) Diabolik wreaks havoc on a generic European country for his own financial gain and amusement. He shares an extravagant underground lair (and a giant bed of money) with his curvaceous, superficial girlfriend...who uses her awesome powers of wig-wearing to help Diabolik kill innocent people and steal billions from the government. Nonetheless, Diabolik is the "hero" of the film because he must face off against bumbling cops and revenge-seeking mafiosos.
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A vengeful witch and her fiendish servant return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant. Only the girl's brother and a handsome doctor stand in her way.