WITCHCRAFT '70 VERSION
Witchcraft '70 is a re-shot and re-edited U.S. domestic version of Angeli Bianchi... Angeli Neri (White Angel ...Black Angel - more on that tomorrow). Because the U.S. producers changed so much, it's nearly a different film, complete with Edmond Purdom (Absurd, Don't Open 'Till Christmas, Pieces, 2019: After the Fall of New York) narrating the proceedings.
Lee Frost, who directed Love Camp 7, Hot Spur, Dixie Dynamite, A Climax of Blue Power, The Thing with Two Heads and The Black Gestapo, in addition to mondo films like Hollywood's World of Flesh, Mondo Freudo, Mondo Bizarro and The Forbidden directed the additional scenes in this revised version at the behest of TransAmerica Films.
Original director Luigi Scattini was behind lots of exploitation over in Italy like Sweden: Heaven and Hell and Blue Nude. He brought in Alberto Bevilacqua, who was a writer on films like Atom Age Vampire, Black Sabbath and Planet of the Vampires.
How can you not love a movie that promises dialogue like "A ballad of the '60's said, "I left my heart in San Francisco.: Now in the '70's, it is possible to leave one's soul there as well?" Yes, the biggest problems in 1970 were weed and witchcraft. Is it any wonder that this movie has led to so many samples in the songs of Electric Wizard?
Keep in mind, the ideas in this film - and the sheer nudity on display - destroys minds and reaped souls back in 1970. But in 2019? It could almost be on regular television. This version isn't bad - the Italian version, like I said, which we'll get to tomorrow, is missing plenty of the rougher footage from Frost, as well as a warning from Lieutenant David Estee of the Capitola California Police Department
But hey - you do get to see a Satanic wedding officiated by Anton LaVey, so there's that.
I got this from the sadly gone Cult Action. I really wish that site was still around, if only to make me spend more money on movies that I can't afford.
WHITE ANGEL, BLACK ANGEL VERSION Angeli Bianchi... Angeli Neri comes from director Luigi Scattini, who started his career as a journalist before directing movies like Primitive Love with Jayne Mansfield and War Italian Style with Buster Keaton.
One of the best things about this mondo film -- a genre that is pretty much reality TV before that was a thing or the kind of shows that most folks love on cable today -- is the collaboration between composer Piero Umiliani and director Luigi Scattini.
As the film was shot mostly in Brazil -- where else would you go to show off the world of black magic, devil-worshipping and pagan rituals -- the soundtrack was partly record there with the help of local musicians and instruments before being finished in Rome with artists like Alessandro Alessandroni and his octet vocal group Cantori Moderni (who composed the music for The Opening of Misty Beethoven and The Devil's Nightmare), Nora Orlandi (who wrote music for The Sweet Body of Deborah and The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) and Edda Dell'Orso, who provided wordless vocals to the scores of Ennio Morricone.
The score is a psychedelic treat, combining modern and ambient tones of 1969 with bossa nova and samba. That's kind of perfect for this X rated exploration of the occult circa 1969.
This film is the tamer side of Witchcraft '70, just with non-violent nudity in the place of the madness that American audiences demanded. It also has a billion times better time, because it makes you wonder -- exactly what am I getting into? All occult movies should feel that way for their audiences.
Lee Frost, who directed Love Camp 7, Hot Spur, Dixie Dynamite, A Climax of Blue Power, The Thing with Two Heads and The Black Gestapo, in addition to mondo films like Hollywood's World of Flesh, Mondo Freudo, Mondo Bizarro and The Forbidden directed the additional scenes in this revised version at the behest of TransAmerica Films.
Original director Luigi Scattini was behind lots of exploitation over in Italy like Sweden: Heaven and Hell and Blue Nude. He brought in Alberto Bevilacqua, who was a writer on films like Atom Age Vampire, Black Sabbath and Planet of the Vampires.
How can you not love a movie that promises dialogue like "A ballad of the '60's said, "I left my heart in San Francisco.: Now in the '70's, it is possible to leave one's soul there as well?" Yes, the biggest problems in 1970 were weed and witchcraft. Is it any wonder that this movie has led to so many samples in the songs of Electric Wizard?
Keep in mind, the ideas in this film - and the sheer nudity on display - destroys minds and reaped souls back in 1970. But in 2019? It could almost be on regular television. This version isn't bad - the Italian version, like I said, which we'll get to tomorrow, is missing plenty of the rougher footage from Frost, as well as a warning from Lieutenant David Estee of the Capitola California Police Department
But hey - you do get to see a Satanic wedding officiated by Anton LaVey, so there's that.
I got this from the sadly gone Cult Action. I really wish that site was still around, if only to make me spend more money on movies that I can't afford.
WHITE ANGEL, BLACK ANGEL VERSION Angeli Bianchi... Angeli Neri comes from director Luigi Scattini, who started his career as a journalist before directing movies like Primitive Love with Jayne Mansfield and War Italian Style with Buster Keaton.
One of the best things about this mondo film -- a genre that is pretty much reality TV before that was a thing or the kind of shows that most folks love on cable today -- is the collaboration between composer Piero Umiliani and director Luigi Scattini.
As the film was shot mostly in Brazil -- where else would you go to show off the world of black magic, devil-worshipping and pagan rituals -- the soundtrack was partly record there with the help of local musicians and instruments before being finished in Rome with artists like Alessandro Alessandroni and his octet vocal group Cantori Moderni (who composed the music for The Opening of Misty Beethoven and The Devil's Nightmare), Nora Orlandi (who wrote music for The Sweet Body of Deborah and The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) and Edda Dell'Orso, who provided wordless vocals to the scores of Ennio Morricone.
The score is a psychedelic treat, combining modern and ambient tones of 1969 with bossa nova and samba. That's kind of perfect for this X rated exploration of the occult circa 1969.
This film is the tamer side of Witchcraft '70, just with non-violent nudity in the place of the madness that American audiences demanded. It also has a billion times better time, because it makes you wonder -- exactly what am I getting into? All occult movies should feel that way for their audiences.