An Angel for Satan

  

An Angel for Satan

1966

Director- Camillo Mastrocinque

Cast- Barbara Steele, Claudio Gora, Anthony Steffen, Marina Berti, Ursula Davis, Vassili Karis, Mario Brega, Aldo Berti

From Italy

            

    Roberto (Steffen) ,an artist who specializes in restorations, has been summoned to a lakeside village by the local aristocrat, Conte Montebruno (Gora). A drought has caused the lake to drop revealing a long lost statue. The Conte wants the statue restored but the local villagers believe that the statue is cursed and that restoring it will only bring misfortune. Naturally, Roebrto is met with suspicion and aggression. Meanwhile, the Conte’s niece, Harriet (Barbara Steele) has recently arrived. She has been away since she was a child and, having now come of age, is about to receive an inheritance.

            

     As we find out, the statue is cursed. Or so it seems. Harriet bears a striking resemblance to the figure and the Conte tells her that the statue is the likeness of one of her ancestors. Roberto is visited by a vision that tells him that the spirit of a woman named Belinda is attached to the statue. Belinda was always jealous of the woman who inspired the statue. All of the men ignored her for the more beautiful woman and Belinda died, drowned, pushing the statue into the lake. Now Belinda has possessed Harriet and is exacting her revenge.

         

      Harriet /Belinda goes through the town seducing various people and enticing them to do evil. She seduces the town bully and drives him to murder his family, drives the town idiot wild with lust pushing him to murder a young girl, seduces her maid and convinces her to dump her boyfriend which drives him to suicide and toys with Roberto’s emotions. The villagers accuse Harriet of being a witch and want her head. Only Roberto suspects that things are not as they seem. It reminded me of Needful Things in that she isn’t really doing the horrible deeds as much as providing the motivation for others to do them.

           

     There is a “twist” ending that (in my opinion) detracts from the overall story, but this is still a movie worth seeing, especially for Barbara Steele fans. This was the fourth movie where she played multiple characters (Black Sunday ,Nightmare Castle and The Long Hair of Death being the others). Like Black Sunday, she alternates between virtuous and vile and Steele had a real knack for this.

    I think this was her best performance after Black Sunday. She really turns on the erotic charm. She is not coquettish or demure. She seems to take a real pleasure in watching the men debase themselves. One particularly erotic scene is just her looking in the mirror, very much in love with ,and turned on by, her own reflection.

            

     This was the last of Barbara’s Italian gothic movies. Whether this was by design or not, I don’t know. It also served as the zenith of her career. The American and British film makers never utilized her as effectively and her movies after this were in smaller supporting roles.