Bluebeard (1972)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Directors:

Edward Dmytryk
Luciano Sacripanti

Writers:

Ennio De Concini (writer)
Edward Dmytryk (writer)

Release Date:

1 September 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

He had a WAY with the world's most beautiful, most seductive, most glamorous women ...he did AWAY with them.

Plot:

A World War I pilot whom everbody envies as a "ladykiller" actually is - after he beds the women he's after, he murders them.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Beauty | Castle | Masochism | Impalement

Cast

Richard Burton	...	Baron von Sepper
Raquel Welch	...	Magdalena
Virna Lisi	...	Elga
Nathalie Delon	...	Erika
Marilù Tolo	...	Brigitte
Karin Schubert	...	Greta
Agostina Belli	...	Caroline
Sybil Danning	...	A Prostitute
Joey Heatherton	...	Anne
Edward Meeks	...	Sergio
Jean Lefebvre	...	Greta's Father
Erica Schramm	...	Greta's Mother
Doka Bukova	...	Rosa
Mathieu Carrière	...	The Violinist
Karl-Otto Alberty	...	Friend of von Sepper

Also Known As:

Barbablù (Italy)
Barbe-bleue (France)
Blaubart (West Germany)

Runtime:

USA:125 min

Country:

France | Italy | West Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:18 | UK:X | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

Gloria Film

Trivia:

The various Nazi uniforms in this picture are inaccurate - the colors are wrong and even the swastika has turned into a strangely shaped cross. This may have been for legal reasons, because in Germany the use of Nazi emblems is strictly regulated.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Guiron (#4.12)" (1991)

Heatherton hits career peak in enjoyably trashy film

Enjoyable and campy fun featuring a number of beautiful women, most of whom go nude, a seductive score by Ennio Morricone, good old fashioned direction from Edward Dmytryk that stresses atmosphere and setting, and that uses the flashback structure to good effect. Burton is an amusing Bluebeard and he's a lot more enjoyable here than he was in The ExorcistII(77), and Joey Heatherton who worked with Dmytryk in Where Love Has Gone(64)is well cast as the only American and the film's only likable character. Though Heatherton's look is not period, her charm and appeal to Burton's Bluebeard is believable, especially since most of Bluebeard's other wives are portrayed as annoying. Though the film's treatment and attitude towards women is largely exploitive, and the film could be better paced, it's nonetheless diverting trash and thanks to a clever ad campaign and trailer it was a hit when released in theaters in 1972. The theatrical trailer is featured on Anchor Bay's DVD.