Rating: 
Summary: BAVA AT HIS BEST....
Review: A beautiful woman's dead lover who enjoyed whipping her with a riding crop comes back to haunt her in a lonely castle by the sea. To reveal more would be to say too much. A stylish, elegant horror film and a must for Bava afficianados, this movie is fairly drenched in vivid color and haunting atmosphere. Of course, the lovely Dahlia Lavi (whatever happened to her?) graces the proceedings with a performance worthy of Barbara Steele and Christopher Lee is her match as the sadistic lover. To compare Lavi to Steele really isn't fair but these are the only two actresses who could have put this role over. Lavi is excellent in delivering the agony and delirium that Steele was so good at. This is most unusual fare for horror fans and not the least bit sensationalistic as it sounds. It's a mood piece in the Grand Guignol tradition that is a worthy addition to anyone's serious collection of "horror as art".
Rating:
Summary: An unknown masterpiece
Review: A true gem that gets better and better with every viewing, Whip And The Body is an extremely sophisticated piece of work. Visually mesmerizing, totaly ahead of it's time as far as the plot goes, this is Bava at it's very best. Whip And The Body is recommended to all serious movie lovers so don't get frightened by the italian gothic horror label the movie carries, this is grand cinema, the work of a genius that needs way more recognition.
Rating:
Summary: PAIN AND PLEASURE
Review: Another Mario Bava masterpiece - THE WHIP AND THE BODY - has royally entered the DVD market thanks to an admirable treatment from VCI. If you are not aware that, under the pseudonym of John M. Old, is hiding Mario Bava and that 90% of the initial credits are also english pseudonyms of well (or less -) known italian actors or technicians, you could mistake THE WHIP AND THE BODY for a Hammer production. At least during the first 10 minutes. Then, you would have certainly recognized the maestro touch ; who else could have filmed in 1963 a sadistic Christopher - Kurt - Lee whipping the delicate Daliah - Nevenka - Lavi who asks for more after each strike. I doubt Terence Fisher would have dared to shoot such scenes. Think also of the delirious travelling of Tony Kendall whose face has a different colour each time he appears in the light of the corridor. Thank you once more VCI to let us appreciate all the subtleties of Mario Bava's work on light. Once again, the surprisingly rational Bava leaves room for a psychologic explanation at the end of THE WHIP AND THE BODY. Until his last movie - SHOCK - , the italian director will remind us that Cinema is a tremendous liar and that reality is so simple to explain. This theme will be treated masterfully by Bavain in his last genial movie RABID DOGS. In short, a DVD for your library.
Rating:
Summary: More Bava Madness
Review: Another stunning movie from the master of Italian horror, Mario Bava. Presented in the European, widescreen version and totally restored, this movie simply never looked better on home video. The cast is superb, with Christopher Lee as an outcast looking to reclaim his family name. This leads to murder and other sordid happenings that I don't want to spoil. See this flick! The special features on this DVD include a wonderful audio commentary by Tim Lucas of the Video Watchdog, liner notes also by Tim Lucas, bonus music soundtrack by Carlo Rustichelli, the French theatrical trailer, bonus Bava theatrical trailers, a photo gallery, and subtitles, too! Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Damn Near Perfect !!!
Review: Bava's 1963 masterpiece of mood and romantic horror is presented beautifully on VCI's new DVD. I saw the film in a Mario Bava festival screening a few years back hosted by Tim Lucas in L.A., but the film looks even better on the DVD -- the technicolor shines and emanates like never before. A few very slight flaws in the print, but overall this DVD looks great! And man, those 2 s&m whipping scenes are quite ahead of their time, I must say. The DVD has some cool extras, probably the most interesting being the original American opening "WHAT" title sequence --- as the word "WHAT" comes out of the fireplace, a deep voice rasps --"whaa-aat". Pretty funny stuff! If you're a Bava fan or a connoisseur of euro-horror or just a practitioner of S&M, you need to pick this DVD up pronto. They don't get any better.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Gothic Horror
Review: Delirious! Part whodunit, part ghost story and perhaps one of the finest Gothic tales of the sixties. "La Frusta E il Corpo" is a very beautiful romantic horror movie. Don't miss it. The atmosphere is unique, the film is like a painting, the photography and the scenery are exceptional, the music is stirring, and the acting is very good. (Christopher Lee is haunting and the handsome Daliah Lavi reminds me at Barbara Steele) At least as good as the Hammer Film Productions! I am very happy that nearly all the work of maestro Mario Bava is now available on DVD and I can only hope that it will be possible to buy other great Italian classics such as "La Danza Macabra" and "I Lunghi Capelli de la Morte" from Antonio Margheriti on DVD in the future too.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Gothic Horror
Review: Delirious! Part whodunit, part ghost story and perhaps one of the finest Gothic tales of the sixties. "La Frusta E il Corpo" is a very beautiful romantic horror movie. Don't miss it. The atmosphere is unique, the film is like a painting, the photography and the scenery are exceptional, the music is stirring, and the acting is very good. (Christopher Lee is haunting and the handsome Daliah Lavi reminds me at Barbara Steele) At least as good as the Hammer Film Productions! I am very happy that nearly all the work of maestro Mario Bava is now available on DVD and I can only hope that it will be possible to buy other great Italian classics such as "La Danza Macabra" and "I Lunghi Capelli de la Morte" from Antonio Margheriti on DVD in the future too.
Rating:
Summary: Sumptuous gothic melodrama
Review: Following the critical success of the influential 'Black Sunday';a film that seamlessly joined the stylistic traits of gothic cinema with Bava's own unique visual sensibilities ,the director further developed his painterly and atmospheric mise en scene in his subsequent work.The results are some of the most striking examples of European cinema in the sixties.
Bava provided a fascinating contribution to the often derided peplum genre with 'Hercules in the haunted world' as well as producing the archetypal horror anthology in 'Black Sabbath'.Earlier examples of Bava's work also included 'The girl who knew too much' ,a film that laid down the ground rules for the 'Giallo'(convoluted and lurid thrillers that drew influence from the work of Hitchcock as well as Edgar Wallace and the German 'krimi' crime thrillers ).Whip and the body ,which incorporates elements from these sub-genre, however, proved to be one of the most progressive and distinct film's in Mario Bava's oeurve.
The central relationship between Nevanka(Lavi) and Kurt(Lee,in one of his most atypical roles)creates an intensity that ably drives this personal and heartfelt film.More than that,though,the requirements of the narrative allow Bava free reign to produce some of his most sumptuous,intoxicating and provocative imagery,not only in his use of mist-like primary hues that appear whenever Lee is on screen ,or the deep shadows that conceal as much as they reveal,but the exquisite full frame shot's of Lavi's eyes as she begins to slip between her percieved reality and hallucination.And it is in this stylised and unreal enviroment of Bava's films that the viewer willingly does the same.
Although largely ignored in mainstream film criticism,and frequently described in negative terms for his film's keen visual sense at the expense of well written character studies,Bava challenges this opinion with 'Whip and the body' by framing an absorbing narrative with a visually striking slice of gothic melodrama.Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Whip Me Til I'm Dead- A Real Bore
Review: I was expecting to see a decent film by Bava, but after having seen about 5 of his films, I can only guess that is he is a very good stylist but he lacks the capability to engage us with a story or to even scare us. Most of his films are gorgeous to behold but they are vapid and have no story, this film is just like all the rest.
There is no point to any of it, there is no plot and hardly any suspense, suffice it to say it might be interesting for a 12 year old horror goof but to an adult, its quite tedious. Chris Lee is rather banal also, he doesn't do much and it seems that he dubbed his own voice in the studio, most of the cast is rather dull also, supposedly playing some ancient noble family, they look more like 1960's mop heads and morons who were on too much acid. The dialogue, what there is, is crude, probably written by a drunk Italian because there are so many mistakes, one example was when Lee was whipping the lady on the beach and she says, "I can't have more ice cream!"
So, I would suggest renting "Planet of the Vampires" because that is more enjoyable than this waste. Interesting character to note was "Lesmo", dubbed as the "European Peter Lorre" who doesn't have much in the way of presence or acting skills and he looks like a cross between a frog and a midget.
Rating:
Summary: Mario Bava's Gothic S&M romance......
Review: Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) returns to his ancestral castle after being banished by his father some years before. He finds that his lover Nevenka (Daliah Lavi) has married his brother. However, it is not long before they resume their previous S&M relationship and Kurt is mysteriously murdered. Is Nevenka being haunted by his ghost or is it al in her mind? You'll have to watch it to find out. "The whip and the body" is unlike many of the horror films made in the 1960s. However it is typical of Bava's horror movies in that the lines between good and evil are somewhat blurred. There are no "good" characters in this movie. They are either weak, cruel, hypocritical. The heroine is not the typical virginal innocent of most horror movies, in fact the virtuous romantic "leads" of this film are only background characters. The main focus is on the relationship between Kurt and Nevenka. We are encouraged to sympathise with them. This is what makes the film so daring. The whipping scenes are pretty explicit (especially for 1963) but it is the fact that Bava treats this relationship like a "normal" love story (therefore not condemning the participants) that makes the film so unique among horror films of the period. Regardless of this, the film is worth watching for the startling use of colour and cinematography alone. Some scenes almost resemble a 19th century Romantic painting. If you are a horror fan or even a film buff (and definately if you are a fan of Lee or Lavi) see this film!
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