La Settima Donna aka The Last House on the Beach, Verflucht Zum Toten, Terror, Junge Madchen zur Liebe Gezwungen
1978 – Italy
Directed by Franco Prosperi
From it’s initial release in 1972, Wes Craven’s debut movie, Last House on the Left, without a doubt became one of the most notorious and influential exploitation films of it’s time. This influence was particularly felt in Italy, most infamously with Ruggero Deodato’s La Casa Sperduta nel Parco (The House on the Edge of the Park..) and Aldo Lado’s L’Ultimo Treno Della Notte (Night Train Murders..), but also to a lesser extent Mario Bava’s Cani Arrabbiati (Rabid Dogs) and Pasquale Festa Campanile’s Autostop Rosso Sangue (Hitch Hike..).
To this list of Italian “Last House” style movies can be added Franco Prosperi’s La Settima Donna, it’s American re-titling in fact being The Last House on the Beach. As is the case Rabid Dogs and Hitch-Hike, the story is of three criminals (Ray Lovelock,Flavio Andreini and Stefano Cedrati on the run following a bank heist, but in this case the thieves come across an isolated beach side house, owned by a local catholic school and used as the pre-exam retreat for Sister Christina (Florinda Bolkan) and her group of all female teenage students.
The film quickly cuts to the chase, with the three men forcing their way into the house, bursting in upon the girls in the middle of practicing a graduation re-enactment of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Taking the women hostage, the men begin searching the house for other inhabitants, one of them coming across the maid whom he “bitch slaps” into submission before needlessly caving her head in with a hot iron. Finding one of the girls half naked in a bathroom, one of the trio tries to molest her, at which point she grabs for a metal tail-comb and stabs him in the leg; leaving him a hobbling cripple with an infected wound for the rest of the movie.
The film then becomes the familiar formula of the rape and humiliation scenario, ala House on the Edge of the Park, although in this case it’s nowhere near as graphic or brutal. Finding that Sister Christina is a nun, the men force her out of her civilian clothes and into her habit in front of her students. Two of the men later brutally rape her in the wine cellar and make jokes at her expense at the dinner table.
We later see two further rape scenes of two of the girls, both shot bizarrely in slow-motion, one of them featuring ‘rape by make-shift walking stick’. Although these scenes are mildly creepy, they are both quite short and the violence is non-graphic, shown more through cut aways to reaction shots.
As you would expect from the genre, after 70 something minutes running time of degradation, Sister Christina denounces her God fearing vows and takes revenge upon the men, giving them their just desserts.
La Settima Donna has a good cast and although the characters aren’t too fleshed out, the acting is pretty solid all round. Viewers will may be familiar with Florinda Bolkan from Flavia, La Lonaca Musulmana (Flavia the Heretic..), Non si Sevizia un Paperino (Don’t Torture a Duckling..) or Lucertola con la Pelle di Donna (Lizard in a Woman’s Skin..) and the clean shaven Ray Lovelock from Non si Deve profanare il Sonno dei Morti (The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue ..), Milano Odia: La Polizia non può Sparare (Almost Human..), Se Sei Vivo Spara (Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot!..), Macchie Solari (Autopsy..), Uomini si Nasce Poliziotti si Muore (Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man ..) and Fulci’s Murder Rock. You may also recognise one of the teen girls, Lisa, played by Sherry Buchanan from Zombie Holocaust.. or La Polizia Chiede Aiuto (What Have You Done To Your Daughters).
The film features some rather stylish camera work; the opening bank-job being shown from a rather strange “dog’s eye view” and some initial scenes being shown via reflective surfaces. The cinematography is easy on the eye and a gorgeously rich colour palette. It also features a pretty damn catchy score from Roberto Pregadio (Passi di Danza su una Lama di Rasoio [Death Carries a Cane], Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur [S.S. Experiment Love Camp..], Emanuelle Bianca e Nera [Black Emanuelle, White Emauelle] ) including a bizarre re-working of Bryan Ferry’s Let’s Stick Together!
While maybe not the best film of it’s type, La Settima Donna is definitely a worth while purchase and something that fellow Italian sleaze fans will want in their collection.
Sazuma have done a stunning 10 out of 10 job with this release, the 2nd in the their Italian Genre Cinema Collection (the first being Suspected Death of a Minor which I plan to review shortly). Anyone familiar with Sazuma’s fantastic past releases of Cannibal Ferox or Subconscious Cruelty will know to expect a high quality release well worth shelling out your hard earned cash on.
First off the print quality is first rate, crystal clear and presented in 2.35:1, 16:9 Anamorphic widescreen. Soundtracks are presented in an adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono with Italian or German language options and with English or German subtitles.
Extra features include:
- The original Soundtrack by Roberto Pregadio on a separate Audio CD
- Featurette “Holy Beauty vs. the Evil Beasts” with Ray Lovelock
- Italian Trailer
- German Trailer
- German Opening Credits
- Photo Gallery
This is presented in a really nice looking gatefold inner, with great liner notes by film critic Christian Kebler, all housed in a card dig pack outer sleeve.
All in all a great release, treated the way that it should be. Available to buy (along with a mountain of other titles on my wish list) from www.sazuma.com
Check out Sazuma’s MySpace profile for more pictures and release info.
