Featuring
very dramatic artwork, the front cover of the 1987 English-language
ex-rental big box VHS video version of Malpertuis
(© Harry Kümel/Artemis Film/Les Productions Artistes Associés/Premier
Releasing/Motion Pictures on Video – reproduced here on a strictly
non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only
The following account of mine is as much
a revelation as a review, but is necessary, due to the unusually complex nature
of this particular movie's release. So let's begin with the revelation before
moving on to the review.
Based upon the decidedly strange yet
engrossing gothic novel of the same title by Jean Ray (originally published in
French in 1943 but which I've read and own in its subsequent
English-translation edition), the early 1970s dark fantasy/horror movie Malpertuis stars Orson Welles, Susan
Hampshire (Hampshire actually playing no fewer than 5 different roles within
it!), and several notable French, Flemish, German, and North American thespians. But the reason why it
is something of an oddity, production-wise, is because there are at least three
different released versions of it presently available.
There is the original 100-minute
English-language version, known as the Cannes version (CV), due to its debuting
at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 (and which has since been dubbed into other
languages too). There is also the 120-minute Director's Cut (DC), which is in
Dutch with English subtitles, and was released in 1973 but subsequently lost
for many years until lately rediscovered (and again dubbed into various other
languages). And then there is the 90-minute English-language ex-rental big box VHS
video version (VV) released in 1987 (ditto regarding its having been redubbed too) and
pictured at the beginning of this present Shuker In MovieLand blog article of
mine. What is so odd, however, is that each version contains segments missing
from the others, which means that there is no single version of Malpertuis that contains ALL of
the segments from it.
Consequently, even though it is shorter
than the DC, the CV contains segments not included in the DC. In particular,
those sections featuring singing are very truncated in the DC, but they are
present in their entirety in the CV, as is the absolutely crucial climactic
scene where the hero suffers the fate of all mortals who look into the eyes
of a gorgon. For whereas this is not actually shown in the DC, it is shown in the CV, and also in the VV. Conversely, the VV totally lacks the final
twist-in-the-tail scenes – see later – present in both the DC and the CV
(although this is no bad thing, as in my view they ruin the movie's ending and
have no relation to the book's plot at all). Incidentally, there is also an
American version, retitled The Legend of
Doom House, but which (if any) of the three above-discussed ones this
version corresponds to remains undetermined by me at present (I've read
several contradictory accounts online regarding which version this is, so I'll
reserve judgement until/if ever I am able to watch it personally). Anyway,
enough about the variety of versions out there – what is Malpertuis actually about?
SPOILER
ALERT – IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THIS MOVIE'S PLOT AND CRUCIAL REVEALS, READ
NO FURTHER!
The
2-disc Malpertuis DVD that I own, containing the Director's Cut (DC) version in
Dutch with English subtitles and the English-language Cannes version (CV), plus
lots of extras and a very informative booklet (© Harry Kümel/Artemis Film/Les
Productions Artistes Associés/Premier Releasing/Barrel Entertainment –
reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for
educational/review purposes only)
Directed by the celebrated Belgian film director
Harry Kümel, Malpertuis in all of its versions is a much-modified, exceedingly
abridged take on Ray's original novel (the latter being far too complex both in
content and in structure to attempt a description of here, so I won't).
The movie begins with a sailing ship arriving in
dock at Bruges, Belgium, where some rowdy sailors swiftly disembark for a
night's drinking and debauchery at a local bar/brothel/dance hall. Hiding behind some
barrels at the dock is a very unsavoury-looking man, Charles Dideloo (played by
Michel Bouquet), and his younger co-conspirator, Mathias Crook (Daniel Pilon),
waiting for one particular figure to appear – that of a young blond-haired,
blue-eyed sailor named Jan (Mathieu Carrière). When Jan does appear, he
declines to go carousing with the other sailors, stepping off the ship alone
instead, and briskly sets off in the direction of his family home, unaware that
he is being surreptitiously followed by Dideloo and Crook. Suddenly, Jan stops
and asks a man what has happened to the house that used to be on the spot where
they are right now, explaining that it was his family home, and is shocked to learn that
it fell down some time ago and was entirely razed.
Looking away, thoroughly bemused, Jan
sees in the distance the back view of a young woman whom he believes to be his
sister, Nancy, so he pursues her through various winding lanes, while he in
turn is still being pursued by Dideloo and Crook. Just as Jan draws near to
her, however, she opens a door and steps inside a building – and when Jan does
the same (followed as ever by Dideloo and Crook), he discovers that the
building is none other than the brothel where his fellow sailors were heading
to.
And sure enough, here they are, but when
Jan tracks down the woman he believes to be Nancy, he finds that she is in fact
a singer and prostitute named Bets (Sylvie Vartan). Moreover, because Bets
takes a liking to him, and seems willing to offer him her services for free, Jan
soon finds himself pitted against her angry pimp, and when Dideloo slyly offers
the pimp a thick leather cosh, he loses no time in viciously striking Jan in
the face with it, but with such force that the heavily-bleeding young sailor
falls to the ground and loses consciousness.
When he finally awakens, Jan thinks at
first that he is in his own room within his family's home, then remembers that his
home has been demolished, but standing close by, and delighted to see him, is
none other than Nancy (role #1 for Susan Hampshire). When Jan asks where they
are, he is filled with dread when Nancy confesses that they are at Malpertuis –
a huge, shadowy mansion of countless rooms and chambers, labyrinthine
corridors, endless spiral staircases, and an ominous, evil reputation, where
his sinister, occultist uncle Quentin Cassavius (Welles) lives.
However, it soon transpires that Cassavius
is gravely ill, and it was he who had sent Dideloo and Crook on a mission to
secure Jan by whatever means necessary and bring him back to Malpertuis before
he, Cassavius, expired (he had even supplied Dideloo with the fateful leather
cosh for this express purpose). Also currently present at Malpertuis are a
motley assortment of other relatives, as well as a number of servants in
residence, all of whom will shortly be gathering around his death bed to hear
his last will and testament. Cassavius has lived a very long and extremely
successful life as a merchant traveller and much else besides, so they are all
well aware that he is exceedingly rich. As a result, even though they all detest him just as much as he detests all
of them, they have always kept on
sycophantically good terms with him in the hope of inheriting a portion of his
immense fortune one day. And now, finally that day has come.
For not long after Jan's arrival,
Cassavius's health deteriorates sharply, so the entire household is ordered to
attend him for his will's reading, carried out by a formidable man named Eisengott
(Walter Rilla). It soon transpires that Cassavius's amassed fortune is even
greater than any of them has ever suspected, and when the will reveals that it
is to be divided equally between everyone present, they are all ecstatic –
until the final clause is read out. For it stipulates that in order to be
eligible to receive their bequeathed portion, every one of them must move into
Malpertuis straight away and spend the rest of their lives there, never leaving
its grounds. Groans of shock, despair, and disbelief echo throughout the room. The
clause also states that if the last two survivors there are a man and a woman,
they must marry.
Cassavius looks at his beautiful young niece
Euryale (Susan Hampshire in her second role), sitting next to Jan, and
expresses his hope that they will one day wed each other. A mysterious figure
who never looks directly at anyone, always communicating with her face and eyes
lowered, Euryale is told by Cassavius to stay behind when the others leave at
the end of the will's reading, after which he asks her to bring him release.
Cassavius looks directly at Euryale, she lifts up her face, and stares into his
eyes…
Jan is now forced to inhabit Malpertuis
alongside his grotesque relatives and its equally weird servants. They include
a creepy, crazed taxidermist named Philarette (Charles Janssens), obsessed with
creating new stuffed specimens and who speaks to Jan about his fine bone
structure and flayable skin with an unsettling enthusiasm; three severe sisters
perpetually dressed in black, one of whom, Alice aka Alecto (Hampshire's third
role), is passionately drawn to Jan; the ostensibly mad Lampernisse
(Jean-Pierre Cassel), a pathetic youth dressed in rags and ever fearful of the impending
night, who hides in a dank cave-like hole at the end of one corridor and
desperately shields his candles from being blown out by a mysterious unseen force;
plus a seemingly semi-resident clergyman who never stops eating, and an ugly
old servant woman constantly bickering with her doddery husband, who do all the menial
work needing to be done at Malpertuis.
During the coming days, weeks, months (the
viewer never discovers how swiftly or slowly times passes inside the grim walls
of Malpertuis) Jan finds himself trapped on all sides by the varied attentions
of Hampshire's three competing characters – his loving sister Nancy, the
enigmatic Euryale, and the amorous Alice. In addition, all manner of bizarre and
macabre happenings occur.
For instance, Jan finds a vault
containing Cassavius's coffin, but when he prises the coffin open he is shocked
to discover that Cassavius's corpse has turned to stone. Philarette shows Jan a
series of bottles containing the preserved remains of imperfectly formed
homunculi that he and Cassavius created, only for Jan to discover later that
not all of the homunculi created by them are failures. Nancy is in love with Mathias
Crook and announces that they are renouncing their inheritance and quitting
Malpertuis, shortly after which Mathias is found murdered, suspended above the
floor by a stake driven through his forehead. Yet, incredibly, a little later he
reappears alive, albeit more like a mindless automaton now than a real man. And Alice takes her
terrifying, nightmarish revenge upon the repulsive Diderloo, who has been insisting
upon receiving sexual favours from her. But even greater horrors are still to
come.
Jan briefly escapes from
Malpertuis when its inmates turn upon the clergyman, with the doddery old
manservant breathing fire upon the crucifix that the clergyman holds out before
him in a desperate but vain attempt to ward them off, but he subsequently returns (the DC contains a lengthy scene presenting his time outside Malpertuis that is entirely omitted from the other two versions), whereupon he hears
Lampernisse piteously crying out his name. And when Jan finds Lampernisse, he is lying prostrate
on the floor, bleeding profusely, and more dead than alive, with a huge eagle
perched upon him, feasting upon his liver!
Transfixed by this terrifying scene, Jan
doesn't see Philarette behind him, who seizes Jan, stuns him with a blow to his
head, and drags him into his workshop, where he clamps him face up on a table
with shackles round his wrists, ankles, and neck. Philarette then sharpens a
scalpel and is about to make the first incision beneath Jan's eyes in his bid
to skin him alive when a voice calls him by name. Philarette looks up,
startled, in the direction of the voice, and promptly turns grey. He then falls
over onto the floor, breaking up into several section as his body hits the
ground, having turned to stone.
The voice was that of Euryale, who now
tells Jan not to look at her, as she releases each of his shackles with a
single touch. She then tells him to follow her, that it is time for him to learn
at last the secret of Malpertuis.
They enter a room where a long table is
covered in a sheet. Sitting together in a row along the table's edge are the occupants of
Malpertuis,, but all of
them are immobile, as they too are now stone. Euryale explains that many years ago,
Cassavius and Philarette visited a small island in the Ionian Sea where the last classical Greek
gods still survived, though their powers were greatly depleted due to mortals no
longer worshipping or believing in them. Thanks to his occult powers and the taxiderm capabilities
of Philarette, Cassavius was able to capture all of them, and preserve them for
all time by having Philarette sew them inside human bodies. He shipped them like a lowly herd of cattle back to Malpertuis, where they have been forced to serve him ever
since.
Euryale walks up to each figure in turn
and pulls off its sewn-on face, revealing its true face and identity as a Greek
deity (although, bafflingly, in most cases the names by which she refers to them, and thus reiterated here by me, are actually those of their Roman counterparts!). With dark irony, the ugly female servant turns out to be the goddess of
love and beauty Venus, her doddery but fire-breathing husband is the fire
god Vulcan, Matthias is the sun god Apollo, the three sisters are the three
Furies (with Alice/Alecto personifying Revenge), Dideloo is the messenger god Hermes, his conniving wife Sylvie is the
goddess of magic Hecate, and poor Lampernisse is none other than Prometheus, the
titan who stole fire from Heaven to give it to humans but was thereafter punished
for all eternity by Zeus who sent a voracious bird of prey to tear out and
consume his perpetually-regenerating liver every day. (Moreover, in the novel,
Eisengott is revealed to be Zeus himself, but again enslaved by Cassavius.)
Incredulous at such astonishing revelations,
Jan turns to Euryale, stating that if all of this is true, then who is she and
why did Cassavius not enslave her too. Euryale replies that he did not dare to,
because her power has remained undiminished. Instead, his plan was that she and
Jan would wed and give rise to a dynasty of demi-gods to rule the world, but Cassavius
had never anticipated that she would not just wed Jan but also actually fall in love
with him, thereby bringing him both love and death. For as Euryale now tearfully
informs Jan, she is a gorgon.
Jan knows the terrible danger that he
is in, but is compelled to look into Euryale's beautiful yet deadly face. Their
eyes meet (and in the CV and VV, the viewers see his skin turn grey, but this brief yet crucial reveal is inexplicably absent from the DC).
The scene then switches abruptly to a brief clip of the supersonic jet Concorde in flight, and then to the inside
of a mental institution, where Jan is sitting talking to a doctor. Except that
now he is not Jan the sailor, but is instead Jan a besuited computer expert,
who has been cured of delusions in which he had been imagining that the Greek
gods had been abducted, sewn into human bodies, and enslaved. He is now ready to be released. A nurse
(Hampshire yet again) is in attendance for a short period, then the doctor
receives a message that Jan's wife has arrived to take him home.
Jan turns around and there is Charlotte
his wife (played by... – guess who!!). After embracing, they walk down some corridors towards
the exit, during which time they pass a number of hospital staff and patients
who look exactly like various residents from Malpertuis, before finally reaching
the exit door. Jan opens the door and steps through – only to find himself back
inside Malpertuis!
Jan spins around, but the door behind
him has gone, replaced by a brick wall, and his wife has gone too. He turns
back again, and sees a figure approaching him, walking down the corridor in
which he is now standing inside Malpertuis. As the figure draws nearer, Jan realizes
that it is himself, but dressed in the attire that he was wearing when residing in Malpertuis. The
camera closes in upon the eyes of the approaching Jan as the movie ends. Make of that what you will!
Believe it or not, my above overview is only a
very brief summary of this movie's incredibly complex, convoluted plot,
which contains many twists and turns not mentioned by me here, and includes
aspects (particularly the ending scenes in the hospital and onward, which are
not even included in the VV) that make no sense to me at all. Does it mean that
the entire movie is the sick fantasy of a deranged mind, all illusions and dreams,
where nothing is real?
Malpertuis in all three of its versions is
undoubtedly one of the strangest movies that I have ever seen, but also one of
the most fascinating, and is visually gorgeous, with vibrant colours and lavish
sets. No less sumptuous is the sweeping score by Georges Delerue. Susan Hampshire performs admirably in all of her multiple roles (most
notably in a drawing room scene at Malpertuis that features three of her characters interacting
together, truly a cinematographic triumph in its day). Even so, I am at a loss
to know the purpose of this exceptional casting anomaly – why couldn't the five
different roles have been played by five different actresses, or is there some
deep inherent symbolism at play here that I have entirely overlooked? Also, in
the Dutch DC, Welles as Cassavius is dubbed by someone with a voice far less
distinctive than his deep, rich, unmistakable tones, which is a great shame, and
means that you need to watch the CV if you are to fully experience Welles'
dramatic performance both visually and aurally.
Due t0 the unparalleled problems that
I've had in obtaining watchable examples of it (see below), I've actually viewed this film variously in its entirety or in parts more than half a dozen
times now in the past few months alone (each time in order to determine whether the DVD or video in question played properly throughout), so it is indelibly imprinted upon my mind now! Even
so, I've never grown tired of watching it, because there is so much to take
notice of that this extraordinary film definitely bears several viewings in order to do
it justice. Speaking of which:
Thanks to Facebook friend Steve Short, several
months ago I was able to view the DC online with English subtitles. And after a
very long search (which involved purchasing and viewing a set that proved to be
faulty, so had to be returned for a refund), in late March 2021 I was finally
able to buy and watch a fully-functional example of the 2-disc DVD that
contains not only the DC but also the CV, which I'd never previously seen, thereby
enabling me to compare and contrast it directly with the DC.
However, I am still having no luck whatsoever
in obtaining a fully-watchable example of the VV. Another FB friend, Neil
Edmond, kindly gifted me one that he'd bought at a market quite some time
earlier but had never watched. Sadly, however, when I tried it out, it wouldn't
play all through – nor would three other ones that I've bought online lately,
all needing to be returned for refunds after having watched or part-watched each
one of them. And a third FB friend, Andrew Moriarty, has been looking for it
for ages in his huge movie collection but without success as yet.
So does anyone have this ex-rental big box VHS
video in fully-playable form that they may be willing to sell me, so that I can
finally view this missing piece of the Malpertuis
movie jigsaw in its entirety? I've seen the first half (four times!) and the
end (once), but not most of the second half. Also, it would be great to add it
to my Malpertuis collection. Many thanks in advance for any possible help.
Finally, if the thoroughly mystifying Malpertuis intrigues you, why not click here
and watch an official English-language trailer for it on YouTube? (Or click here
to watch the same trailer in French but with better picture quality.) You know
it makes sense – but whether or not this movie will do so for you is another matter entirely!
And to view a complete listing of all of my
Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly
accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
Full
cover from the official DVD of the Spanish dub for the 1972 Cannes version (CV)
of Malpertuis (© Harry Kümel/Artemis
Film/Les Productions Artistes Associés/Premier Releasing/Vellavision –
reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for
educational/review purposes only)
