Boris Karloff is the host of three scary tales of terror: In the Italian version, the sequence is the following:
1) "Il Telefono" / "O Telefone" ("The Telephone"):
Rosy (Michèlle Mercier) receives several phone calls threatening her life. She believes her former lover, who has just escaped from prison, is the man that is calling her. She denounced his crimes some time ago and he was convicted and imprisoned. She calls her lesbian girlfriend Mary (Lidia Alfonsi) to stay with her during the night. Soon a secret is disclosed and a tragedy happens in the middle of the night.
In the ridiculous American version, Frank is a ghost and not a fugitive, destroying the tension. My vote is seven.
2) "I Wurdulak" / "O Wurdulak" ("The Wurdulak"):
The young Vladimire d'Urfe (Mark Damon) is riding a horse in the night and finds a man stabbed on the back. He withdraws the dagger from the man and finds a house close to the place where he found the body. There, he meets a family composed of two brothers, one sister, one sister-in-law and one nephew, and he falls in love at first sight with the beautiful Sdenka (Susie Andersen). He realizes that the dead man was a criminal, probably killed by the head of the family Gorca (Boris Karloff), and he is advised to leave that place, if Gorca does not arrive until midnight. The family informs that there is a chance that Gorca might have been transformed in a Wurdulak, a kind of vampire who drains blood from the living persons. A few seconds after midnight, Gorca comes back home, and the afraid family does not know whether he was transformed or not. The family will discover later what happened in a tragic way.
In the American version, there are modifications and the scene that Gorca takes a head from his bag is cut. My vote is nine.
3) "La Goccia d' Acqua" / "A Gota d' Água" ("The Drop of Water")
The nurse Helen Chester (Jacqueline Pierreux) is summoned to prepare the body of a countess for her funeral. She steals the worthy ring from her finger. The countess comes back from beyond to retrieve her ring, scaring the frightened greedy woman.
There are few modifications in the American version. My vote is eight.
These three tales are excellent. With the direction of Mario Bava, this film explores themes related to fear, anxiety, greedy and guilty in a splendid scary way. Unfortunately the American version is terrible compared to the Italian version. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil):"Black Sabbath - As Três Máscaras do Terror" ("Black Sabbath - The Three Masks of Terror")
