The Mephisto Waltz (1971)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Wonderfully offbeat film!

People are voting emotionally.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Anyone who compares this film to Rosemary's Baby apparently never saw the latter. While RB is a great classic, this looks like a cheap movie-of-the-week, complete with a bad acting, a confusing plot, a loud, intrusive score, bad lighting, and a few naughty bits to entice customers in. There were good actors in this who did better movies and I'll bet few of them included this laughable turkey on their resume.

Hey, it was 1971, M*A*S*H was still in his future, and you gotta eat, right? So it seems this is Alan Alda's take on the situation, as he plays a character somewhat like Hawkeye Pierce, but this time a gifted pianist who had to take up journalism as a result of bad reviews. He meets ups with Duncan Mowbray Ely, an ageing pianist who is at the end of his life. He befriends Alda's Clarkson – but with a nefarious bent...You see, Duncan (a menacing Curd Jürgens) and his sister, Roxanne (a really twisted performance from Barbara Parkins) are Satanists, and are luring Clarkson in... in order to perform a "soul swap," letting Jürgens take over Alda's mind and body. Only problem, a whole bunch of people end up "having to die," and it's left in the hands of Clarkson's wife, Paula (a stirring, epic performance from Jacqueline Bisset) to try and make things right.For a 1970's "Quinn Martin Production," the ending quite surprised me. The only issue I have with the flick is that it looks (today anyway), like a made-for-TV movie in terms of production values. Story-wise and acting are actually pretty good, and it's a fun little flick to watch – if you want enter the mindset of the early 1970's in which it is made. It is a movie of it's time.

I had a copy of this film that I found on ex-rental and would love to see it come out on disc, but the 'The Mephisto Waltz' may only have curiosity value these days, so I'm not getting my hopes up. I got rid of my VHS copy to make room for more discs (which I probably don't watch and don't even like as much as this) and I'm sorry that I did.The acting is corny and the script is melodramatic but 'The Mephisto Waltz' manages to work as classic escapist entertainment. Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset play the protagonists. Alda is a no-talent music journalist who makes a pact with a famous musician, who is living as a closet Satanist, and has an incestuous relationship with his daughter (Barbara Parkins). The plan is for the Alda character to take over the pianist's talent when he dies, so his music will live forever. Alda's wife, played by Jacqueline Bisset bears the brunt of her husband's hijinx with the dark forces. It seems that a husband selling his soul can have deleterious consequences on one's life such as losing him to another woman (boo hoo) and having your child sicken and die because you do not want to join up with a cult of Satanists (far more serious).The scares are very effective and exist within an atmosphere of angst and foreboding and just seem to happen ( naturally, don't we all wonder what it would be like to sell our soul to the devil?) Meanwhile the audience is pummelled with a load of satanic mumbo-jumbo, outrageous sixties fashions and blaring classical music on the soundtrack, which uses Liszt's piece of the same name over the opening credits. (I have just found out the soundtrack was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, presumably with apologies to Franz Liszt).As you may have figured by now 'The Mephisto Waltz' is not meant to be taken too seriously and as a consequence it just happens to be a lot of fun. It is a bit silly but it also works on the level it has set for itself. I think it is actually superior to other horror movies made on bigger budgets with bigger directors who try to turn the fact that they are making a horror movie into some kind of big event. The quandary the Jacqueline Bisset character finds herself in, is genuinely distressing, and the film wisely milks this for everything its worth. The result is a very satisfying horror experience if you don't analyse the hokey plot, or the silly characters too much and just sit back and enjoy it.

It is important in film-making not only create an impression but also to engender some sort of gut reaction from the audience, especially in horror films. We can judge a horror film in addition to its style, by its ability to actually frighten. THE MEPHISTO WALTZ does well on this count.The film is about a couple who is coerced into the household of rich socialite-Satanists, led by Duncan Ely, who is played by Curt Jurgens, who is pretty good here. What follows is a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between the converted and unconverted to Ely's sect. It is pretty well-written and shot, with genuine suspense and a deceptively simple use of oblique angles and soft focus to create a nightmarish atmosphere. The problem with the film is that it is too long, and domestic sequences are not poignant enough to be interesting, despite the strange Alda performance.However, there are scary sequences of fantasy vs. reality and terror-based ideas, such as Jaquelin Bisset's realization that her dreams are reality and the pure horror of the dog attack scene. Initially director Paul Wendkos's inserts seem too jarring, but in being jarring they make the action more threatening.I didn't really like the title sequence because it gives away too many of the nice shots we should be surprised or thrilled by later in the film. One thing that definitely adds to the suspense of the film is Jerry Goldsmith's score: it rivals Herrman's PSYCHO score for violin-fueled, full-blooded accompaniment to a horror film.Overall, despite some problems of character development and loose ends, THE MEPHISTO WALTZ is a frightening film, and a devious twist on a concept used in such other films as THE SEVENTH VICTIM and ROSEMARY'S BABY, this one is a distinctive experience in the bizarre. Some may not like the plot's convolution, but assuredly watch if you are a fan of horror films of any connotation.