The Possessed (1965)

The Possessed (or La mujer del lago) is one of those films I was initially excited to see upon reading the synopsis, then slightly disappointed when it was completed, as I realized I didn't read it close enough.  The synopsis on IMDb.com reads

When a visitor arrives in a small Italian village, he discovers that the residents are acting like soul-less zombies--and he begins to suspect that they may be under the influence of a mysterious local woman.

Zombie's and giallo, wouldn't that be a film worth seeing!  Well, in my defense that's a rather poor and semi-misleading summary of the film, and extraordinarily broad.

The Possessed follows Bernard (played by Peter Baldwin who oddly enough went on to direct a lot of classic American television shows from 1964-2002 ending with one of my adolescent favorites Even Stevens!) a writer who travels to a small Italian village he frequently vacationed to as a child.  His routine is to rent a hotel room for a couple months, using the isolation from the bustling city as an occasion to clear his head and gain some inspiration for his writing.  He checks in at the usual locale, an old family run hotel which appears to be on it's last leg, and gets ready to settle into his month long stay.  But Bernard hasn't come solely for relaxation or inspiration, he's come back to see someone he was secretly pining for upon his last visit.

The object of his desire is the lovely housemaid Tilde (Virna Lisi), a beautiful exotic blonde with blistering eyes who instantly engrossed his every thought.  But to his dismay Tilde was no where to be seen.  When he inquired about her from the owner of the establishment he received some startling news, Tilde was dead.  She had committed suicide not more than a year prior.  None of this made sense to Bernard, he hadn't known her very well but she certainly didn't seem like the type of person to take her own life.  Something did not add up, and some people in the town didn't seem to be too convinced it was suicide either, the strange mystery surrounding her death and the constant flood of memories trailing through his head since he last arrived only fueled him to investigate this further.  Somewhere the truth lay buried within the deteriorating walls of the old hotel, and Bernard was determined to uncover all he could!

The Possessed is another Italian thriller, similar to Libido that really straddles the fence in terms of being lumped into the sub-genre of "giallo". Most of the film is spent uncovering the mystery of an off screen death, while any real violence is saved for the climax.  Going into the film I didn't know what to expect as there's not much information on this film readily available, even the IMDb summary is pretty broad.  In terms of flow The Possessed is slow at times but when the main character finally begins to make some headway in his investigation it does get rather interesting, and the climax was definitely not too overly predictable.

The lovely Virna Lisi is definitely an excuse to track this film down.  Her role is limited to the main character's flashbacks and she doesn't have much dialog but her beauty definitely adds to the haunting atmosphere of the film.  Apparently Lisi was a rather popular Italian actress during the 60's and 70's, comparable in looks to a Marilyn Monroe.  Overall, The Possessed is a worth while film for fans of the Italian thriller.  It's average at best, but definitely has a few qualities that make it memorable and worth checking out.

6/10