OOP DVD Release
Imagine being offered an immense fortune but you weren’t able to leave your apartment or home to enjoy it? Sure you could hire people to handle your shopping, cooking and whatever other needs you required but, in my opinion, that would get really old! I mean just think about it for a moment…no cruisin’ that new Lexus or hoppin’ that mint ’64 Impala…no picking up a dozen golddigging, no-panty-wearing tramps and bringing them to the V.I.P. spot in the club for some $200 champagne, $1,200 cocaine and $35 oral sex…nada. You’d be stuck inside, wasting away.
Hell, I’d still take the money.
This very dilemma is the premise of Malpertuis but trust me on this folks, this isn’t the house nor is this the family you’d want to be stuck with!
Jan (Mathieu Carrière) has come home on naval shore leave but he really has no plans to leave the boat, despite the please of his fellow shipmates, and enjoy the city’s nightlife. Jan knows all too well about this city and its denizens which is why he left for the navy in the first place. Curiosity ends up getting the better of Jan though and he decides to visit the old homestead and see how things are doing. Once there he’s shocked and dismayed to discover his home is no more and family long gone. As the bewildered young sailor begins to leave he quickly catches a glimpse of a fleeing woman that resembles his dear sister Nancy (Susan Hampshire) so he decides to take chase. Each time he believes he’s caught up with “Nancy” she vanishes into thin air. Finally, Jan is able to catch up with the woman in a seedy burlesque house but is crestfallen to discover the woman wasn’t his sister after all. Things continue to go downhill for poor Jan when the young woman’s “business manager” *coughpimpcough* decides he doesn’t approve of the attention Jan is giving her and bounces a blackjack off of his forehead. Lights out.
When Jan awakens he finds himself safe and being attended to by his sister, Nancy. They’re both incredibly happy to see one another…almost…TOO HAPPY but the happiness is short-lived when Nancy tells Jan he’s being recovering in his vile Uncle Cassavius’ mansion…Malpertuis! Intent on leaving Malpertuis before Cassavius (Orson Welles) can call on him, Nancy appeals to Jan to remain with them as per their uncle’s request so the legalities of his will can be settled. Not wanting to disappoint his loving sister, Jan agrees to stay for a few days despite his hatred for the nutty, money-hungry family and the loud, evil Cassavius.
Once the family has all been gathered together, Cassavius decides there’s no time like the present so he calls a family meeting and has his lawyer Eisengott (Walter Rilla) list his assets and the stipulations of the inheritance to be bestowed upon his greedy descendants. They all stand to inherit an incredible sum which will be doled out to them yearly but for each family member to receive the wealth they must agree to remain within Malpertuis…forever. The will also goes on to say that each family member’s portion of wealth will increase as family members begin dying and the last remaining man and woman still residing in Malpertuis will be required to marry. Cassavius is, indeed, a crafty old bastard! Not only has be set his will up as such but he also hopes to arrange a marriage between Jan and his “cousin” Euryale.
Can shit get any crazier? HELL YEAH IT CAN! Even though Jan yearns to leave Malpertuis, the mysterious Euryale has him absolutely captivated. Unfortunately his affections appear to be one-sided so he starts up a little tryst with another family member named Alexis (Susan Hampshire). Family fucking family soon leads to family killing family. The insanity in Malpertuis reaches incredible heights as Jan discovers Cassavius may have been an alchemist and toyed with creating artificial life! Perhaps Lampernisse, a man chained beneath a staircase in Malpertuis, knows more than he’s letting on about Cassavius and the evil mansion? Just what lives in the attic and why was Cassavius so intent on all of them remaining within Malpertuis forever?
Malpertuis is a debaucherous descent into absolute and utter madness. It was like watching the Cirque du Soleil…high…naked and alone with the creepy androgynous clowns. From start to finish you’re never sure whether we’re actually even in Malpertuis (the mansion) at all or just witnessing one of Jan’s fevered dreams brought on by the whack to the forehead. If it all is real, could Cassavius be the devil or something much more fantastic? Is there even a Cassavius at all? Could the entire affair have been nothing more than the creative ramblings of a man teetering on the brink of insanity? I was absolutely blown away by this rare cult gem and the phenomenal work Barrel Entertainment has put into it. If ever a film deserved a comprehensive 2-disc release, this is it.
While Mathieu Carrière (as Jan) may be the lead in Malpertuis, Orson Welles steals the entire show in the short amount of time he’s featured as the foul, gluttonous psycho, Cassavius. Welles will truly have you believing the entire mansion and all the evil within it emanates directly from his own treacherously dark soul. The deeper we journey into the Grand Guignol-esque mansion and learn of Cassavius’ possible “evil deeds” the more you’ll find yourself wondering whether Welles’ bellowing paranoia and dementia are nothing more than a clever ruse to drag the entire family to Hell itself!
It wouldn’t be fair of me though if I didn’t point out that the beautiful Susan Hampshire actually played over three characters in this film and unless you knew ahead of time…YOU’D NEVER KNOW! Honestly, I had no idea until I dug about in the special features. It’s no big plot spoiler or anything but it is quite the fantastic achievement of special effects make-up and a testament to Ms. Hampshire’s acting talent. By the way, despite being 70 years old, Ms. Hampshire is still quite the hot tamale!
Folks, Barrel have gone above and beyond the call of duty on this release and I dare say anybody will ever get as “comprehensive” as this. The 2-disc set includes the 119 minute director’s cut presented in Dutch with removable English subs as well as an audio commentary by director Harry Kümel. We also get a featurette entitled, “Orson Welles Uncut” that features rare outtakes of Welles taken during the filming and we also get the featurette, “Susan Hampshire: One Actress, Three Parts.” That’s fairly self-explanatory. The second disc sports the pared down 100 minute Cannes version of Malpertuis plus “Reflections of Darkness: Del Valle on Kümel” which is a 74-minute documentary on the director and we also get a 7-minute featurette on novelist Jean Ray, whose work this film was based on.
I won’t even get into the quality of the transfer because there’d simply be no way somebody would put this kind of work into a release only to botch the transfer; the print is flawless, colors are all vibrant and the soundtrack was top-notch.
Malpertuis is a classic and I highly recommend it to all the readers out there. It’s worth every single penny.
