Care to dance anyone . . .
The Mephisto Waltz was a decent 70's horror flick about Satanism, incest and a woman's love for her husband.
Paula (Jacqueline Bisset) Myles (Alan Alda) and Abby Clarkson (Pamelyn Ferdin) are your average up and coming family. Very into themselves and each other they seem to be all about their family bonds. That is until Myles, a thwarted pianist and current music journalist meets Duncan Ely (Curd Jurgens) for what he thinks is his interview of a lifetime. More to the point it seems that Duncan and his daughter and love interest, Roxanne Delancey (Barbara Parkins) are sizing him up though at first we don't know what for.
It soon becomes quite evident that Paula is not too fond of the artist Roxanne and she begs Myles to stay away from both her and Duncan. But Myles is quite taken with their family and Paula softens a bit when she learns that Duncan is dying from Leukemia. I often say that a woman needs to listen to her intuition and this situation was no different. Paula was on to something in her assessment of their new friends and soon after Duncan's death it is evident that there has been some sort of change in her dear Myles. . . although not all for the worse.
As we weave our way through terrifying dream sequences and unexplainable deaths involving some sort of blue oil we also begin to see Paula's spiral to the dark side as she tries to hold on to the man she loves.
Even though I thought there could've been a bit more character development, I still enjoyed all of the characters in the film. The one thing that probably bugged me the most was that after the death of their daughter from a mysterious illness, neither Myles nor Paula seemed all that upset about it. At least Myles had an excuse as he really was not himself anymore but it wasn't all that believable for me for Paula.
The atmosphere of the film really lent itself well to it's dark plot. And I thought Roxanne's ex husband, Bill Delancey's (Bradford Dillman) take on Duncan and Roxanne's foray into the occult quite interesting. According to him, the reason they got involved in Satanism was to be able to do anything that they wanted to - including their incestuous affair. He also claimed to be unafraid of Roxanne and her friends . . . too bad for him in the end really.
All in all an interesting delve into the world of supernatural occultism. I was surprised that I hadn't heard about this sooner and I was definitely glad that I caught it on my DVR - a strong recommend.
The Mephisto Waltz Movie Cast and Credits
Directed by
Paul Wendkos
Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ben Maddow
Fred Mustard Stewart novel
Cast (in credits order)
Alan Alda .... Myles Clarkson
Jacqueline Bisset .... Paula Clarkson
Barbara Parkins .... Roxanne Delancey
Bradford Dillman .... Bill Delancey (as Brad Dillman)
William Windom .... Dr. West
Kathleen Widdoes .... Maggie West
Pamelyn Ferdin .... Abby Clarkson
Curd Jürgens .... Duncan Ely (as Curt Jurgens)
Curt Lowens .... Agency Chief
Gregory Morton .... Conductor
Janee Michelle .... Agency Chief's Girlfriend
Lilyan Chauvin .... Woman Writer
Khigh Dhiegh .... Zanc Theun
Alberto Morin .... Bennett
Berry Kroeger .... Raymont
Terrence Scammell .... Richard
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anabel Shaw .... Nurse
Antoinette Bower .... (uncredited)
More Reviews of The Mephisto Waltz
The Mephisto Waltz Movie Review and Information Page at The Internet Movie DatabaseReviews of The Mephisto Waltz at Rotten Tomatoes
