Embalmer (1965)

Monster of Venice
Il mostro di Venezia

Cast:

Maureen Brown is Maureen
Luigi Martocci is Andrea (as Gin Mart) Luciano Gasper
Anita Todesco

What the IMDB says:

A crazed killer is on the loose in the catacombs of Venice, Italy. He stalks beautiful women, drags them to his underground lair, kills them, then stuffs them and adds them to his "collection."

Plot:

An alchemist is experimenting in a dungeon before he surfaces up through the Venice Italy tunnels and grabs a girl walking late one night.

As the newspapers announce the missing girl and the police invesitgate the case.

Well, the nutjob/alchemist/embalmer is keeping the missing girls for himself and to preserve them them forever... Later, he takes another.

A collection like this will get you into serious trouble.

The police are stymied on the case as Andre, the reporter, keeps on the article. However, his editor wants more proof from Andre. The police don't believe Andre's case...

Venice's bigwigs don't believe the missing women are a major case.

A group of stewardesses arrive in the city. Andre takes some of them around a tour of the city and with Maureen that night on the town.

Nutjob elbamer rambles on how he wants more preserved for his temple of loveliness. After getting suited up, he heads out for another victim. The chemical mixing ensues and don't forget the rambling of the secret preservation.

The police don't believe Andre's story of a maniac.

Professor Scwartz is studying Venice's tunnels, but the Embalmer finds him and disposes of him by hiding him in coffin at a night club.

Stop it!, you're tearing me apart...

The elbalmer roams around Venice elsewhere and grabs another victim from a gondola ride.

Andre is still investigating and realizes the elbalmer is underwater.

Maureen discovers that her hotel manager has been spying on her. Checking on his room, she discovers a hidden trap door and goes through to explore.

Andre and his guys have started to set a trap to catch the embalmer.

In the lab, embalmer is preserving the newest stewardess to be added to his collection.

Well, not the Scream killer appearance... Maureen is searching the tunnels when the skull masked embalmer spots her and starts chasing her.
This is the 3-D moment...

Andre finds the hidden under-tunnel sanctum where the embalmer dispatches Maureen. Andre finds them and a room full of skulls and corpses. He chases the crazed killer when the wall collapses and floods the room with water. Andre chases after the embalmer to the top side. The police finally get to shoot the maniac. The detective checks on Andre who is mourning for not being able to save Maureen.

What I say:

A homicidal embalming frogman who likes to talk to himself is hunting Venice, Italy, to find women that get embalmed for his special collection. The police don't seem that concerned on the case. However, the investigating reporter is concerned between the case and his new sterwardess girlfriend. While the stewardesses don't have any Some Like It Hot moments, it does seem almost as if they were just there for some sort of inclusion. AFter all, the 1980s would have had some cheerleader convention in Venice at the time for killer frog-man to strike...

Can't think of that many wet-suited, frogmen monster movies... Well, Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequels (Gillman deserves his amphibian respects...), the Creature from the Haunted Sea, and Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. Low budget, mid-1960s, Italian, horror movies aren't known for suberb monster special effects.

Unfortunately, this is one of the slowly dragging movies. That's not a big shock in these kind of movies. Trying to keep track of the characters is hard enough since the Embalmer just grabs some woman every 10 minutes or so. But, no one knows who they are. The random character is normally never a very good. Either you want someone in the movie for the audience to root for or to be dropped into the woodchipper. The Embalmer is more concerned with just having a number of characters without names.

Almost knew that this had to be a European horror movie with its slightly more downer ending by the reporter not saving the girl. The typical 1960s American horror movies have happier endings. Couldn't you almost see William Castle doing some sort of House on Haunted Hill or Tingler promotion for this movie? A scuba-clad diver running through the theater would at least wake the audience up.

Quotable Dialogue
"Is this a bribe?"
"Stick to the facts!"
"You just smell the cork and pass out."
"He's a real Venetian!"
"My secret potion will penetrate every cell in your body, keeping you eternally beautiful!"
Morals of the Story
Human skulls are very kickable.
Stock footage is easier than taking the entire cast to Venice, Italy.
Little old ladies can "Twist" better than Chubby Checker.
Night clubs need coffins for their late night shows.