Director
Harry Kümel
Composer
Georges Delerue, Pierre Levie, Paul Laffargue
Cast
Orson Welles, Susan Hampshire, Michel Bouquet
Edition 1992
125'
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1971
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Mystery, Fantasy, Drama, Horror
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Dialogue:
Dutch
A fresh-faced blond sailor is shanghaied from a '20s port full of sleazy bars and art-nouveau mansions, and held captive in the endless corridors of a crumbling Gothic pile called Malpertuis: we don't discover why until the end, in a denouement as outrageous and devastating as any ever filmed. Kümel elaborates the mystery like a master, drawing much of his design and composition from Surrealist painting (Magritte, de Chirico), and weaving serpentine patterns from the intrigues between the many characters. Welles is at his most mountainous as the house's patriarch; Hampshire is a revelation, playing three contrasted women. (Time Out, 1990)
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Credits
Directors
Harry Kümel
Composers
Georges Delerue, Pierre Levie, Paul Laffargue
Cast
Orson Welles, Susan Hampshire, Michel Bouquet
Scenario
Jean Ferry
Director of Photography
Gerry Fisher
Editors
Harry Kümel, Richard Marden
More info
Dialogue
Dutch
Countries of production
Belgium, France, West Germany
Screenplay based on
"Malpertuis" (Jean Ray)
Year
1971
Filmography
Harry Kümel
Le gant (short, 1953), Een moederhart (short, 1954), Het meisje met de zwavelstokjes (short, 1956), Perette et le pot au lait (short 1958), Perpetuum mobile (short, 1958), Het gevecht aan de Chinese muur (short, 1958), Sintesis (short, 1959), Pandora (short, 1960), Aether (short 1960), Tous les parfums de l'Arabie (short, 1961), Uit glas en staal (short, 1962), Thamar en Amnon (1962), Hendrik Conscience (1963), Erasmus (1963), Waterloo (short 1965), De grafbewaker (short 1965), Claudia Cardinale (short, 1965), Monsieur Hawarden (1968), Lievevrouwbedstro (TV Movie, 1969), Josef von Sternberg, een retrospektieve (TV Movie, 1969), Censuur in België (TV Movie), Daughters of Darkness (1971), Avondspelen (TV Movie, 1971), The Legend of Doom House (1971), Repelsteeltje (1973), The Arrival of Joachim Stiller (1976), Paradise Lost (1978), Draadvariaties (1980), The Secrets of Love (1986), Een Dag in Vlaanderen (1986), Softly from Paris (TV Series), Elie Vere (1991), Europe - 99euro-films 2 (segment: Story of a Metamophosis, 2003)
