However, none of these pictures were more defiantly offbeat than The Mephisto Waltz. The only film produced by Twentieth Century Fox during 1970 due to financial reasons, The Mephisto Waltz was based upon a novel of the same name by Fred Mustard Stewart and was directed by the late Paul Wendkos, a fairly prolific director who spent the majority of his career operating within the field of American television. With its tale of the occult conspiracies, Satanic rituals and soul transference, The Mephisto Waltz was unfortunately greeted with a rather lukewarm critical reaction and subsequently met with limited box-office success, despite featuring a cast headlined by Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset. Today The Mephisto Waltz is largely viewed as little more than an odd, early major studio footnote to the devil worship and possession cycle of the seventies.
The plot begins with mild-mannered music journalist Myles Clarkson arriving to interview famed concert pianist Duncan Ely, an exciting opportunity for Myles given that he himself is a failed concert pianist. Seemingly enchanted by the younger man's "Rachmaninoff hands" Duncan and his daughter Roxanne waste no time in befriending Myles, his beautiful wife Paula and their young daughter Abby. Paula however, is instantly suspicious of Duncan's overbearing generosity towards her family and takes an instant dislike to both Roxanne on a personal level and the Ely's decadent lifestyle. However, her concerns are steamrolled by Myles, who has quickly come to view Duncan as an inspirational surrogate father figure and has been utterly seduced by the Ely's extravagant lifestyle. It soon becomes clear that Duncan, who is afflicted with leukaemia and close to death, and Roxanne are embroiled in a grotesque incestuous relationship and are also practitioners of the black arts. By entering into a bargain with Satan, the Ely's succeed in transferring the soul of the depraved Duncan into the body of the polite, affable Myles. Although frightened and disturbed by her husband's sudden change in personality, the truth only begins to become clear to Paula when their daughter Abby dies after being struck down with a sudden, undiagnosed illness. Piecing together the mystery, Paula realises that Duncan's soul has assumed the healthy physical form of Myles and that Abby's life was given in return for this Satanic favour. Realising that she is now all that stands between Roxanne and Duncan resuming their incestuous relationship free from social taboo now that Duncan occupies Myles's body, Paula's soon resolves to enter into her own pact with the Devil in order to get the better of her evil adversaries.
In particular Alan Alda, featured here shortly before embarking on his famed role as Captain Benjamin Franklin Pierce in the hit series M*A*S*H, gives a wonderful performance, perfectly evoking the sense of mild mannered journalist Myles Clarkson having become a mere physical vessel for the evil soul of the far more decadent, cynical and godless Duncan Ely. Meanwhile Alda's co-star Jacqueline Bisset, then arguably at the height of her beauty, is equally good, making for a fine, highly sympathetic female lead as Clarkson's increasingly frightened wife Paula. Indeed, Bisset does an excellent job of conveying Paula's escalating fear, vulnerability and growing fragility of reason as she realises the horrific extent of the diabolical plot she and her family have become pawns in. Elsewhere Bavarian acting veteran Curt Jurgens and Canadian actress Barbara Parkins, the latter in particular, bring a welcome reptilian coldness to their roles as the ailing, devil worshipping pianist Duncan Ely and his equally malefic daughter Roxanne, whilst further solid support is also lent by Bradford Dillman and Kathleen Widdoes, who both perform admirably in their respective supporting roles as Roxanne's pleasant ex-husband Bill and Paula's disbelieving best friend Maggie. Seasoned horror and exploitation fans may also wish to note the presence of a young Pamelyn Ferdin who appears here as the Clarkson's ill-fated daughter Abby, and later went on to star alongside Cameron Mitchell in Dennis Donnelly notorious shocker The Toolbox Murders (1978).
While never explicitly scary as such, director Paul Wendkos certainly does succeed in achieving an unnerving, nicely mounting sense of unsettling paranoia, particularly during the films second half as Paula gets progressively closer to unravelling the terrifying truth behind the Ely's devilish designs upon her family and realises, without wanting to give too much away, that the only way to escape from their Satanic spider web is to play them at their own game. This creeping air of paranoid tension is nicely achieved, especially considering that much of the films unwinds against a backdrop of safe and sunny Californian locale's, and eventually culminates in one of the most memorable appearances of Satan himself on film, even though it is achieved via little more than some evocative lighting, a shadow at a door and the sound of heavy footfalls. Equally memorable too is the films surprising twist ending, which once again without wanting to give too much away, eventually portrays Paula's motivations in a very different light.The real chills The Mephisto Waltz has to offer however, are surprisingly hidden away on a slightly deeper, more character based level. Indeed, if the viewer takes the time to dig beneath the surface there is something about the relationship between Duncan Ely and his daughter Roxanne which really does make the flesh creep, not only in terms of their barely concealed incest, but also in terms of the way in which they icily go about treating the personalities, relationships and lives of innocents as a disposable commodity to be used either for personal gratification or as some sort of Satanic bargaining tool.
Wendkos pulls off one genuinely startling visual coup early on when, during a typically decadent New Years Eve party thrown by the Ely's, Roxanne is seen petting a rather large and ferocious dog which is donning a mask of a human head. This curiously malignant and unsettling visual of a lifeless human head on a canine body would feature prominently upon both the films theatrical poster and in publicity stills used to promote the films original release. The film also benefits from the presence of Jerry Goldsmith's typically fine score, the intentionally jarring and alarming discord of which has a tangible diabolic edge to it, making it an evocative and befitting accompaniment to the films Satanic themes.
The Mephisto Waltz is an underrated chiller, which if nothing else, at least puts a unique, interesting spin upon the burgeoning Satanic preoccupation's which were beginning to partially characterise American horror cinema on both a mainstream and independent level during the post-Rosemary's Baby era of the early seventies. (jacksmith1983, cultmovieforums)
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