05-07-2008, 10:18 AM
If Bava had been born a Southern dandy, or taken up with AIP, he might have made movies lke this. Strother Martin plays the logical extension of his role as Newman's nemesis in Cool Hand Luke - a small town Satanic cult leader who acts like an evil, Shakespearean Foghorn Leghorn. Surprisingly atmospheric and effective for a low budget film, with interesting compositions, long tracking shots and dialogue-free passages of weirdness that could be from an early silent. I don't mean to overstate, but this is much better than lots of similar movies that came out around the same time that it appears to have been lost among.