The Whip and the Body original German movie poster Mario Bava horror Chris Lee

Description

Here is an original German A1 (23" x 33") movie poster for the Constantin Film release of Mario Bava's outsider fetishistic horror The Whip and the Body (1963), featuring Christopher Lee in a brutal role as the ghost of a sadomasochistic lover of the elegant Dalia Lavi. The twisted psychosexual supernatural tale is punctuated by Bava's lush, oversaturated cinematography and Carlo Rustichelli's overwrought romantic theme, generating a sensory tension vacillating between uncomfortable laughter and shock at the cinema that could be produced for general consumption at the time. Produced but not necessarily distributed, as Bava's film was heavily cut to 77 minutes for its US release as "What!" and its UK release as "Night of the Phantom." In it's original form, the film is too grim and humorless for most audiences and does not play well today in its heady depiction of sexual violence, but it certainly distinguishes Bava as an auteur who was ahead of his time.
Striking poster offers a daunting portrait of Lee, whip about to strike, and the pale, sadomasochistic Lavi with blood dripping from the thorns of the rose she is clutching.