Satan's Baby Doll

Mario Bianchi, directing under the rather bizarre English name Alan W. Cools, made this strange entry into the Euro sleaze category in 1982. Shameless have released it in its most complete form although there is perhaps some debate as to what that is, as Satan's Baby Doll (or, to give it its full title, La bimba de Satana) was released in different cuts all over Europe with different types of film and different stories, some as fairly risqué skin flicks and others as Satanic mystery thrillers. This one combines the two and is a fantastic slice of Euro sleaze. It is a remake of the 1979 Euro sleaze movie Malabimba - The Malicious Whore which was not only written and produced by the same people, but was directed by Mario Bianchi's brother, Andrea. Now, I haven't seen Malabimba so I can't comment on any differences and which one is the superior film - I'll leave you to decide.

The plot, such as it is, revolves around Miria, played by the delectable Jacqueline Dupré in her one and only screen appearance, who has a hard time getting a good night's sleep following her mother's funeral, during which the corpse underwent a severe muscle spasm, arched her back, opened her mouth and appeared to stare at her daughter. As this also falls neatly into the nunsploitation subgenre, Miria is cared for by Sol, a trainee nun, who seems like nothing better than stripping down to her white stockings at bedtime and lying down for a good night's masturbating. She tends to do this but the door half-open just so that Miria's mute and paralysed brother can wheel his way along the corridor for a good eyeful. Mistreated by his father, Ignazio only seems to exist to be bullied by his sadistic father and cop a regular look at the novice who also acts as a housekeeper -- you'd need one if you lived in a castle that size -- and really, no home would be complete without one!

Now, although Maria is dead and is lying in the crypt in the castle's basement, she has a psychological hold over her daughter, Miria, who feels strangely compelled to get out of bed in a state of undress and seduce and murder anyone who mother had a grudge against when she died. This list was pretty lengthy and seems to include everyone apart from her daughter and son. So, you have Juan, a doctor who deals drugs to the newly-widowed Antonio and wants Miria put away in into an asylum, a lawyer who clearly doesn't have Maria's best interests at heart and, helping out Sol in the housekeeping duties, is a servant who, like Maria was, is obsessed with black magic. Top of the list is Antonio who, let's be honest, is a nasty piece of work and an utterly tyrannical patriarch who deserves some justice from beyond the grave.

For a film that's only just over 70 minutes long, there's not much action apart from Miria and Sol in various states of undress (the casting of Mariangela Giordano is significant as she was renowned for her appearances in European skin flicks) and some strange murder scenes. The rest of the film is a variety of scenes in which people talk to one another about what's happening and who could be behind it, a weird blend of exposition and speculation. Oh, there's also a chicken sacrifice!


I've watched Satan's Baby Doll twice and I'm still not sure what to make of it; there is enough gratuitous nudity to cover up the shortcomings in the plot, of which there are several, and some well orchestrated and stylish murder scenes. The film is complete tosh, but it is enjoyable tosh. No one should put in a DVD entitled Satan's Baby Doll and expect some Hitchcockian thriller with Olivier-esque acting and a screenplay as if Joseph and Hermann Mankiewicz worked on it together. What you should expect, and what you'll get, is a reasonably good piece of Euro sleaze with plenty of nudity -- if you want it to make perfect sense then you're out of luck. This has been restored to somewhat near its former glory using some rough footage from a German XXX print so there is more masturbation and lesbian action in this is than in the R1 Severin release and thus it runs at around the same time, even with the PAL speed up.

The Disc

Extra Features
As expected, and as is fairly traditional for a Shameless DVD that doesn't come under the banner of 'Shameless Fan Edition', the extras are fairly minimal here although the actual cut of the film probably falls under the 'special feature' category.

What is additional to the film itself is several alternate scenes, including an alternate opening, a biography of Mariangela Giordano (adapted from an article by Alan Jones and Mark Ashworth), two theatrical trailers and a complete back catalogue of Shameless trailers. The set also comes with a poster of the original artwork and a reversible sleeve so you can choose between the Italian and English covers.


The Picture
This falls into two categories: the footage that has been around for a long time and has been seen on other DVDs and the newly found material that has been inserted to make this as complete as possible. Dealing with the first thing first, the picture quality is generally very good with a pleasing level of detail, good skin tones (there has to be, doesn't there?) and decent contrast levels throughout. As you'd expect, the inserted footage is pretty grainy and scratched, although it's better quality than the extra footage in Shameless' release of Baba Yaga which was clearly from much poorer stock.

The Sound
Perfectly suiting this film is the DD 2.0 Italian stereo track with optional English subtitles. Both are soundtrack and subtitles are clear (although there are a couple of spelling errors in the subtitles, 'Ty' instead of 'Try') and do their best to create atmosphere to go along with the visuals.


Final Thoughts
Satan's Baby Doll is a reasonably enjoyable and fairly silly piece of Euro trash, but anyone expecting otherwise is a fool! It's fairly sleazy (in a good way) and ridiculously plotted but that's all part of the charm of a film like this. I think the only way that this release could have been any better was if it was a double DVD set with Malabimba. As it is, this is a decent release of a fairly mediocre film but one that is better than the Severin release in terms of extra material and the extended version of the film.

Watching the disc load up and the 'Friendly Warning' preceding trailers for Beast in Space and Love Goddess of the Cannibals brought back happy memories as it's been ages since I've reviewed a Shameless DVD and especially a proper 18 certificate one (Footprints was actually at 12 certificate but the trailers and other extra material but is up to an 18). With the aforementioned Love Goddess of the Cannibals and Beast in Space on the horizon, it's happy times again.

As a final note, if you're paying attention to the spine numbers, this is SHAM023, with Love Goddess as 022 and Beast in Space as 024.