''The Unnaturals'' ( it, Contronatura, german: Schreie in der Nacht) is a gothic horror film directed and written by

Antonio Margheriti Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonyms Anthony M. Dawson and Antony Daisies ("daisies" is "margherite" in Italian), was an Italians, Italian filmmaker. Margheriti worked in many different film ...

. It is loosely based on

Dino Buzzati Dino Buzzati-Traverso (; 14 October 1906 – 28 January 1972) was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for '' Corriere della Sera''. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel ''The Tartar St ...

's short story "Eppure bussano alla porta" from the collection ''

The Seven Messengers ''The Seven Messengers'' () is a collection of short stories written by Dino Buzzati and published as a book in 1942. It contains nineteen short tales, in which the characters often interact with the presence of the fantastic and/or death ...

''. The film is an Italian and West German co-production between Super International Pictures S.l.P, Edo Cinematografica, and CCC Filmkunst GmbH.

Plot

On a stormy night, set in the early 20th century, a group of members of London's high society are traveling home from a social event and their car gets stuck in the mud in the countryside. They seek refuge in a remote country house. There they are received by the mysterious Uriat and his taciturn mother. Uriat explains to the guests that his mother has the powers of a medium and can communicate with the dead. Some of the guests are amused and are persuaded to take part in a seance. But when the old woman begins to tell those present details from their own past, the mood quickly changes. It turns out that everyone present carries a dark secret with them and the group is entangled in a web of mutual deception, affairs (including lesbian affairs) and acts of violence. The hosts are also part of this network, as it finally turns out. As former servants, they were once charged with a double homicide for which those present are responsible, and seek their own justice.

Cast

Joachim Fuchsberger Joachim "Blacky" Fuchsberger (pronounced ; 11 March 1927 – 11 September 2014) was a German actor and television host, best known to a wide German-speaking audience as one of the recurring actors in various Edgar Wallace movies (often a Detecti ...

: Ben Taylor *

Marianne Koch Marianne Koch (; born 19 August 1931) is a German actress of the 1950s and 1960s, best known for her appearances in Spaghetti Westerns and adventure films of the 1960s. She later worked as a television host and as a physician. Career Betwee ...

: Vivian Taylor *

Helga Anders Helga Anders (11 January 1948 – 30 March 1986) was an Austrian actress. She was born Helga Scherz in Innsbruck, to an Austrian father and a German mother, and she grew up in Ruhpolding and Bielefeld after her parents divorced. She made her ...

: Elizabeth *

Claudio Camaso Claudio Camaso (born Claudio Volonté; 3 February 1939 – 16 September 1977) was an Italian actor, noted as much for his troubled, violent life as for his performances. He was the younger brother of Gian Maria Volonté. Early life and career C ...

: Alfred *

Luciano Pigozzi Luciano Pigozzi, also known professionally as Alan Collins (10 January 1927 – 14 June 2008), was an Italian character actor. A long-time staple of Italian genre cinema, Pigozzi was noted for his resemblance to Peter Lorre and appeared in s ...

: Uriat *

Dominique Boschero Dominique Boschero (born 27 April 1937) is a French-Italian actress. Life and career Born in Paris by Italian parents, Boschero spent her childhood in Frassino, Italy with her grandparents until the age of 15, when she returned to Paris.Mauriz ...

: Margareth

Production

Margheriti stated the shooting title of the film was ''Trance''. ''The Unnaturals'' was aimed at a German market and stars

and

who were very popular actors with German audiences. Margheriti added other Italian actors of his choice including

, a close friend of his. The film was shot at Tirrenia Studios which was owned by

Carlo Ponti Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. (11 December 1912 – 9 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. Along with Dino De Laurentiis, he is credited with reinvigorating and popularizing Italian cinema ...

. Margheriti used sets left over from several other films ranging from costume dramas to Westerns. For the seance scene in the film, cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini was hung upside down from the ceiling with the camera in his hand and slowly let him descend from the ceiling. He would then bend over backwards to raise the camera to the actors' faces.

Release

''The Unnaturals'' was shown in West Germany on May 30, 1969. It was later released in Italy on September 12, 1969, where it grossed 287 million

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

Reception

In his book ''Italian Horror Film Directors'', Louis Paul dismissed the film as an " uneven but still interesting tale of revenge".

References

Footnotes

Sources

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External links

* 1969 films 1969 horror films 1960s Italian-language films Films based on works by Dino Buzzati Films directed by Antonio Margheriti Films scored by Carlo Savina Italian horror films West German films German horror films Films shot at Tirrenia Studios Films based on short fiction 1960s Italian films 1960s German films {{1960s-horror-film-stub