Caligula and Messalina

Bruno Mattei

R2 DVD

Bruno Mattei has been called the “Ed Wood” of Italian sleaze cinema and not without good reason. During the Sixties he learnt his trade by working under other Italian directors as an editor and his first directorial experience was in the creation of around half an hour of XXX footage for Jess Franco’s explosive 1969 classic 99 Women. His first full length films were SS Girls (1977) aka Private House for the SS and SS Extermination Love Camp (1977), he certainly had a thing for exploitation. These were followed by a couple of Nunsploitation titles including The Other Hell (1980) and the Nun of Monza (1981). His best known work is his horror classic Hell of the Living Dead (1980).

In 1928 he released Caligula’s Perversions aka Caligula and Messalina to cash in on the notoriety of Tinto Brass's 1979 movie 'Caligula'. The uncut edition is around 111 minutes but is hard to find, the generally available edition is softcore and around 97 minutes, the difference is primarily hardcore sex. The laser universe edition from Germany is uncut but out of print, the Another World Entertainment edition from Denmark comes in at 97 minutes.

John Turner plays the insane Roman Emperor Caligula, who commits incest with his sisters, rapes a nearly married couple, turns his horse into a member of the Senate, and kills anyone he perceives as a threat. Messalina (played by the attractive but acting challenged Betty Roland) has been trained sexually by her mother and waits her chance to get her hands on the emperor. When his slutty sisters are exiled, she proves her strength in a gladiatorial match and makes it into the emperor’s bed.

While the film explores all manner of Caligula’s excess, it also moves past his execution to Messalina’s relationship with the new emperor Claudius and her obvious infidelities.

While there have been many good quality B grade “Roman films” this is not the best of them. Caligula by Tinto Brass or even Joe D’Amato’s Caligula II: The Untold Story are really far better. This is very low budget with terrible acting and most scenes created simply as an excuse for showing all sorts of sex. Now there is nothing wrong with that but it does make the more readily “cut” edition fairly useless.

It is a shame really as many other Mattei titles show a lot more flair, but it is still interesting to see. After making Caligula and Messalina, he moved onto make two rather superior Women-in-Prison films starring the beautiful Laura Gemser. His later horror films Rats: Night of Terror (1983), and Zombie 3 (1988) with Lucio Fulci were even more successful. He continued to make films until his last title Zombies: The Beginning in 2007. He passed away in the same year.

Reviews appear on the Synergy website with a single cover image. In the digital and print edition, reviews appear with multiple images and with expanded content. We recommend you download the free digital edition (or buy the print edition) to get the most from Synergy Magazine.

This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

If you came to this page directly (and missed our menu), click here to go to the front page of Synergy Magazine Website or use the following link: http://www.synergy-magazine.com