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| Tiny rocker Franz Drago performs with Les Amants in MONDO BALARDO. |
What I would love to know is whether or not Karloff recorded his track in Italy, as this would have coincided with his work on Mario Bava's BLACK SABBATH, or if he did the work for Viola stateside. There is no indication anywhere of who wrote Karloff's material, but it is so consistent with what one knows of his personal wit that one can easily imagine him rewriting (or even writing!) his lines at his leisure - though the mind boggles at his laboring this way over footage of diminutive rocker Franz Drago, witch doctors who cure others with a dancing frenzy culminating in the devouring of a live chicken (not graphic), white hunters who chase down manacled natives ("after all, it's the only form of hunting permitted by law"), and native women whose hair is dyed blonde with the miracle ingredient of camel urine fresh from the spigot. (It's so fake you'll want to share this clip with all your friends.)
Other, milder topics are also covered such as prostitution, opium dens, the sword-and-sandal film phenomenon (with glimpses of Brad Harris and Kirk Morris), the Asian S&M magazine business, lesbian parties, a montage of how some people resemble members of the animal kingdom, a blindfolded guess-the-kisser game, the Italian pastime of derrière-watching, and the third world appetite for cocaine ("a much dreaded word in decent society, but the staff of life to the people of Ecuador"). Karloff's guidance through this garden of the strange and uncivilized is actually quite literate and elegant, and even after seeing it one can't quite accept that it exists. The film's score adds to its disorientation value, veering from Bert Kaempfert-like brass ballads to recurrences of a manic Lou Monti-like theme song.
Bearing in mind that the film was compiled from loose material gathered from all over the world, the presentation - scanned in 4K from the original internegative - is as attractive as the content can be ugly, pointless, and even repulsive. Animal-concerned viewers should be forewarned of an elephant shooting and a brief sidebar on assembling the ingredients for turtle soup. PS: If you go looking for this film on the IMDb, try the title A FOOL'S WORLD.
Aside from a trailer, the film's only supplement is a bonus feature, THE ORIENTALS (MONDO ORIENTALE, 92m 44s), a cropped 16mm TV print bearing the Thunderbird Films logo. Directed by Romolo Marcellini in 1960, this title actually precedes the mondo craze, and it shows in a stronger fictional narrative bent. It's much closer to the Italian caroselli or portmanteau films that were in favor around this time, consisting of a half-dozen stories about young women in Egypt, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. The film is something of a snoozer, best watched in an alienated mood, with the kind of bad dubbing that you know is lousy but feels strangely comforting when viewed in the wee hours. Surprisingly, THE ORIENTALS has a far greater pedigree than the main feature, being a Galatea production (the production house that brought you BLACK SUNDAY) -scored by Carlo Rustichelli, photographed by Aldo Giordani (ATOM AGE VAMPIRE, THE MONGOLS, and AMUCK), and narrated by Richard McNamara (you'll know his voice from countless peplum films)! Also in the film's favor is that the longest segment, set in Japan and lasting some 20m, is constructed around an early star turn by the beautiful Akiko Wakabayashi, best-remembered for her mysterious roles in Toho's DAGORA THE SPACE MONSTER, KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, and GHIDRAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER. The presentation is not definitive, given the compromised screen ratio, but the print is otherwise nice and colorful.
MONDO BALARDO streets on July 28.
(c) 2020 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
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