If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Goodness knows what possessed Richard Burton to appear in rubbish like "Bluebeard." The above film, like "Hammersmith is Out," "Absolution," "The Assassination of Trotsky" and "The Exorcist 2: The Heretic," did no favours for Burton's career whatsoever. The attempts by "Bluebeard" to be humorous are embarrassingly poor. The whole thing has a low quality in every department and it's no wonder that the film quickly vanished without trace. The script is hardly worthy of Richard Burton or Raquel Welch, they being the only people in the cast remotely well known.

Richard Burton would seem ideally cast as a literal lady-killer in post-WWI Austria, yet his lead performance as "Bluebeard" never catches fire--and, as a result, the picture is a stillborn piece of macabre-y which is never thrilling enough nor funny enough to sustain interest for long. Former war pilot-turned-wealthy Baron (complete with a bluish beard to mask his scars) marries a succession of women who rub him the wrong way after rubbing up against him. It isn't that he dislikes women--he hates what their lust turns him into (seems the Baron suffers from bedroom problems). French-Italian-West German co-production has a striking art direction and design, but suffers from continual poor taste. Veteran director Edward Dmytryk is as tough on the animals as he is on the female victims, and an early hunting montage of creatures being shot and writhing in pain on the ground is unbelievably insensitive. Joey Heatherton tries hard in the largest femme role as the Baron's seventh wife, but Dmytryk undercuts her performance with a cheesy succession of nude shots. It appears the producers wanted titillation, satire and black comedy, but Dmytryk doesn't have the nimble touch to pull this trifecta off. For star-watchers, Raquel Welch and Virna Lisi are around for about six minutes apiece, while Burton remains in a deadly low-key throughout (although creepy at times, Burton is just faking his way through). Filmed in Budapest, the picture has an interesting look and some definite signs of style, but the narrative is a mess. A young handmaiden is involved in an accident while crossing a bridge, which we are to assume was orchestrated by the Baron, but we never learn why he chose to do this, how he managed to pull this stunt off, or whether or not the girl was killed. The screenwriters--Dmytryk among them--have even thrown in a Nazi-styled subplot which only serves as a shortcut to the finale (as if this Bluebeard weren't nasty enough, he's also made a war criminal!). It's an ungodly mess, crude and off-putting, though not without some shamefaced fascination. *1/2 from ****

In the past, I’d watched three other versions (four, if one includes Charles Chaplin’s variation MONSIEUR VERDOUX [1947]) about the famous fictional serial killer Landru – the 1944 Edgar G. Ulmer/John Carradine and 1963 Claude Chabrol/Charles Denner BLUEBEARD and the W. Lee Wilder/George Sanders BLUEBEARD’S TEN HONEYMOONS from 1960.Actually, this one is best approached as “Euro-Cult” (what with its flashes of nudity from a bevy of international beauties) rather than a historical piece – BLUEBEARD, incidentally, was a production of the Salkinds, soon to enjoy critical success with Richard Lester’s “Three Musketeers” films and, eventually, the money would come pouring in with the “Superman” franchise. Besides, the tone is unsurprisingly one of black comedy – with the titular ladies’ man revealed as an impotent who’s forced to kill a succession of spouses so as to keep this embarrassing fact a secret! Incidentally, it also transpires that events as depicted on-screen may well be fabricated since the real reason for the killings only emerges towards the end: “Bluebeard” – a WWI air ace – recounts his romantic misadventures to his latest conquest, a young American showgirl, after she’s cajoled by her husband towards the discovery of a secret passage leading to the vault wherein all the bodies of his former wives lie frozen! The treatment is somewhat heavy-handed (with obvious predatory symbols, for instance): its connotations to Nazism, too, prove unnecessary – and, consequently, Bluebeard’s demise/come-uppance seems fateful when it should have been slyly ironic. All of which results in an uneven film with a tendency towards camp – though undeniably abetted by the overall handsome look (“Euro-Cult” regular Gabor Pogany is the cinematographer) and a typically imposing score by Ennio Morricone; incidentally, I had used portions of a funereal motif from the soundtrack of this film for my final short during the NYFA course I took in Hollywood a couple of years back! Individual contributions by the star cast, then, are also variable: to begin with, Richard Burton’s thespian skills were often misused during this particular period – lending his services to interesting but often ill-advised ventures (three more of which I watched only recently, namely DOCTOR FAUSTUS [1967], CANDY [1968] and THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY [1972]); in this case, he sports a silly colored beard (the script having interpreted the title all-too-literally, but which might actually be an indication that it shouldn’t be taken seriously) and looks alternately bored and exasperated throughout! The ladies are all easy on the eyes but also surprisingly willing, with Joey Heatherton as the stunning current bride getting the lion’s share of the running-time. The others – in order of appearance – are Karin Schubert (when Burton’s deficiency, excused at first by a period of convalescence ostensibly suffering from a war wound, can no longer be concealed, she threatens to expose him to public ridicule and this triggers off his homicidal ‘urge’!); Virna Lisi (enjoying herself as she drives Burton to distraction with her incessant singing of corny love songs!); Nathalie Delon (a model whose inexperience in love leads her to take lessons from prostitute Sybil Danning, but the two become instant lovers!); Raquel Welch (a nymphomaniac who attempts to stifle the habit by, ahem, donning it i.e. she becomes a nun!); Marilu' Tolo (again, fun as an outspoken feminist – who even kicks Burton where it hurts! – but who also turns out to be a closet masochist); and Agostina Belli (as an outwardly-innocent but actually spoilt child-bride).Going back to that “Euro Cult” comment, BLUEBEARD may have been influenced by the giallo work of Mario Bava – with its set of glamorous female victims (as in BLOOD AND BLACK LACE [1964]) and the novel methods of assassination (in the wake of A BAY OF BLOOD [1971]). Still, amid its forced Hitchcock references (the embalmed mother from PSYCHO [1960] and the falcon attack a' la THE BIRDS [1963]), it appears that Burton & Co. were consciously emulating the previous year’s success THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971) – a low-budgeted but stylish vehicle for horror icon Vincent Price. Of course, one can’t forget to mention the film’s affinity with the classic Ealing black comedy KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949) in its nonchalant, inevitably comical attitude to murder.

This tale told largely in flashbacks is pretty bad, but there is some very funny black humor too ! Richard Burton in the title role literally walks through appearing anguished in 99% of his scenes. What the Burtons wouldn't take on during their marriage to keep the $$$ rolling in ! On his honeymoon night with latest wife Anne, played by Joey Heatherton, Burton's Baron von Sepper fails to rise to the occassion. In flashbacks, his tales of murderous endeavor with previous wives unfold. Most of the beautiful European actresses in this movie merely pose looking beautiful. One exception is Virna Lisi who can't stop singing, so the Baron must off her to keep his sanity. Raquel Welch is another wife, a former convent nun named Sister Magadalena who constantly modifies both her nun's habit and appearance during the weeks that the Baron is courting her. By the time that the Baron is ready to pop the question to her, her habit is low cut and thigh high! Magadalena begins to confess her past indiscretions 1 by 1. By the time she is on her 76th peccadillo, the Baron can take no more and entombs her alive ! Otherwise the film is both dull and has terrible dialogue. Heatherton mutters things like, " I spit on you my darling ". The continuity runs like a badly dubbed Mexican horror flick. It's no wonder that the careers of those involved stalled..........