Also known in a different form as "House of Exorcism," this messy little film takes itself so seriously as to kill any entertainment value whatsoever. The spare plot involves European tourist Lisa (Elke Sommer) who has a chance run-in with Leandro (Telly Savalas), who looks just like the devil she saw on a fresco in the square. Sommer is given a ride to a mysterious house in the country, where Leandro happens to be the butler. There, she is mistaken for a long dead woman, and the real soap opera theatrics begin. The house's blind matriarch's husband had an affair with the dead woman, who was the matriarch's son's fiancee. The couple who gave Lisa the ride? Well, the woman is giving the chauffeur, uh, "backseat driving lessons," and the husband knows and does not care. Eventually, most of the cast is killed, Sommer is drugged and assaulted, escapes, and the viewer is taken to a climax on board an empty airplane- which must have resembled the empty theaters this thing played in. The alternate version of this, "House of Exorcism," has scenes added involving a priest played by Robert Alda.
Mario Bava's direction is fast and furious, but his screenplay is awful. There are half baked ideas, abandoned plotlines, and stunning conveniences that do nothing more than propel this thing in some sort of forward direction. You have lifelike dummies for practice funerals, the blind matriarch does not act all that blind, and Savalas is given the same lollipops he had in "Kojak"- who haunts ya, baby? The project seems like they had two name stars, then wrote the script quickly, something that happens in Hollywood on a daily basis. Savalas looks completely lost, delivering his lines haltingly. Sommer runs around and screams and gasps a lot, but her character is a blank, I use the term "character" loosely. The only thing we know about her is her name. This is a real weird film, and your reaction to it might depend on how heavily you are into Eurohorror, Bava, and Kojak. I cannot recommend "Lisa and the Devil."
