HE HORROR FILM—prohibited in Italy during Mussolini’s rule—re- mained out of general favor in the
wake of the real life horrors of World War II. Science fiction—nowadays a cynical genre, but in the 1950s a vehicle for constructive optimism—was suddenly in vogue, showing audiences how the resilient human spirit could survive cataclysms of even cosmic pro- portions to rebuild society from the ground up, as in the case of the 1951 George Pal produc- tion When Worlds Collide. Between 1950 and 1956, there had been only one authentic suc- cess in the classic horror mode: Andre de Toth’s House of Wax (1953)—a faithful remake of Michael Curtiz’ Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). The film’s popularity was as rooted in the humorous novelty of its 3-D photography as in its hair-raising Grand Guignol thrills; it had wisely taken care to add fun to fright.
Unlike most active filmmaking countries, Italy had not produced a true horror film since Il mostro di Frankenstein (1920). The classic American horror films of the 1930s and ’40s were not exhibited in Italy until the early 1950s, when the censors began to allow certain titles to filter through. Prior to this, the fantastic cinema had survived for Italian audiences of that period only in the form of fairy tale films (e.g., Walt Disney’s animated features) and art films tinged with darkness like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Tales of Hoffman (1951). As for Italian films, the fantastic had been diminished over the years to the romantic, light-hearted strain found in such popular fare as Miracolo a Milani/Miracle in Milan (1951) and Totò all’inferno (“Totò in Hell,” 1954); there was always a comic, satirical or whimsical attachment.
