Marilù Tolo, and it was a question of Dino [not wanting her], so then they came to a big compromise with Marisa Mell,” says Law. “But from the mo- ment she showed up dressed for work, we knew that everything was going to work out. We fell into each other’s arms on the first day, and had a really great relationship on—and off screen, after a while.” Gorgeous Marisa Mell was born
Marlies Moitzi in Austria, on February 23, 1939. She graduated from the Max Reinhardt School of Drama at age 17, and had appeared in a number of Austrian and German films (includ- ing Helmut Ashley’s 1962 Edgar Wallace krimi Das Rätsel der Roten Orchidee/The Puzzle of the Red Or- chid, opposite Christopher Lee), making a rapid ascent to English and European productions (including Ken Russell’s directorial debut French Dressing, 1963). At this point, her screen career was unexpectedly derailed for nearly two years when she was involved in a violent auto accident in which she nearly lost her right eye. After undergoing plastic surgery (so successful that even lov- ers like John Phillip Law were un- able to detect that any reparations had been done), Mell returned to the screen in Luigi Zampa’s Le dolci si- gnore/Anyone Can Play (1966), and probably caught Bava’s attention in Giorgio Ferroni’s New York chiama Superdrago/Super Agent Super Dragon (1966), which featured Bava alumni Luciano Pigozzi and Jacques Herlin. With her naturally dark hair piled under a radiant blonde wig, the 28-year-old Mell was nothing less than Eva Kant come to life. Onscreen, she and John Phillip Law made a remark- able team: magnetic and exciting, rev- elling in a mutual attraction that was palpable to audiences, and infectious. “When I started working on it with [Marisa], everything just came to- gether,” Law told me. “We had a kiss during our first scene together [the drive into the underground hideout], and let me tell you, that was a great kiss. Up to then, Mario had been very disappointed with the chemistry be- tween me and the other Evas, but