respecting the past. It is in this con- text that Baron Blood is most inter- esting. The subplot about the refur- bishment of Schloss des Teufels into a tourist trap hotel parallels the threat of “development” overhanging the bayside property in Ecologia del delitto. When Alfred Becker completes his own authentic restoration of the castle, Eva questions his decision to restore the only known portrait of Otto von Kleist without also restoring the part of the canvas that was slashed to erase his facial features. Becker sensibly re- plies, “Artistic integrity, dear Eva. Since no one knows what the Baron actually looked like, would you have a painter give him a face that was not truly his own? I’ve restored not only the furniture of the castle, but its at- mosphere, the personality of its owner.” While this was supposedly Eva’s own task as the previous su- pervisor of the restoration, Becker’s question exposes the essential frivol- ity and irresponsibility with which she and Dortmundt undertook that ven- ture. And so the plot boils down, once again, to Bava’s outrage that some- thing of beauty, like Schloss des Teufels, would be compromised for the sake of making a profit. Similarly, the earlier shot of
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Dortmundt walking through a series of ancient corridors laden with centu- ries of exquisite craftsmanship to reach a Coca-Cola machine speaks volumes of auteuriste disdain; when the Baron’s ravaged hands twist Dortmundt’s neck to a curt snap, the product placement in the shot makes the scene about more than what is happening in it. Peter’s idle curiosity about his ancestor is portrayed as a different kind of disrespect toward his- tory because his interest is rooted at once in narcissism and in his glorifi- cation of villainy, without cognizance of the tremendous suffering his an- cestor caused, or sympathy for his vic- tims. When Becker responds to Peter and Karl’s suggestions that Otto von Kleist was insane and a sadist, he calls these words “matters of terminology,” meaning that the accusations are rela- tive, and just as applicable to the fools who summoned him back. Three sequences in particular find Bava working at the peak of his pow- ers. The first is Peter and Eva’s dis- covery of the hidden room within the
