Edgar Soberon Torchia Made four years before J. Lee Thompson's "Eye of the Devil" (produced by the British branch of MGM) and also taken from a literary source, "La vergine de Norimberga" has a similar story about a wife who decides to investigate the dark side of her husband's affairs while visiting the man's castle in an European village, and both are in the end realistic stories with a sinister facade. While the tale of the British movie is rooted on frightening manifestations of folklore and tradition in France, this one has a political secret behind the mystery and the horror in Germany. But the similarities vanish in the visuals, for "Eye of the Devil" is in black and white and has a cold leading lady (played by Scandinavian Deborah Kerr), in opposition to "The Virgin of Nuremberg" which is in vivid colors and led by a fiery protagonist (played by Mediterranean Rossana Podestà). Both women are brave characters and not precisely screaming queens, and although there are some screams here and there, they are moved by undaunted curiosity, decidedly firm in their quest to find the truth. Much in the vein of Roger Corman's Poe adaptations, Podestà wanders, runs and hides in corridors, torture chambers, dungeons and gardens, there are some miniatures that evoke Ulmer's fascinations with scale models, and a highly dramatic music provided by Riz Ortolani. See it.

MartinHafer Other than the pending apocalypse, the only other way I can imagine anyone giving this movie a score of 10 would be if they were joking--yet, strangely, this bad Italian horror film managed to receive several 10s! Be afraid....be very afraid!! An American lady (who doesn't look or sound the least bit American) marries a German man and moves into his castle near the Rhine. However, soon after arriving, she hears screaming and wanders into a torture museum in the castle and finds a dead woman crushed inside an iron maiden. So what do you do in a clichéd and badly written film? Yep, you faint (which she also does later in the movie when the chips are down again)! When she awakens, her husband and the servants try very hard to convince her it was all a bad dream but she isn't THAT stupid and so she spends much of the movie blindly investigating what is happening. So, you see someone horribly murdered and you stick around and investigate--even after being attacked by a hooded maniac!?!? Can anyone be that addle-brained?!?! Despite this murder and a lot more mayhem to come, the household does its best to cover up what is really happening. Again, this made no sense and was just dumb. Even worse, after the maniac is eventually cornered and is about to die, his servant (Christopher Lee) runs after him into the burning castle to die as well. Gee...yet ANOTHER brainless character! Oh, and now that I mentioned Lee, let me point out that he is NOT a reason to see this film. Despite having a majorly cool scar across his face, his role is, at best, secondary. Plus, although the dubbing of his voice is close, that is NOT Lee's voice. Now I understand that this was originally an Italian language production but why they didn't have Lee use his own deep and melodious voice is beyond me.Also, if you are brave enough to see this mess of a film, listen to the sound track. It might just be the worst sound track I have ever heard from a film. While not as inept as that in THE BEAST FROM YUCCA FLATS, the problem is how inappropriate the music is--with a flashy jazz score when something befitting a Gothic horror film was required. It's bad...laughably bad.So what is GOOD?! Well, the mood is excellent and very spooky. While not as over the top gross and moody as THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (made roughly the same time with Christopher Lee), it is unusual in the brutality and vividness of its chamber of horrors. This does work well.Overall, unless you are a rabid fan of Lee or you like really bad Italian horror films, then this one is very, very skip-able. Watch at your own risk and DON'T be fooled by maniacs who score this a 10!!

whpratt1 Max Hunter, (Georges Riviere) gets married and takes his wife, Mary Hunter (Rossana Podesta) to his ancestral castle which contains a large collection of torture devices used in Medieval times. Max is away from his wife on business and Mary finds herself in a house where she finds dead people being killed under her own roof and a servant named Erich, (Christopher Lee) who has a deformed face and acts very strangely towards her. There is a scene where a young girl gets her nose chewed off by a rat and a man finds himself drowning in a basement room filling up with water. This film is full of surprises and we also see pictures of Adolph Hitler which takes the film into another direction. Nice entertainment film for Halloween night.

BrentCarleton This thriller boasts an excellent story, some masterful lighting and cinematography, effective use of color, not to mention a distinguished old castle, as beautiful without as it is within. The musical score, while big band and jazz oriented, actually works very well, inasmuch as it's quite unusual and unexpected for this type of story.Christopher Lee has one of his most distinctive roles from the 1960's, and perhaps most important of all--the film is scary! Note that many of the props, including Rossanna Podesta's bedstead, were also used in Bava's "Black Sabbath," as well as in Freda's "Terror of Dr. Hichcock."Really a sumptuous looking film.