La lama nel corpo - Lo spettro

Digitmovies proudly presents the first absolute release on CD of the complete original motion picture soundtrack by Francesco De Masi for the movie of the “Italian Gothic” genre “La lama nel corpo” (aka”The Murder Clinic”). This film was directed in 1966 by Michael Hamilton (Elio Scardamaglia) starring William Berger, Françoise Prévost, Mary Young, Barbara Wilson, Harriet Medin, Delphi Maurin. The action is placed in a clinic for mind diseases where in a secret laboratory doctor Vance (Berger) spends his time on organs transplants to give back lost beauty to his sister-in-law (who’s his lover too) Laura (Maurin). She is disfigured after an incident about which he feels responsible. Giselle, a girl searched from the police, has the intuition of part of the truth when she is sheltered in the clinic: having suspects about the disappearance of some young patients , she commits the mistake to blackmail the doctor (the real murderer) believing that Laura, the disfigured woman who is going around for the laboratory, is the killer. In 1966 la C.A.M. issued an album (CDR 33 18) ,today very hard to find, containing 15 selected tracks in mono. Thanks to friends at C.A.M., for this CD, we could use the mono album master tape and the mono master tapes of the complete Recording Session, that gave us the chance to add 14 previously unreleased music tracks. The symphonic score is well structured on both suspence and dramatic themes like Tr.1,Tr.2,Tr.3,Tr.5,Tr.9 Tr.14 that well describe all the macabre side of the plot, often marked by the powerful sound of an electric bass guitar (a frequently used instrument from the author).These themes are alternated to more soft and soothed atmospheres emphasized by a delicate love theme (Tr.11,Tr.20,Tr.24). The track “Verso la speranza” (Tr.15) that closes the original vinyl album and the movie did appeal to so much to Mario Bava who wanted re-use it as Finale of his 1966 movie “Operazione paura” (aka “Kill baby kill”).Our CD is also completed with a big record rarity: the OST by M° De Masi for the movie “Lo spettro” (Aka “The ghost”) directed in 1963 by Riccardo Freda and starring Barbara Steele and Peter Baldwin. That is the survived music, seven tracks in full stereo appeared long time ago on an obscure library album. We have carefully restored a vinyl copy, miraculously found, cause the original Nazionalmusic master tapes are lost forever and we have brought the channels in the right positions due the fact on the vinyl source they were inverted. A really unique rescue of the Italian Silver Age, done with the permission of the friends at Beat Records Company. The orchestral music is mysterious, dramatic, dark: perfect music background for a woman tormented by her husband’s ghost, killed by the woman herself with a doctor, her lover. Francesco De Masi here has written a very sweet love theme, one of the most beautiful ones of his long career (Tr.32) and then reprised for solo celesta (Tr.34). With all our big affection and esteem, we dedicate this long length CD (73:40) to M° Francesco De Masi with his two scores whose he was very proud and who’ll listen to them here will have only certainty of this.