Baron Blood

Baron Blood (1972) starring Joseph Cotton, Elke Sommer, directed by Mario Bava

Baron Blood is a horror film, where a descendent of the evil Baron unwittingly reads an incantation & releases the evil, merciless, sadistic Baron …

Product Description

In director Mario Bava’s sumptuous Technicolor Gothic horror classic, an American student Peter Kleist travels to Austria on summer holiday to learn more about his family roots. By reciting an incantation on a piece of ancient parchment, he succeeds in scaring up a genuine ancestor-Baron Otto von Kleist, a 16th century sadistic nobleman whose appetite for cruelty earned him the nickname “Baron Blood.” Before Peter can reverse the incantation, the parchment burns… How many innocents will die before Peter learns how to send the evil Baron back to the hell from whence he came?

Cast of characters

• Joseph Cotten (The Abominable Dr. Phibes; From the Earth to the Moon) … Baron Otto von Kleist / Alfred Becker. Spending most of the film in a wheelchair, as the crippled Herr Becker. A charming, inviting man …. Until the conclusion.
• Elke Sommer (A Shot in the Dark) … Eva Arnold. Peter’s girlfriend, who keeps being pursued by the monster.
• Massimo Girotti … Dr. Karl Hummel. The local physician, who knows more than he would like to about the legend of the blood baron.
• Rada Rassimov (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) … Christina Hoffmann / Elizabeth Hölle
• Antonio Cantafora … Peter Kleist. The only male descendent of the blood baron. He makes the horrible mistake of reading an incantation he finds on a piece of paper at the castle…
• Umberto Raho (The Last Man on Earth) … Inspector (as Humi Raho on US prints)
• Luciano Pigozzi (Castle of the Living Dead) … Fritz (as Alan Collins)
• Dieter Tressler … Mayor Dortmundt
• Nicoletta Elmi … Gretchen Hummel
• Rolf Halwich … Auctioner
• Gustavo De Nardo … Dr. Werner Hesse
• Valeria Sabel … Martha Hummel

Trivia

• For its American release, American-International Pictures edited out seven minutes of dialog and graphic imagery and replaced the original European score with a more atmospheric music score by composer Les Baxter.
• At first Vincent Price was approached to star in the production but declined. Then Ray Milland was considered, but he was unable to travel to the shoot. Finally veteran actor Joseph Cotten was suggested and, to director Mario Bava’s surprise, accepted..