THE YOUNG, THE EVIL, AND THE SAVAGE (1968)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

The lobby card above is hilarious, since no one involved in this film evinces any "strange desires," and even the "nameless horror"-- who is quite easily named at the whodunnit conclusion-- is pretty easily named. The killer's motive is depressingly mundane, much like that of the two murderers in Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE -- but without the exotic methods of execution. Yet the ballyhoo does prefigure the more perverse configurations of seventies giallos. 

Though YOUNG was filmed in Italy, it takes place in an English girls' school, but with a pool of actors from England, Italy and America (the latter represented by top-billed Mark Damon). The main producers were also respectively Italian and American, and the American one had reached out to Mario Bava for his idea about murders at a girls' school-- though the directing job ended up going to Antonio Margheriti. Prior to 1968, Margheriti had helmed three atmospheric Gothic horrors, but he'd never made this type of horror film. The result, possibly as a result of both producers and director, ended up being very pedestrian.

The opening provides the movie's sole imaginative conceit. A woman in a shadow is attacked and strangled by a black-gloved killer (though said gloves are only seen once). The unseen murderer then stows the body in a large trunk and has it shipped by car to the girls' school, for reasons not disclosed until the end of the film.

The audience then learns that the school is sparsely populated, as most of the students are away on vacation, leaving only seven students and a handful of school personnel. There's just the suggestion of a "strange desire" when a female student fancies a new male student, but nothing comes of this. Much later, the school gardener gets caught peeping on a girl in a shower, but this can hardly be deemed very "strange." There's an odd shed on the property called "the insect house," where one of the professors keeps some of his biological materials, but he turns out to be an affable old gentleman, not weird in the least. Mark Damon plays a riding-teacher who has a thing going on with student Lucille (Eleanora Brown), and the other teachers don't seem to have a problem with that. Of the other girls, one's a bit of a mischief-maker, but they're all pretty bland. 

When the mystery killer strikes, he conceals the first victim, so that for a time the staff doesn't know that they and the students are in danger. Another girl is slain, moving the headmistress to call in the police, headed by Inspector Durand (Michael Rennie). The cops don't seem to do much, and no one considers leaving the school, so the murderer continues to pick off targets until the climax, where we discover The Reason for It All. 

YOUNG-- which might have had more nudity in the continental release, since it went by the title NAKED YOU DIE-- is not a worthless movie; just a so-so time-killer that doesn't even come even with the better English "giallos."