Tragic Ceremony (1972)

A truly strange film which leaves one asking 'What the fuck?' long after it has finished, Tragic Ceremony (1972) is an Italian/Spanish co-production directed by Riccardo Freda (under his 'Robert Hampton' pseudonym), of Horrible Dr Hichcock (1962) and The Ghost (1963) fame.  In common with many Italian-produced horror films of the era, Tragic Ceremony doesn't present an entirely coherent scenario, presenting a meandering narrative, initially seeming to be about some young idle rich folks on a sailing trip, before, eventually, stumbling into an occult story-line, replete with creepy old castle, Satanic rites and mysterious aristocrats, before veering away again into a ghost story and police investigation.  The whole thing, with its seemingly ever-changing scenario and tangential plot developments, has the feel and logic of a dream.  Which is actually the film's strongest point.  Developments which seem that they are going to be hugely significant - Bill's strained relationship with his parents, his mother's affair, the theft of her pearl necklace, his absent father, the 'victimisation' of Bill by his friends - are quickly moved past and fade, so to speak, into the rear view mirror as the narrative moves on to another scenario.

The constant state of confusion the viewer consequently finds themselves in, combined with the seemingly deserted spaces the film takes place in, gives the movie a strangely disconnected and eerie feel, as if the events we watch are unfolding in some limbo only notionally connected to the real world.  Adding to the sense of dislocation is the film's refusal to present the audience with a sympathetic character to identify with.  Indeed, for much of the narrative, it is unclear exactly who is the main character in the unfolding drama: at first Tony Isbert's Bill seems to be the central protagonist, but as the film progresses, the focus seems to shift to his friend Joe (Maximo Valverde) before it finally becomes clear that the real focus of events is Jane (Camille Keaton).  For UK viewers there is yet another layer of unreality, as it gradually becomes clear that the action is meant to be taking place in England, despite the fact that it has clearly been filmed in rural Spain.  When a pair of very Spanish-looking motorcycle cops ask the quartet of young people where they live, the reply 'Chelsea' is given, implying some proximity to London.  Yet Bill's mother's house appears to be an isolated villa in the middle of nowhere.  Likewise Lord Alexander's mansion which, the later narrative implies, is apparently within the jurisdiction of London's Metropolitan Police, also seems to be in the middle of the countryside.  The cars we see might well be British models (the police cars are, correctly for the era, Rover P6s, for instance), but they are all left hand drive.  Not even the actors look English - they appear far too healthy and tanned for the average pasty, overweight English types I recall from my seventies childhood.  The continued insistence on the part of the film's characters that these events are all unfolding in England add, for British audiences, a completely surreal feel to the film, on top of the already existing sense of dislocation.  (It is important to emphasise that, like other continental films of the era with faux UK settings, Tragic Ceremony was never intended for British release - it never even had an official English-language version).  

The plot, despite its numerous discursions, if wafer thin.  Bill, Jane, Joe and Fred, returning from a yacting trip on the coast, find their beach buggy running out of fuel.  Unable to find any filling stations on the deserted highway they are travelling back to Bill's on, they take a diversion down an equally deserted lane, stumbling upon an isolated filling station.  Revealing that they have no cash, the proprietor, a strange old man, refuses to accept a cheque and gives them only a splash of fuel.  They reluctantly depart, but find themselves caught in a rainstorm, finding shelter at a nearby mansion where the owners, Lord and Lady Alexander, promise them fuel and allow them to stay in the servant's quarters until the storm passes, (the servants are away).  As the night progresses, Bill thinks he sees the filling station owner spying on them through a window and Jane wanders into the catacombs and stumbles across the Alexanders presiding over a Black Mass.  The Satanists decide to use her as a human sacrifice, but her companions turn up in the nick of time.  In the ensuing struggle, Bill fatally stabs Lady Alexander.  As they escape, the rest of the devil worshippers go crazy and kill each other with pistols, swords, daggers and the like.  Arriving back at the filling station, they find it abandoned and derelict, (the fact that it had vintage hand operated pumps the first time they went there should have warned them that something wasn't right about it).  Finally getting back to Bill's house, they are turned away by his mother, who is entertaining a lover.  Taking a pair of motorcycles, the quartet seek refuge in Bill's father's country lodge.  There, they see a TV report on the massacre at Lord Alexander's and learn that the police are seeking a group of 'hippies' in connection with the incident, which they liken to the Sharon Tate murders.  The four friends then seem to be overtaken by supernatural events, with Jane finding Bill dead in a closet, his face blue, before Fred has his throat cut in the bathroom.  Escaping on a motorcycle, Joe and Jane stop in some woods, where Joe has a vision of Jane's face rotting away.  Shocked, he tries to ride away, but crashes into a pond and is drowned, while an impassive (and intact) Jane looks on.

Finally captured by the police, an apparently insane Jane is held, under guard, in a psychiatric hospital, (which also seems to be in the middle of nowhere).  During the night, the ghost of Lady Alexander appears  in her room and stabs her.  While Jane's screams attract both police and hospital staff, Lady Alexander walks out of the door, into the hallway and out of the front door, apparently unseen by any of them.  Outside, she enters a waiting limousine, telling the driver to take her home.  The driver is none other than the filling station attendant, (who had earlier been described by one police officer as having been suspected of being the devil himself).  In the hospital, one of the doctors ventures the opinion that Jane had actually died during the Black Mass, but her soul hadn't completely left her body, while Lady Alexander's had entered it - the two souls subsequently battling for possession of Jane's body.  With which rather perfunctory explanation, the film ends as mysteriously as it had begun.  

As I say, in truth there really isn't much substance to Tragic Ceremony, but it nonetheless leaves an indelible impression in the memory. much like one of those inexplicable dreams which seemingly have no beginning or conclusion, linger long into wakefulness.  Like a dream, it is fragments of imagery which stay with the viewer: the deserted highways, the eerie filling station, both in active and dilapidated state and, most of all, the ferocious and realistic looking violence of the massacre which startlingly punctuates the otherwise ethereal atmosphere of the film.  It has to be said that, once you get past the huge suspension of disbelief necessary to accept that it is set in England, the production values of Tragic Ceremony aren't at all bad.  The massacre scene, in particular, is very well, not to mention gorily, staged, with heads being split open by swords, people crashing out of windows, brains being blown out by bullets and faces burned off.  The surprisingly graphic, for 1972, effects were courtesy of the great Carlo Rambaldi.  The cast isn't at all bad for this sort of production, headlined by Camille Keaton, nowadays probably best remembered for playing the lead in I Spit on Your Grave, and featuring veteran Italian exploitation star Luigi Pistilli as Lord Alexander and former Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball) as Lady Alexander.  As noted previously, the film never had an English language release and was apparently only generally distributed in Italy and Spain upon its initial release.  Indeed, the title Tragic Ceremony was only used on the 2008 English subtitled DVD release - derived from the Spanish title Tragica Ceremonia en Villa Alexander, (in Italy it had the more cumbersome title of Estratto dagli archivi segreti della polizia di una capitale europea, literally From The Secret Police Files of a European Capital.)  It is this subtitled version which sometimes plays on the 'American Horrors' streaming channel.

While of little real substance, Tragic Ceremony is an atmospheric and beguiling little film, well worth watching for its bizarre elements and general sense of weirdness.  But don't expect it to make any real sense as a literal narrative, it is instead best treated as a dream experience - fascinating while it is on, but ultimately not subject to logic.