The Embalmer (1965 film)

The Embalmer
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Dino Tavella
Produced by	Christian Marvel Walter Manley
Written by	Paulo Lombardo Gian Battista Mussetto
Story by	Dino Tavella Antonio Walter
Starring	Maureen Brown, Luigi Martucci
Music by	Marcello Gigante
Cinematography	Mario Parapetti
Release date	1965
Running time	83 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

The Embalmer (Italian: Il mostro di Venezia; also known as The Monster of Venice) is a 1965 Italian giallo directed by Dino Tavella that was filmed in Trieste and Venice. The film was released in the USA in 1966 as The Embalmer on a double feature with The She Beast. It was released in the UK in 1972 as The Monster of Venice, and in France in 1966 as Novices Libertines. The film is patterned after the German Krimi films in style and structure, and is also an early giallo. It contains many travelogue-type sequences designed to show off the beauty of Venice, obviously to pay off the Venice tourist department for their help.

Director Dino Tavella was apparently a one-shot wonder. He was born in 1920 and died in 1969, at the youthful age of 49. He is known to horror film fans only for directing and co-writing The Embalmer, his sole claim to fame. Strangely, none of the actors in the film seem at all well-known.

A serial killer dressed in scuba gear and a wet suit is on the loose in the canals of Venice. He kills women by drowning them in the canal and taking their bodies back to his underwater lair (a submerged monastery) where he embalms them to preserve their beauty. A young reporter is assigned to cover a group of visiting college girls on a class trip to Venice, and when one of them disappears, he becomes involved in trying to find the killer. He falls in love with one of the young ladies, not realizing the Embalmer has her marked as his next victim.

The film is done in a style combining elements of the Italian giallo and West German Krimi films and features travelogue scenes of Venice, a killer who dresses as the Phantom of the Opera and an Italian Elvis Presley impersonator. The style is very reminiscent of the Edgar Wallace mystery movies (Krimis) that were being made in West Germany at the time.