I just picked up a Greek-subtitled cassette of this Santiago Moncada-scripted film by Juan Antonio Bardem. Jean Seberg (Godard's BREATHLESS) plays Ruth Miller, a wealthy woman abandoned by her drifter husband who also leaves behind his daughter Chris (Marisol) who has been traumatized by being raped by a weightlifter (I wonder if Moncada or Bardem was poking fun at Paul Naschy). The already brittle relationship is exacerbated with the arrival of Barney (Barry Stokes), a drifter claiming to be a student. He sleeps with Ruth, does odd jobs around the house, and appears to be falling for Chris and his advances might trigger her trauma again. Not to mention, there is a killer going around in various disguises (first as Charlie Chaplin, then as a monk whose habit looks more like a hooded rainslicker) and picking off lonely women and families in the countryside on rainy nights.

In the Norman Warren commentary on PREY, his moderator mentioned a resemblance between Warren's film (also featuring Stokes) and Bardem's film. While there are similarities (a VW review traces them to D. H. Lawrence's THE FOX and the recent Mark Rydell production of it), CORRUPTION itself resembles the British film THE NIGHT DIGGER.

My question is: how Spanish is THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER. Compared to, say, BELL FROM HELL (its an apt comparison since that film was also scripted by Moncada and finished by Bardem), CORRUPTION has the glossy feel of an English or American production exploiting its lush European setting and technicians. It lacks a certain rustic Spanish feel I associate with films of this period. The script is too calculated as is the direction (it feels like Bardem and Moncada are attempting a sort of Losey/Pinter type psychosexual drama inside the house and padding it with a killer (more akin to the late sixties early seventies scope thrillers with Carroll Baker or an old dark house killer than the giallo). The triggers for Chris' trauma and the way they are rendered on film are sort of cliched as well.

The identity of the killer is more of a cop out than a commentary on class relations. Seberg is good in this film but the script doesn't give her much range. She does, however, get the film's best line:

RUTH: He [Chris' father] will come back for her sooner or later.
BARNEY: And then what?
RUTH: He'll find his daughter much changed. And then we'll be even.

Marisol is okay but I can't help thinking another ex-child actress like Mirabel Martin (a favorite of mine from BELL FROM HELL and BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE) would have been better. Stokes is good as the underwritten "ambiguous" role allows (though certainly more lively than his equivalent character in PREY).




SPOILER:
The ending, too, or rather its rendering on film is contrived. After killing Barney who has broken back into the house (in a bloody, protracted slow motion sequence), they discover that the killer has been caught. There is a role reversal confrontation where Chris is now the stronger one (not quite as satisfying as the youngest daughter's departure in BELL FROM HELL), they bury the body at a road construction site. Pea seeds in the corpse's pocket break through the paved road (which could have been done with more subtlety rather than the "time lapse" progression). After the discovery of the corpse, there is a long wordless sequence intercutting the policemen on motorbikes heading presumably to the house and Ruth and Chris by the pool that ends with a freeze frame that I suppose goes for ambiguous and just ends up being needlessly elliptical).

END OF SPOILER:




On the other hand, its mostly enjoyable. The score by Waldo de los Rios is nice (he also scored WHO CAN KILL A CHILD, the AIP produced Spanish shot MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE and, I believe, THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED). Perla Cristal has a small role. Gerard Tichy (whose Spanish horror career spans from BLANCHVILLE MONSTER to PIECES though I first saw him in RETURN OF THE ZOMBIS) plays a detective but doesn't have much to do other than skulk about and give TV interviews.

The Greek subtitled tape is letterboxed at 1.85:1 but the opening credits say its a Panavision film.

I saw this a couple of years ago and enjoyed it for what it was. I will say that the film has one of the most memorable openings I have ever seen. Just complete, "What the hell is going on here?" stuff. I won't spoil it for anyone.