THE DEVIL'S SMILE

Film sets always cut a good figure as crime scenes. They liken a carnival of vanities where one terrifying human trait after another seems to reveal itself every couple of minutes – fading stars, misunderstood auteurs and maligned assistants have always made for a prime explosive mixture of humanity. In THE DEVIL’S SMILE, something awful happens on the set of an adaptation of Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann (1881) – which provides experienced director Ján Zeman with excellent material to develop spooky moments full of high-brow Baroque pulp located somewhere between giallo and Edgar Wallace. It’s further of note that the film was produced at the same time as Argento’s in many ways comparable work OPERA (1987) – although both of them were almost certainly inspired by the success of Lloyd Webber, Hart and Stilgoe’s Phantom of the Opera musical.