The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

Gianni Hoepli and Ubaldo Magnaghi's 1936 Milanese short, Il caso Valdemar, adapts Poe's 1845 tale as twelve minutes of silent cinema in the sound era. A dying man is held in mesmerism; when the trance is lifted, the body collapses into what Poe called a nearly liquid mass of loathsome putridity. Dutch angles, handwritten notes in place of dialogue, a parallel-cut finale of decomposition. Held by the Cineteca Italiana. A student-work curiosity that outlasted its makers, and a reminder that Italian horror did not begin with Bava.