{"id":16591,"date":"2022-08-23T18:18:13","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T22:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=16591"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:36:07","slug":"bluebeard-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=16591","title":{"rendered":"Bluebeard-1972"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bluebeard-1972<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Edward Dymtryk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, Joey Heatherton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #1,293<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed August 23, 2022<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/strong><\/p>\n

My expectations of Bluebeard (1972) were of a late-night foray into the world of weird horror. The story is loosely based on a French folktale about a nobleman with a curious wife, forbidden to enter a mysterious room.<\/p>\n

I was anticipating an entertaining experience, but nothing more.<\/p>\n

To lower expectations, the critics’ reviews of the film were quite harsh, ridiculing and ripping upper-class actor Richard Burton to shreds, calling this film the decline and fall of his career.<\/p>\n

Instead, I was treated to luscious art direction created on a small budget and a fascinating, macabre story about a man nicknamed ‘Bluebeard’ (Burton) who kills each of his six former wives while revealing his dirty deeds to wife number seven, Anne (Joey Heatherton), whom he plans to kill.<\/p>\n

We learn that Austrian aristocrat Baron von Sepper (Richard Burton) would rather kill his wives than divorce them. It’s the 1930s, and he is a decorated war hero with a few secrets. A lady’s man he meets the most beautiful women, but quickly grows bored with them.<\/p>\n

He hides their remains in a secret refrigerated room, and Anne stumbles upon their corpses. Now, she must escape his clutches to avoid becoming his next victim.<\/p>\n

Burton is famous for being the husband of Elizabeth Taylor, for appearing in superior films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) and The Robe (1953), and for being a much sought-after Hollywood star during the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n

By the time Bluebeard was made, he was a raging alcoholic and needed the film work. However, intentionally or not, he is a fabulous addition to the film, whether he was sober during shooting or not. He perhaps doesn’t even recall making it.<\/p>\n

The most fun with Bluebeard is the anticipation. Once I realized the film was working backward and detailing each of Bluebeard’s six former wives’ murders, I was hooked! Each murder is better than the last, and poor Raquel Welch as Magdalena is locked in a tomb alive.<\/p>\n

In the comical form, the actress plays a slutty nun.<\/p>\n

One particular scene had me tickled pink. Bluebeard’s third or fourth wife, a gorgeous blonde who is a chatty ‘motor mouth’ and eager to dive into bed with her new husband, is decapitated via guillotine when she thinks she will finally become intimate with him.<\/p>\n

It’s a fabulous sequence that I had to watch twice.<\/p>\n

The decapitation scene is nearly rivaled by a titillating girl-on-girl scene between Nathalie Delon and Sybil Danning, who plays a prostitute hired to teach Bluebeard\u2019s wife how to enjoy the pleasures of touch and eroticism.<\/p>\n

They quickly get naked and kiss.<\/p>\n

Instead of being aroused as any straight man would, Bluebeard takes a pair of shears to them, impaling them to death one on top of the other. We then realize he is quite inadequate in the sexual department.<\/p>\n

It should go without saying that folks looking for a PG affair need to look elsewhere. There are enough breasts bared to make the prudish blush mightily. The lesbian scene might leave them running for the hills.<\/p>\n

No, Bluebeard is an adult venture for those desiring a healthy serving of female flesh with their bloodletting. The male actors are spared any nudity- that’s the way cinema was back then.<\/p>\n

Heatherton does surprisingly well paired with Burton, and their chemistry works. She is not a top-quality actress, but she is appealing, and we root for her to escape the madman.<\/p>\n

The art direction is tremendous and reminiscent of the attention to detail and craft that Hammer Horror films achieved around that same period. The velvet-red walls of Bluebeard’s massive estate ooze with royalty and sophistication. Each table, chair, and set piece is perfectly placed.<\/p>\n

Of course, Bluebeard is pure camp and over-the-top shenanigans, but it’s a hoot all the way, never dragging or taking itself too seriously.<\/p>\n

I was pleasantly surprised by Bluebeard (1972) and consider it a must-see for Burton fans seeking later works sans Elizabeth Taylor. It’s not high art, but it’s sure delicious Saturday-night fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bluebeard-1972 Director Edward Dymtryk Starring Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, Joey Heatherton Scott’s Review #1,293 Reviewed August 23, 2022 Grade: A- My expectations of Bluebeard (1972) were of a late-night foray into the world of weird horror. The story is loosely based on a French folktale about a nobleman with a curious wife, forbidden to enter … Continue reading Bluebeard-1972<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3430,9342,13,9343,9351,9350,9345,934,705,935,9344],"tags":[66,3431,9346,248,9347,9353,9352,9349,937,708,936,9348],"class_list":["post-16591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1972-films","category-agostina-belli","category-edward-dmytryk","category-horror-films","category-joey-heatherton","category-karin-schubert","category-marilu-tolo","category-nathalie-delon","category-raquel-welch","category-richard-burton","category-sybil-danning","category-virna-lisi","tag-1972-movie-reviews","tag-agostina-belli","tag-edward-dmytryk","tag-horror-films","tag-joey-heatherton","tag-karin-schubert","tag-marilu-tolo","tag-nathalie-delon","tag-raquel-welch","tag-richard-burton","tag-sybil-danning","tag-virna-lisi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16591"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22625,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16591\/revisions\/22625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}