Review: THE SLAVE

Title: THE SLAVE

Year: 1969

Director: Pasquale Festa Campanile

Writer: Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi

Starring: Rosanna Schiaffino, Haydee Politoff

THE SLAVE, also known as CHECK TO THE QUEEN, is a 1969 film from director Pasquale Festa Campanile that recently received a Bluray/DVD combo release from the wonderful Mondo Macabro. Haydee Politoff stars as Silvia, a young, rich girl with erotic, submissive fantasies. Silvia meets Margaret (Rosanna Schiaffino), a famous and elegant movie star. Margaret lives in a secluded mansion where she has a team of servants that serve her every need.

Silvia offers to work for Margaret. She lives with her and must do everything she says. Silvia essentially becomes her slave. Margaret often degrades Silvia, treating her extremely poor and making her  do such things as being her foot rest. Silvia doesn't mind, however. In fact, this is the exact type of relationship Silvia was looking for.

The way Margaret treats Silvia just adds to Silvia's fantasies. The two begin to develop a strong bond and relationship with one another. Initially it feels very one-sided and merely sexual but it quickly progresses beyond that. Margaret and Silvia seems to truly care about one another. Eventually this leads to changes in their relationship.

On the surface THE SLAVE really isn't the type of movie I'd have any interest in. Watching it left me quite surprised. The cinematography from DP Roberto Gerardi is quite wonderful. There's really some great imagery and fantastic use of bold, vivid colors. The terrific score from composer Piero Piccioni blends wonderfully with the images delivering a very trippy film.

While the film is very sexual in nature and has plenty of nudity, nothing is ever graphic. This is very much your art house cinema type of stuff. The film deals with quite a few different emotions. It's fairly dark at times but one the most part actually manages to be quite funny. It's weird but the film almost has this light heartedness to it. 

The bluray from Mondo Macabro looks great and takes full advantage of all the style THE SLAVE has to offer and highlights it in all the right ways. All around this is a really solid release and has me incredibly excited for the next release from Mondo Macabro.

Rating: 4/5