An Exciting Day

It's hard to get back into any writing project after some time spent away, and in this case, it's been a couple of years. But I am feeling fully back to speed and making some wonderful progress on bringing this monster fully up to date.

Today was one of the wonderful days in the book's history. While looking at some non-Bava titles, I was watching a certain costume drama that I won't identify just yet... the visual style of the movie was flat as a pancake, then suddenly when it came time for the hero and the villain to cross swords, the movie was catapulted into Bava land. Loads of lollipop lighting. I had already interviewed the principal actor in this film, but not (obviously) about this movie. I was able to get his e-mail address from Tom Weaver, and put the question directly to him: Was Mario Bava involved in this production?

The answer came in the morning's e-mail: Yes, he was. Other information was included too, which helped to fuel a very nice sidebar for the book.

Riccardo Freda once told me "You have a good eye!" when I asked him to confirm Bava's presence behind the camera on a few of his films that weren't commonly known to be their collaborations. And now, once again, my eye for Bava's brushstrokes is vindicated -- but this is one of those happy occasions when there's someone who can confirm my hunch who A) speaks English and B) has e-mail! It's a delight to receive an answer to such a question so readily, and not to have to live with the uncertainty!

So the Bava filmography grows a little bit more -- and so does our knowledge of Bava's incalculable contribution to popular Italian cinema.