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Last night, I watched The Mephisto Waltz, a very seventies soft-focus Satanic thriller with Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bissett.
Alan Alda plays a music journalist who once wanted to be a concert pianist. He meets an Aleister Crowley-like piano master played by Curt "Goldfinger" Jurgens, who takes the lad under his wing, but has unmistakably sinister intentions, as well as a spooky but hot daughter played by "Valley of the Dolls" star Barbara Parkins. Bissette is the real star, though, as a woman who just KNOWS there's something wrong with all these people.
The real highlight is the spooky score by Jerry Goldsmith, interpolating Franz Liszt's titular waltz as well as the very familiar "Dies Irae" tune heard in so many movies (most memorably The Shining). Goldsmith outclassed many of the movies he scored, and that is very much the case here.
I can't quite recommend this one unless it has nostalgia value for you, or you find the cast irresistible. It has some nice moments and some creepy atmosphere, but the story plays out very slowly, and ends on a bit of a WTF.
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