Die nackte Gräfin (1971)
No stats available
Directors
Cast
Wolfgang Lukschy, Ursula Blauth, Kurt Nachmann, Renate Kasche
An icy Hungarian count’s extravagant birthday party becomes the backdrop to an inspector’s investigation into a young mechanic’s death and the secrets of the count’s marriage.
The story
After mechanic Toni is found dead in a convertible beside a Bavarian country road, Inspector Gabriel follows the car’s registration papers to the estate of Hungarian Count Anatol Manesser-Mankonyí. The count is hosting an extravagant birthday party for his wife and directs the inspector to his secretary Clemens and servant Helene. They recount the dark stories surrounding their master and describe how he met and married Verena, a young peasant girl. Their account suggests that the count’s marriage became increasingly troubled, as his cold, obsessive nature shaped Verena’s life and drew the household’s guests into a tense web of desire and antagonism.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
On the edge of a country road in Bavaria, the naked body of a young man, a mechanic named Toni, is found in a convertible. The car’s registration papers lead Inspector Gabriel to the estate of Hungarian Count Anatol Manesser-Mankonyí, an aristocrat who is as elegant as he is icily cold and is currently hosting an extravagant party for his wife’s birthday. In his characteristically arrogant manner, the count refers the officers to his secretary, Clemens, and his servant, Helene. They have plenty of dark stories to tell about their master’s past. They tell the inspector about the events that are said to have led to Toni’s death. At a fashion show, Count Anatol met Verena, a young peasant girl, and immediately began courting her. The two married, but before long the count revealed his dark, obsessive, and pathological side. A man incapable of showing or giving true love, he demanded that she take part in his fetish: sexually sadistic games that grew ever more extreme. Although Verena was initially very interested, almost euphoric, her feelings soon turned to contempt, because she quickly became a mere instrument for her sadomasochistic husband. Verena was to serve as the object of desire for the invited guests, and every deadly sin—and many acts of baseness besides—was to be laid bare. Each visitor to the count’s house embodied a character flaw: arrogance and hatred, gluttony, lust, lethargy, greed, and envy. Before long, the guests give in to a deep mutual antipathy—and even enjoy it. Then disaster strikes, and Toni is murdered. The impotent count, a profoundly abnormal voyeur, had chosen Toni to be the lover of his wife, the titular naked countess. While the mechanic was making love to the aristocrat, her husband, Count Anatol, photographed the two of them in the act. But the two fell in love, and Verena wanted to flee with Toni and start a new life with him, far from her perverse husband, who was incapable of love. When Count Anatol asked Toni what he wanted in payment for his sexual services to the naked countess, Toni snapped and began shooting wildly in Anatol’s photographic studio. This became his death sentence …
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…