**_A Mansion in the Darkness_**

A dozen miles from Milan in the mountains of northern Italy, six people have to spend the night in a creepy mansion by a cemetery. The owner of the manor shares spooky tales of vampires and ghosts, including the aged matriarch of the mansion and her lumbering chauffeur.

A Spanish/Italian production, “Murder Mansion” (1972) was originally titled “The Mansion in the Fog” (translated from Spanish). It’s a mystery/horror and could be classified as a giallo. It’s similar to “The Devil’s Nightmare” and “The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave” from the year prior, not to mention it would influence “The Vampires Night Orgy” and “Count Dracula’s Great Love,” both of which would debut the next year.

The difference is that this one’s more family friendly and smacks of a Scooby-Doo tale featuring Fred (Andrés Resino) and two Daphnes (Lisa Leonardi as Laura and Analía Gadé as Elsa), minus the other characters (Velma, Shaggy and the dog). The variance is that Fred and two Daphnes are about 12-15 years older than their doppelgangers in Scooby-Doo.

Don’t get me wrong, this is by no means a kiddie flick. It includes adult-oriented material, like tipsy Mr. Porter constantly coming-on to the various beautiful women, as well as Frad and Elsa’s intimate relationship (with the two being former strangers). There’s just no overt nudity or buckets of gore.

What works best, beyond the beauty of the two aforementioned redheads, is the spooky ambiance of the fog, the graveyard, the mysterious manor, the gothic décor, the occultic paintings and the creepy rumors spoken in hushed tones. The only problem is the highly coincidental nature of the proceedings but, if you can suspend disbelief, the flick delivers the goods.

It runs 1 hour, 26 minutes, and was shot mostly in the studio in Madrid, Spain, but also Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha (the opening), which is located 40 miles northeast of the city.

GRADE: B