YOUTH AND CONSEQUENCES

Before there was the substance the was the formula.

In cinema there have always been substances, natural, chemical, or magical, that confer youth. One of many inspirations for—or at least precursors to—the acclaimed Demi Moore/Margaret Qualley gorefest The Subtance, is the Italian sci-fi drama Satanik, which premiered today in 1968, and features Magda Konopka as Doctor Marnie Bannister, who steals and consumes a colleague’s formula that reverses her age and disfigurement. She immediately does what any right-thinking person would under those circumstances—make good use of that new body by becoming a slinky seductress-cum-disruptor. But she soon learns she must re-ingest the formula or revert to her previous state. And she ain’t about to go back to who she was.

Satanik was based on an Italian comic book series created by writer Max Bunker and author Magnus (Roberto Raviola). Some reviews of the film say the youth formula destroys Konopka’s impulse control, but her character kills her colleague to get it in the first place, so she’s bad from the start. From that point she also gets kind of fun. She suddenly likes to dance, striptease, water-ski (really Konopka in those sequences) and behave in that dangerous way femmes fatales do. Ultimately she must deal with the police, who are close, yet miss her a few times due to her changes of physical form. It’s a neat trick, but it won’t keep her safe forever. We can’t say Satanik was good—it was too cheaply made, too dashed together. But we mostly liked it anyway.

Italy, Satanik, Magda Konopka, Julio Peña, Umberto Raho, Luigi Montini, Armando Calvo, Max Bunker, Roberto Ravaioli, poster art, cinema, movie review, sci-fi

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 17

1950—The Great Brinks Robbery Occurs

In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.

January 17

1977—Gary Gilmore Is Executed

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

January 16

1942—Carole Lombard Dies in Plane Crash

American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.

January 15

1919—Luxemburg and Liebknecht Are Killed

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.

January 14

1967—Summer of Love Begins

The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with between 20,000 to 30,000 people in attendance, their purpose being to promote their ideals of personal empowerment, cultural and political decentralization, communal living, ecological preservation, and higher consciousness. The event is considered the beginning of the famed counterculture Summer of Love.

DON GIOVANNI

Giovanni Benvenuti was one of Italy's most prolific paperback cover artists. His unique style is on display in multiple collections within our website.

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