The Whip and the Body (Italian: La frusta e il corpo) is a 1963 gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava under the alias "John M. Old".

The film is about Kurt Menliff (Christopher Lee) who is ostracized by his father for his relationship with a servant girl and her eventual suicide.

In 19th century Europe, nobleman Kurt Menliff returns to his family's seaside castle after many years of absence in order to supposedly congratulate his younger brother Christian for marrying his former lover Nevenka.

Losat finds Nevenka lying unconscious on the beach, and he and the others take her back to the castle and put her to bed before discovering Kurt's body.

Nevenka also begins seeing Kurt in numerous ghostly visions, including one in which he whips her several times in her bedroom, leaving welts all over her body.

Losat and Christian determine that Nevenka had gone insane or was perhaps possessed after murdering Kurt, leading her to kill the Count and stage the various "hauntings".

Sources:[2][1] The credited screenwriters are Ernesto Gastaldi (as Julian Berry), Ugo Guerra (as Robert Hugo), and Luciano Martino (as Martin Hardy).

[1] Gastaldi was shown an Italian print of The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) by the producers who requested a similar film to be made.

[1] Bava took care of the cinematography for the film while his regular camera man Ubaldo Terzano is credited as the cinematographer.

[6] The disc included an audio commentary with Tim Lucas, isolated soundtrack, photo gallery, cast and crew biographies and filmographies.

[7] In 2014, the UK Odeon Entertainment blu-ray release included a Tim Lucas commentary that he described on his web site as a "new, revised recording.

[9] The review referred to the film as "slow, repetitive, verging on parody" and that either "censor or distributor cuts have rendered much of the plot incomprehensible, thought one doubts if it ever made sense entirely.

of Variety noted that "for sophisitcated audiences, the gothic-novel atmosphere and trappings of secret passages, muddy footprints from the crypt and ghost lover, probably will draw more laughs than gasps.

"[10] The review commented on the technical elements of the film, stating "superb" cinematography but that the script had "many preposterous lines, and is far too cluttered with cliches such as screams in the night, hurried chases and mystery lights in the crypt.