Markulis and his students at Vilnius University identified 500 bodies in the crypt, of which about 200 had been mummified. Markulis is better known to Lithuanians not as a scientist but as a former spy who, while posing as a leader of the Lithuanian resistance, lured others into Soviet ambushes.)ĭr. He wanted to know whether there were victims from World War II mixed in among the 17th-, 18th- and 19th-century corpses. In the 1960s, a forensic scientist named Juozas Albinas Markulis became one of the first to study the mummies. ( Read more about how bodies spontaneously mummify.) Though they faced disturbances over the centuries as the city and church were occupied by Napoleon, then the Nazis, it was the Soviet occupation of Lithuania that brought about a drastic change in the mummies’ fate. Once, there were body parts piled into a pyramid on the floor and stacked on shelves that reached to the ceiling.įor most of their history, the corpses were preserved intact: Cool temperatures and ventilation in the underground chamber had caused them to undergo spontaneous mummification. Researchers liken it to an entrance to a secret lair: The steps descend to a dark and dusty underworld.Ī black metal gate leads to the labyrinthine chambers that house the corpses. Beneath this is a stone staircase so narrow it can admit only one person at a time. I've scanned the front cover (which bears no relation to the movie!) and the back cover (including accurate credits and plot summary) of the video for those who doubt its very existence.Inside, an altar stands behind a large wooden platform where people kneel and pray. No indication it played anywhere at all, and the source print used for the vhs release looks as if it was more or less pristine. The title on the print is a later addition, so presumably the film was made under another title. Which is nothing short of bizarre in view of the people connected with this movie! It snuck out on VHS in 1989, from a company calling itself Gryphon Productions, which may have in fact had some direct link to Weis. In fact, none of the usual sources for filmographic data list it. The IMDb doesn't list DEATH BRINGS ROSES. Scott Brady, Broderick Crawford, stage legend Hermione Gingold (?!), and even Henny Youngman (?!?!). because its cast includes quite a few bona fide 'names'. It's of about the same standard, although rather better acted, than CRYPT OF DARK SECRETS and MARDI GRAS MASSACRE.Īnd the reason why DEATH BRINGS ROSES has a better level of acting is. Has anyone seen any of Jack Weis's other movies, "Quadroon" and "Storyville"? While I haven't see either of those movies, I have seen Jack Weis's final feature, DEATH BRINGS ROSES (1979), which uses many of the same locations as, and much of the soundtrack music from. I think that's the kind of vibe they were going for, anyway. Maybe there was a tv-safe take of the film that has been lost forever (though if they had to lose one, that was the version to lose!).ģ) The overall film is very much like the kinds of stories showing up in Creepy or Eerie in the same time period. And the film ends with the evil group being tempted to the voodoo island with promises of getting some rumored pirate treasure, which they do find.Is it possible the original story, and what the Vietnam vet was supposed to be guarding was in fact the pirate treasure that he had found & was the source of his wealth, but that for some reason the money bit was added later, possibly to lengthen the film? Ever shot involved with the money (as opposed to the gold & jewels) were shot a little worse than the rest of the film.Ģ) There may be a more demurely-clothed version of this film - when Damballa doing the dance of no veils on top of the coffin, she has no clothes whatsoever on in the film but in the trailer she's shown as wearing clothes in this scene. The beginning is all about the sleepy Vietnam vet's money, but when his stuff is returned by the police, he's much more interested in a few jewels he had, a ring and a bracelet. 1) I think there is a changed premise in there somewhere.
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