Any horror film aficionado has heard abot the 1964 classic Black Sabbath. It is where the British Band led by Mr. Ozzy Osbourne in the 70s got it's name from, and likely a strong influence in the band's change of style from hard rock-blues to the first steps into heavy metal. Appart from that, what I did not know is that the original title of this film was not Black Sabbath, but I tre volti della paura (The three faces of fear). In fact, it was released in Italy a year before, and it opened the American market for Mario Bava, who later directed other horror classics as Diabolik, or Twitch of the Death Nerve, considered to be a main influence in the classic slasher film Friday the 13th.
Another striking thing about this film is something, unfortunately, not that uncommon in American releases of European films of those times. The "narrative of The Telephone" (the second of the three stories featured in this film) "was radically transformed from it's version in I tre volti della paura, eliminating all references to Rosie and Mary's previous lesbian relationship and transforming Frank, the vengeful pimp and prison escapee, into a ghost who continues to haunt Rosie on the telephone after she has seemingly stabbed him to death."(1)
(1) Heffernan, Kevin. Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold. Duke University Press, Durham, 2004. 146-7.
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