Baba Yaga (1973)

by Mark Murton

Also Known As: The Devil Witch; Kiss Me, Kill Me

Directed by: Corrado Farina

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Based on the popular Italian comic strip Valentina by Guido Crepax. Strange things start happening to photographer Valentina (Isabelle de Funès) after she meets a mysterious older woman calling herself Baba Yaga (Carroll Baker) and she comes to realise that her new acquaintance is, in fact, a witch intent on possessing her, body and soul.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): After her first meeting with Baba Yaga, Valentina has a bizarre dream where, dressed only in her underwear, she is brought before a Nazi officer (played by the film’s director, Corrado Farina) sitting behind a small table holding a cream colored Persian cat.

Baba Yaga - Nazi officer Corrado Farina holding cream Persian cat

Baba Yaga - Nazi officer Corrado Farina holding cream Persian cat at desk

The dream ends with Valentina dropping naked into a bottomless pit. The next morning, Valentina relives the dream in the form of a series of black and white stills, including one of the cat.

Baba Yaga - black and white still of Persian cat

When Valentina takes up Baba Yaga’s invitation to visit her at her house she finds the woman sitting in a rocking chair cradling a cat (the same one as in Valentina’s dream) in her arms. Later she fiddles with one of a set of wooden mystic symbols, manipulating the events in Valentina’s life.

Baba Yaga - Baba Yaha Carroll Baker in rocking chair holding cream Persian cat

After the shocking death of a female friend, Valentina has another strange dream, this time with Baba Yaga sitting in a wicker chair on a cliff top, dressed in black and holding the cat.

Baba Yaga - Baba Yaha Carroll Baker in wicker chair on hill over beach holding cream Persian cat

Baba Yaga - Baba Yaha Carroll Baker holding cream Persian cat

The dream is rife with Prussian military imagery and ends with Baba Yaga giving the order for Valentina, dressed in a Prussian uniform and part of a firing squad, to shoot Valentina’s recently deceased friend.

At the film’s conclusion Valentina confronts Baba Yaga at her house and frees herself of her influence. In the final shot the camera pans around the room and alights on the cat sitting on the floor next to Baba Yaga’s box of wooden symbols.

Baba Yaga - cream Persian cat sitting in front of a box of wooden symbols

We couldn’t verify if a cat appears in the comic book version of this specific story, but artist Guido Crepax appears to have added cats in the strip, at least sometimes.