Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
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| Dr. Terror's House of Horrors | |
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| Directed by | Freddie Francis |
| Produced by | Max Rosenberg Milton Subotsky |
| Written by | Milton Subotsky |
| Starring | Peter Cushing Christopher Lee Max Adrian Ann Bell Peter Madden |
| Music by | Elisabeth Lutyens |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | Thelma Connell |
| Release date(s) | February 23, 1965 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is a 1965 British horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by veteran horror film director Freddie Francis, written by Milton Subotsky and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
It was the first in a series of portmanteau films from Amicus and was followed by Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972), Tales from the Crypt (1972), The Vault of Horror (film) (1973), From Beyond the Grave (1973) and Tales That Witness Madness (1974).
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[edit] Plot
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is a portmanteau film consisting of five stories with a linking story. Five men enter a train carriage in London bound for Bradley, and are joined by a sixth, the mysterious Doctor Schreck (Peter Cushing wearing a beard and false eyebrows). Schreck is the German word for terror, hence the title of the film. It was also the surname of the actor who played the title character in the vampire classic Nosferatu in 1922. During the journey, the doctor breaks open his pack of Tarot cards and proceeds to reveal the destinies of each of the travellers. This provides the framework to tell five horror stories.
The first story concerns an architect, Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum), who travels to a Scottish island to alter the house of Mrs. Biddulph (Ursula Howells). By coincidence, this house was previously owned by Dawson's ancestors. Venturing down into the cellar, he finds a fake wall behind which is the coffin of Count Valdemar. Valdemar had sworn a curse against the descendants of the Dawson clan and vowed to reclaim the house stolen from him. The coffin has sculptures of the heads of wolves on it, and soon Dawson realises that lycanthropy is involved.
The second story has Bill Rogers (Australian-born disc jockey and original Top of the Pops host Alan Freeman) and his family returning from vacation to discover a fast-growing vine has installed itself in the garden. When the plant seems to respond violently to attempts to cut it down, Rogers goes to the Ministry, where he gets advice from a couple of boffins (played by Bernard Lee and Jeremy Kemp). It soon turns out that the plant has read The Day of the Triffids and harbours homicidal tendencies towards any threats to its existence.
Story three is the intentionally humorous one. Biff Bailey (Roy Castle is a jazz musician who accepts a gig in the West Indies, and foolishly steals a tune from a local voodoo ceremony. When he tries to use the tune as a melody in a jazz composition back in London, there are dire consequences, mainly for the viewer. Castle was a last-minute replacement for Acker Bilk, who had suffered a heart attack, but who ironically has survived Castle by more than a decade.
Next is the tale of Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee), an art critic who seems more concerned with his own devastating wit than art itself. Eric Landor (Michael Gough) bears the brunt of one of Marsh's tirades, but gets even by humiliating the critic publicly. When Landor takes it too far, Marsh responds in violent fashion causing Landor to lose one of his hands. Marsh is then tormented by the disembodied hand, which seems immune to fire as well as possessing the skills of Houdini.
Lastly, Dr. Bob Carroll (Donald Sutherland) returns to his home in America with his new French bride Nicolle (Jennifer Jayne). Soon there is evidence that a vampire is on the loose, and Carroll seeks the aid of his colleague Dr Blake (Max Adrian), only to find out that his bride is the vampire.
[edit] Production
Filming began on Dr. Terror's House of Horror at Shepperton Studios on May 25, 1964 with a budget of $105,000. The script began as a still-born television series in 1948 during the time when Dead of Night was a recent release. Milton Subotsky considered that movie to be "the greatest horror film ever"[1] and used it as a blue-print for Dr. Terror and the rest of the later portmanteau films. Dr. Terror's House of Horror completed filming on July 3, 1964 and was released on February 5, 1965. It went on to become a major hit.
[edit] See Also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Quoted from John Brosnan's The Horror People, London, 1976.
[edit] References
- Rigby, Jonathan, (2000). English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-01-3.
