| The Skull | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Freddie Francis |
| Produced by | Max Rosenberg Milton Subotsky |
| Written by | Milton Subotsky Robert Bloch |
| Starring | Peter Cushing Christopher Lee Jill Bennett Patrick Wymark |
| Music by | Elisabeth Lutyens |
| Cinematography | John Wilcox |
| Editing by | Oswald Hafenrichter |
| Distributed by | Amicus |
| Running time | 83 min. |
| Country | UK US |
The Skull is a 1965 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis for Amicus Productions. It starred the frequently paired horror actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, alongside Patrick Wymark, Jill Bennett, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee and Peter Woodthorpe.
It was one of a number of British horror films of the sixties to be scored by avant-garde composer Elisabeth Lutyens, including several others for Amicus. The script was written by Milton Subotsky, from a short story by Robert Bloch, "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade".
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The film begins with a pre-credit sequence set in the 1800s, in which Pierre, a phrenologist (Maurice Good), robs the grave of the recently buried Marquis de Sade. He takes the Marquis' severed head and sets about boiling it to remove its flesh, leaving the skull; before the task is done, Pierre himself has met an unseen and horrific death.
The story then moves to the modern day. Christopher Maitland (Cushing), a collector and writer on the occult, is offered the skull by Marco (Wymark), an unscrupulous dealer in antiques and curiosities. Maitland learns that the skull has been stolen from Sir Matthew Phillips (Lee), a friend and fellow collector. Sir Matthew, however, does not want to recover it, having escaped its evil influence. He warns Maitland of its powers. At his sleazy lodgings Marco dies in mysterious circumstances; Maitland finds his body and takes possession of the skull. He in turns falls victim as the skull drives him to hallucinations, madness and death.
Christopher Lee is billed as "guest star" in the film's credits; his part is brief, comprising only two short scenes.
The film's final twenty-five minutes contain almost no dialogue.
When it was released in France, promotional materials had to be changed at the very last minute by pasting a new title, Le crâne maléfique ("The Evil Skull"), over the original French title Les Forfaits du Marquis de Sade ("Infamies of the Marquis de Sade") on posters and lobby cards, after legal action by the present-day Sade family.
In real life the Marquis de Sade's body was exhumed from its grave in the grounds of the lunatic asylum at Charenton, where he died in 1814, and his skull was removed for phrenological analysis. It was subsequently lost, and its fate remains unknown.[1]
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