It came from the bargain bin-Konga

bargainbin

konga

1961

Purchased at the Dollar Tree so yeah for one buck probably at least four years ago.

I tried to watch it once back then and lost interest so I never finished. This feature gave me reason to push onward and attempt see the whole thing.  It features Michael Gough (Horror of Dracula, Hammer’s The Phantom of the opera, Alfred from Tim Burton’s Batman and tons of other stuff), it’s a British monster film from a time when a lot of good horror was coming out of that area and it has a giant ape. So it has to be good..right? Eh..well.. that is to say no, not really. It kind of has elements of Frankenstein and King Kong, but unfortunately not much of a budget, script, personality or much else to keep it going. This botanist (Gough) has these crazy serums and plants going. He also has eyes for a young student and goes after he. Hey, hold your horses there this dude already has a lady. What a snake, just for that she giving growth serum to the chimp which turns it into a giant guy in a moth eaten monkey suit. Ew take that. The good news this does mean that the end of the film  is near and eventually the film does clunk to a finish. Roll the credits.

Normally all a giant ape movie has to do for me is have some action and destruction. The problem with this film is just how dull it is. There just isn’t enough going on to keep my interest. Some time a bad movie can be interesting in  it’s badness, but even to do that there needs to enough to laugh at and there wasn’t even much of that. It’s just one big bad monkey, dragging on and on snoozefest.

I’d have to say it wasn’t worth my dollar because I won’t be watching it again.

 

 

kongaposter goughyoucadpg rowr

First fright Friday-Werewolf in a girl’s dormitory

wwwp

wwg

Well, how was I to know we’d all be wearing the same outfit?

wwgi

Aieeee your hands are cold!

wwwbe

I can’t act so I’ll just stare at you.

hp

Why didn’t get a perfect hair helmet?

1961

Ten things about this movie.

1-By girl’s dormitory they mean correctional facility for 30 years olds posing as 20 year olds.
2-Everyone uses fifteen words to say something that would take five words.
3-Security is real light at this place as everyone seems to sneak out at night.
4-All the men except the scuzzy guy wear bad hair pieces.
5-This film has more red herrings than a fish packing place or so I assume as I’ve never been to a fish packing place.
6-With all the killings going a lot of people still continue to run alone in the woods at night.
7-The werewolf must be kind of weak or neat because he doesn’t rip out of his suit.
8-They sure fill up the little graveyard in this film.
9-They should have left that werewolf in the shadows because it’s about as lame as it gets.
10-For a film with a werewolf, blackmail, science experiments and multiple murders this one sure was dull.

The Three Stooges meet Hercules

h3

1961

Larry, Moe and Curly Joe are working in a pharmacy in Ithaca, New York and causing all kinds of messes and mischief. A glasses wearing scientist guy named Schulyer is in the next building trying to make a time machine (!). Larry and Curly Joe make a mess in the store, This causes their boss Dimsal to explode and blame Schulyer who acts scared. Schulyer’s girlfriend Diane gets mad at him over spending too much energy on his time machine and gives him two days to finish it. Just to be a rat Dimsal changes lines on the time machine diagram. The stooges try to fix the machine and it goes haywire of course. Diane and Skyler arrive just in time to be sucked into traveling in time with the stooges and the rickety machine.  The machine lands as Ulysses and his army battles Odius (the same dude who plays Dimsal)and some bad dudes and Hercules out in Ancient Greece (or southern California). Schulyer says it’s 900 BC. Odyus thinks the time travels are Olympus and that they came to help them win the battle. Odius has his eyes on Diane even though he acts nice to Schulyer and the stooges. They are all at a banquet where Hercules shows off his stegnth by cracking nuts with his biceps. Odius had Ulysses captured and treats him like dirt. Schulyer and the stooges then realize they are likely helping the wrong side so they need to do something and free Ulysses. They do and Hercules persues them arrrr! Odius and Herucles capture them and the stooges and Schuyler are sent to do rowing under harsh conditions. With all the rowing Schulyer builds his muscles (but the stooges don’t). King Theseus thinks Schuyler is Hercules and frees him and the stooges in exchange for getting rid of a giant two headed fuzzy cyclops thingie. Curly Joe and Moe manage to give tranquilizers to the cyclops and knock them out, but they make Schuyler think he did it to build up his confidence.  Seeing an opportunity the stooges line up fights for Schuyler posing as Hercules against monsters that the stooges drug. They make money from it and find their way back to try and save Diane and help Ulysses. They get back, but Odius catches them. Hercules fights Schuyler, but nerd no more Schuyler beats Herc and gets him to agree to turn good. The stooges and Schuyler grab Diane and race to the time machine in a chariot with Odius in hot pursuit across the hills and countryside. Odius tries to use spiked wheels to stop them, but hey wouldn’t you know it the stooges just happen to have pies in their chariot to throw at the skunk. The good people get back to their own time while dropping Odius off in a rough situation in the old west. Schuyler has muscles now and stands up to Dimsal who flees and has a bad run in back in time when he takes the time machine. Roll the credits.

cy

“I’m with stupid.”  “No, I am.”

The negatives-It’s late era stooges so the slapstick is limited due to their ages.

The positives-This is one of the better of the stooges later films in my opinion. It’s silly, but it’s a good mix of silliness and gags.

During their run of films from 1958 to 1964 the stooges ended up pulling in elements of sci-fi, westerns, fairy tales and in this case the sword and sandal genre. I think they did a decent job with it. Canadian bodybuilder/wrestler Samson Burke plays Hercules here. He had been in a couple of European sword and sandal flicks both before and after this one. It’s a bit odd to see Herc played as a bad guy for most of the film.

herc

Watch me crack this nut.

threest

 

Time travelers?

Mysterious Island

Mysterious_Island_(1961)

1961

Who’s in this?

Herbert Lom as Captain Nemo of the Nautilus. The late Herbert Lom had a career that spanned over fifty years with over 100 credits.  He was in Spartacus, The Ladykillers and  plenty of horror films including the Dead Zone, Asylum and Hammer’s Phantom of the opera. He is perhaps most known for playing the Chief Inspector in the Pink Panther films. There is no mistaking his powerful voice. He passed away in his sleep last fall at the age of 95.

Michael Craig as Captain Harding of the Union Army. Craig worked started working on film in the late 40’s and has a credit as recently as 2011. He has also worked on stage quite a bit over the years. In the 1970’s he moved to Australia and much of his work since then has been there.

Joan Greenwood as Lady Mary a shipwreck victim who washes onto the island. She got into acting in her late teens and most of her more known work came shortly after that.

Michael Callan as Herbert Brown a young Union soldier. Callan had a singing and dancing background, but mainly played a guys with girl troubles in TV and movies.

bee

What’s this about? A few Union soldiers escape from a prison camp by hot air balloon taking a along a reporter and a Confederate soldier. Unfortunately luck is not on their side as they take the balloon into a terrible storm that blows off to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean.  Eventually they run into a giant crab (the one with the claws not a big, grumpy person). Later they find two woman who survived the sinking of their boat. There is a run in with a giant bird which they eventually win. So this island is just full of giant thingies. They also deal with pirates and giant bees. Then just when you think this little island is crazy it gets even more so as Captain Nemo shows up saying he’s been helping this group all along and he has a submarine nearby, but it’s in rough shape. Nemo also says the volcano on the island will soon erupt and kill them if they don’t find a way to get away from the island. His idea is to pump up this pirate ship that he just sunk, patch the whole and boom they’ll be out of here. It doesn’t work quite that smoothly as Nemo doesn’t make it but the rest of them do get away in the ship. Roll the credits and so long to the Mysterious Island that’s now be covered by icky lava.

The negatives-Actually I have no gripes. However I should mention some complaints I’ve heard about it. So this movie is based on Jules Verne’s book of the same name, but the book is very different. There are no giant monsters or shipwrecked woman so some snoots growl at this movie for taking liberties and making it so different from the book. Ray Harryhausen said when he was a approached with the idea of doing a film of this book he felt it would be tough because there wasn’t enough there to make an action movie so we got giant monsters and shipwrecked woman.

The positives-I think this is one of Harryhausen’s best films with some great creations. It’s also a strong action movie as well. I first saw this when I was 12 and was mesmerized plus I still love it. The action is good enough, the locations are great and the pace is steady. A strong movie indeed that has stood up very well over time.

crab

The staff here at Vince’s seafood work hard to ensure the freshness of your meal.

Hercules and the captive women AKA: Hercules conquers Atlantis

220px-Hercatcwpos

1961 although I’ve seen 1963 listed as well.

Who’ s in this?

Reg Park as Hercules (Ercole). British born bodybuilder who eventually got into briefly doing acting which lead to five sword and sandal films, this is his first film. He was a three time Mr. Olympia and competed in bodybuilding competitions up until his mid 40’s. He was a friend and influence on Arnold Schwarzenegger. For a time Arnold lived and trained with Reg and his family in South Africa in the late 1960’s. Had the nickname Reg the Leg for his huge legs and was known really working his leg muscles as Arnold confirmed that as well. Park also insisted he trained clean and never used steroids. Passed away in 2007 at 79.

Fay Spain as Queen Antinea of Atlantis. American born actress who was in a number of tv shows between the mid 50’s and 70’s. She died of the all tooo young age of 49 in 1983.

Ettore Manni as Androclo. Italian born actor who was in a number of sword and sandal films and spaghettis westerns. In 1979 he died at 52 from what was ruled then as an accidental gun shot to the groin (he was a gun collector). Over the years some have wondered if it was suicide because he was known to have had depression problems his last few years due to the death of his girlfriend.

tumblr_lipd2w7xn71qz72v7o1_500

Allow me to try out my new muscle dentistry on you.

What’s this about? Herc is just hanging out at home with his wife saying he doesn’t want to go on adventures anymore, want a bore. One of his “friends” Androcles drugs him and takes on a ship for a dangerous mission. So dangerous that besides him and Herc there’s a little guy, a skinny dork and a couple of other goofs that are not even worth showing their faces to the camera too. At one point the main hero saves the boat from being stolen. The would be toga clad thieves try to row away yet old Herc gets the anchor chain and pulls the boat back by the chain-wowee! Then Herc takes a nap and lets his “friends” do the rest of the work. Maybe Hercules should have been named Lazyasstis instead for that move. A storm hits or buckets of water are thrown on the actors and Herc finds his friend Androcles has vanished. Soon big Herc goes ashore and sees a woman trapped in stone. Poof a wig and phony beard clad magic doing type named Proteus shows up and turns himself into various lame animals as Herc battles him in hopes of freeing the girl. Eventually we have all had enough of this sorry excuse for muscle dude vs. beast wrestling junk and Herc twists a horn out of this rubber froggy guy and plop he flops over and the girl is free from the rock. Then she leads Herc to Atlantis which is nearby (isn’t it always in these films?). Of course her mom is  a nasty untrusting sort as Herc says he’s only looking for his vanished friend. Antinea tells her phony wigged helpers that her daughter must be sacrificed to save the city or they will die now that Proteus is gone because his magic helped protect them. Way to screw everything up, Herc the jerk. Anyways Herc thinks he spotted Androcles in these caves but his friend vanished before Herc could get to him. He does find his friend only his memory is gone and he’s a creep now. Oh and there’s stuff about kids and people being held prisoner or something. Eventually there’s some running and smashing of thin sets as Herc decides the movie has gone on long enough and lets the prisoners out and they take over the meanie guards. The queen tries to sway Hercules as now she has super soldiers and they all wear white poofy wigs, but Herc eludes them and their spooky eyes (read as he slips away and deprives the films of some possible action). Then there’s a horse riding chase and ol’ Herc sets up a fire as apparently one out of every two white haired loony warrior panics when he rides into fire. He eventually makes it to the surface, swims to his ship and the good people survive and watch Atlantis explode and get destroyed. Roll the credits.

The negatives-It’s like they had their cast, their sets, their costumes, their locations and film in the camera yet they no idea how to make this film interesting. It goes along like the director was just making it all up on the spur of the moment and maybe he was. The results are a slow moving, confused effort that had me checking the time as it felt three times longer than it really was . Some of the wigs and beards in this film are hilarious, maybe that’s actually a positive. For an action film the title character gets very little action time.

The positives-The locations (what they show) are very nice. The sets are acceptable too and some of the caverns set are actually good for the time. Unlike some other 60’s Herc films the makers had some sense of camera angles. Reg Park looks like Hercules, it’s just a shame he doesn’t get enough to do.

imagesherc

Ah, smell the stench of this rotten film.

The Giant of Metropolis

giant of metropolis 11

giant of metropolis

1961

Who’s in this?

Gordon Mitchell as Obro our hero. Mitchell was bodybuilder who like others of the time went to Italy to break into the surging sword and sandal film craze. He did well for awhile. The fad died around the mid-60’s, but Mitchell stayed over there and maintained a career playing both hero and villain for years eventually having over 100 film credits.

The rest of the cast is a bunch of Italian actors and actresses who are badly dubbed and stand around looking all stiff and serious for the most part.

What’s this about? Well, it Italian made sword and sandal style epic from the 60’s. So that being said you know there’ll be some muscular dude running into sour looking dudes. Obro is on a mission to a promised land with family members and another group. The leader of the other tribe is a heavy set guy who soon announces that he and his followers are turning around and heading back. I guess the walk was too much for him. Obro and the rest head on and a big swirling wind singles them out and attacks them. Only our hero survives and the rest are left as cheap looking broken skeletons with a pile of clothes laying on top of them. The musclebound hero continues on and is eventually nabbed by some guards who pull him along to their leader. Obro walks along all hunched like the ropes are straining him or he needs to take a big dump. The guards take him to their leader who wears a baggy gown and puffy hat. Obro shows him no respect so he is forced to battle a guy who likes a cross between a Morlock from the 60’s Time Machine film and the Skipper from Gilligan’s Island. The battle is about as lifeless as can be with lots of lame bearhugs and funny face making from both participants. The good guy wins I guess as the “battle” ends. Later the hero fights some pygmies in similar unspectacular fashion. The baddies keep Obro a bit longer you know to the pad the film. The baddies mention “science” like every third world like this makes them real high brow in the villain society. There’s a crazy dance scene that has to be seen to believed. After the opening half hour the rest of the film seems like they just make it up as they go along. Eventually it comes to some sort of an end.

The negatives-It’s like they were not content with just the usual fighting in these kind of films. They tried tossing in more sci-fi themes and it just felt even more clunky. I was expecting a typical film for the genre instead it was just a bizarro piece with some odd enough to be alright parts but mostly it’s a mess.

The positives-Some of it is amusing enough, but there’s just not enough action or camp to make it worth more than one viewing.

The Magic Sword

the-magic-sword-4 

1962

Directed by Bert I. Gordon (oh, dear) maker of crap with lots of big people and big monsters. Actually he made one B film I really kind of like, I won’t spoil the surprise but I’ll review it here at some point.

Gary Lockwood as Sir George the lovesick not so spectacular knight (?) on a quest of some sorts. Best known as Gary Mitchell in the “Where no man has gone before” episode of Star  Trek and as Frank Poole in 2001: A space odyssey.

Basil Rathbone as Lodac an evil wizard who appears to be wearing hand me downs from a gypsy woman. You of course no know best from the great series of Sherlock Holmes film playing the best detective of all time.

Estelle Winwood as Sybil who raises George and on occasion does some magic while a comedy soundtrack plays on. You have no doubt seen her tons of stuff from the Batman TV series to Mel Brooks the Producers. She acted regularly for 45 years and lived to be 101.

Anne Helm as Princess Helene a princess who gets captured by evil guys and then….well that’s of what she does. She acted fairly regularly in TV from the late 50’s up until about 1980.

Liam Sullivan as Sir Branton a brave poof haired knight who talks a good game but like most everything else in this film bored the crap out of me. Sullivan was a character actor who was in tons of show including the Twilight Zone, Dallas, Magnum P.I. and tons more.

imagesCASOX5ZL

I could pretend to slay a really lame dragon with this baby.

 

What’s this about? The less you know the better, but I guess you want to know. The princess Helene is taken by Lodac and everyone is upset. Poor George gets Sybil to give him powerful weapons and six not real knights to help him on his quest to get the princess. He’s supposed to face seven curses and I lost track along the ways as the real curse was trying make it through this film. George and his knights are joined by Sir Branton who puffs his chest out a lot and has a streaky star design of some sorts on said chest-oh, shiny. Branton *spoiler* is actually a heel (gasp) and he’s in legue  with Lodac (the fiend) so he’s trying sabotage the knights. George and his group of ethnic armor played associates take on a rubber masked giant/ogre/ cheap werewolf looking thingie who crowls a lot. They also run into a she-beast who changes from beauty to rubber faced crone. Oh and there is a pit of bubbling water-oh the horror! Aw yeah and there are some crazed leper/zombie looking gentleman who stumble around attempting to look scary. So apparently curses come in the economy version too. So George knights get picked off on the way to the castle, but George is a such a brave soul he will go after the princess on his own. Lodac is ready for him as he goons including hawk nose goons, lumpy faced goons and my favorite the coneheads-way ahead of Saturday Night Live. George and Helene are in for it now-oh whatever shall they do. Lodac gets his powerful ring from Branton and as evil does he turns on Branton and puts his head on the wall. Not in a cool chop your head off and mount kind of way but rather in a limp flick of the wrist and poof there’s his mug on the wall kind of deal. Anyways all this hemming and hawing gives Sybil a chance to get there to help. Then George has to fight the most immobile dragon ever. George wins (boo) and in all that commotion or dry filler Sybil gets the ring from the hook nosed baddie. She promptly turns herself into a huge cat and mauls Lodac.Good has triumphed well good as it is here not good in movie form since there is very little good here. George and Helene return and marry plus thegood knights that were killed are unexplicably back and unharmed. Whatever-roll the credits.

The negatives-Jason and the Argonauts was a great film because it had a fantastic hero, a cruel villain, a strong plot, plenty of action and great special effects. The Magic Sword tries to be the same kind of film, but other than the cruel villain they have none of the above. My seven year old summed this movie up when he said “it’s like the knights ride around and fight a bunch of nothing, it was really boring”.

The positives-It’s a very colorful movie with some alright sets. Plus we get Basil Rathbone. A past his prime Rathbone who looks ashamed to be in this film, but still it’s Rathbone and he tries here, he really does.

There you go.

imagesCAWHY0W3

Two heads are better than one in this film.

The Curse of the werewolf

1_curse-of-the-werewolf-one-sheet-1961

1961

Hammer Films

Who’s in this?
Oliver Reed as Leon. Reed was a fantastic actor whose drinking problems unfortunately caught up to him. He was in several Hammer films early in his career. Perhaps he’s best known for a badass performance as Bill Sikes in the musical Oliver! Reed certainly had his problems in real life, but he could just about always be counted on to deliver a solid performance.

Clifford Evans plays Don Alfredo Corledo (say that 3 times fast) the guy who raises Leon as his son. Evans was in a lot of movies and later British TV. He acted regularly from the mid-30 up until the late 70’s. Hammer fans also know him from Kiss of the vampire.

Yvonne Romain as the servant girl and mother of a werewolf. She was in several horror films in the 60’s including Devil Doll and Circus of horrors.

Catherine Feller as Cristina Fernando the love interest of Leon and daughter of a skunk.

Anthony Dawson as Marques Siniestro. Bond fans will recognize him as Professor Dent in Dr. No and he was also Blofeld in From Russia with love.

Ewen Solon as Don Fernando who is not nice..at all. He acted for over 30 years and you may also know him from Hammer’s The hound of the Baskervilles also playing a sourpuss.

Hira Talfrey as Teresa Don Corledo’s servant. She also had small parts in the Oblong Box and Witchfinder General.

Martin Matthews as Jose. A fat oaf and bad actor.

curseofweremother

What’s this about? Here is a film made by and with mainly a bunch of British people. It’s based on a story called the Werewolf of Paris yet it is set in Spain (?). Actually the story goes that Hammer films was set to make a film about the Spanish Inquisition, but when the British censors got wind of it they said no. Hammer already had sets built to make it look like Spain so they switched gears and made a werewolf film. Oh, yeah the plot-okay so a dirty beggar goes to ask for food from the richest guy in the land the Marques Siniestro. The richest guy in the land is also a royal ass who after a bunch of carrying on goes off with new wife and has the beggar thrown in the dungeon. The little mute girl that gives the beggar his food grows up to be stunning although she is wearing the same style dress she wore as a kid. After turning down advances from Marques Siniestro she is thrown in the dungeon with the beggar who rapes here, wait when was this made. She eventually gets the heck out of that nut house, runs off and falls plop face frickin’ down in a body of water. An alright guy named Don Alfredo Corledo who has a wig and a fancy mustache saves her and takes her home. His housekeeper Teresa informs him that the girl is with child, of course they don’t know about the raped by a jailed beggar part. The boy Leon is born and from the start things are not right. He has fits when the moon is full and apparently went running over the countryside chasing and killing livestock at one point. He even has hairy hands too-yuck! Then things settle down a bit and all that oddness is forgotten and the boy grows up to a big Oliver Reed. So he may howl at the moon but at least turned into a good actor. He goes off to work and makes friends with a real dork named Jose. He also falls for the daughter of his boss. The daughter is cool , but her dad is a real jerk face with the personality of a pile of dirt. So Leon and the girl fall for each other despite her rear end of a father’s disapproval. Hey, let’s not forget this is a werewolf film. So eventually Leon goes all puffy at first like a blowfish and then he gets all hairy like a tarantula crossed with and ape. Then comes the growls, the screaming and the bloodshed well, early an 60’s version of bloodshed. Leon is accused of murder and jailed while he’s not all hairy. Of course while in jail the full moon pops out. Leon turns into a wolf wearing a ripped puffy shirt and then he offs longtime Hammer character actor Michael Ripper. Around this time Leon’s father has heard what is going on and he has finally come to believe that his son is an out of control, full blown werewolf. So dad gets a silver bullet and goes to set things right. After a grand finale you can guess the rest. Roll the credits.

Curse Of The Werewolf Pompous Ass

Negatives-The movie starts slow but eventually picks up. Doing a film set in Spain with a mainly British cast meant they chose people who had darker skin to fit in with the setting and for the most part they did alright. However there were a few exceptions. The Marques, his wife and their whole court were about as British or non-Spanish as you could get. I’m willing to forgive this one since at least the scene worked out. However the guy playing Leon’s short lived friend Jose was very much not from Spain plus he was an annoying character and a horrible actor.

Positives- Most of the acting is solid with Reed being the main standout. The sets, costumes and even the werewolf make-up all looked good. Despite a slow start it eventually picks up and becomes fairly exciting.

Curse-of-the-Werewolf-hammer-horror-films-3739574-800-431

The pit and the pendulum

pit_and_the_pendulum1961poster01cr

Vincent Price rolls on with the 1961 Roger Corman produced The pit and the pendulum. This is of course an adaption of Poe’s story. Like all of Corman’s Poe based films that should read “loosely adapted” , but then again there wasn’t really enough in that story to make a feature length film so they had to take some liberties and expand upon the story. I am going to approach this one a little differently than my other film reviews. I am not evaluating this one so much because I know it’s good that’s why I am featuring it on this theme week. The greater concern is what Price does here. So let me lay out some basics of the plot and then get to Price’s performance.

The cast-

Vincent Price as Nicholas/Sebastian Medina-Recent widower, castle owner… oh and he witnessed his dad kill his mom and uncle back when he was a lad. So you know he’s ready to snap at some point.

John Kerr as Francis Barnard the brother in law of Nicholas. He’s also full of question and has a sour face.

Barbara Steele as Elizabeth. Wife of Nicholas. Hey, wait doesn’t what I said about Nicholas indicate she’s dead? Read on.

Luana Anders as Catherine Medina. Sister of Nicholas, wearer of funny outfits and she bats her eyelashes at Francis a few times.

Antony Carbone as Doctor Leon. Uh, the doctor and friend (maybe) of Nicholas.

The plot-Elizabeth is dead and Nicholas is on edge. Then his brother in law shows up full piss, vinegar and questions or maybe just questions about his sister’s death.  So this is a castle with a friggin’ torture chamber down below and the Medina’s relatives used it many times. Eventually a highlighted flashback tells the story I mentioned about Nicholas Medina’s character. Nicholas believes Elizabeth was pulled to the torture chamber by the evil that was committed there years ago. Now Nicholas believes Elizabeth’s spirit is haunting him as he is hearing and seeing strange going ons in the castle. Everyone else just thinks he is losing marbles. Eventually it turns out that Elizabeth is still alive and she has been having an affair with the doctor (house calls indeed). Plus they faked her death and planned on driving Nicholas over the edge. What they didn’t count on was that Nicholas now thinks he is his father (the sadistic killer) and the doctor and Elizabeth take on the roles of Nicholas’ mom and Uncle. So let’s just say that the two plotting, nasty people get what they deserve eventually. However Francis stumbles into this and gets tied to a table ans Nicholas rants and that big old pendulum goes whomp-whomp bringing the blade closer to the midsection of Francis. Eventually Catherine and a man servant arrive and save Francis while Nicholas falls to his death aieeeeeee. Roll those creepy credits.

Price too often gets labeled as a ham. I always felt at his best he gave the roll and the film what it needed. Here get a rambling slide into madness with lots of pop eyed jeering from Price. That’s what this film needed. He keeps things going with his maybe he’s crazy or maybe he’s not portrayal. Price can pop his eyes out and rant better than anyone. When he finally snaps it’s a smooth transition lunacy. Price seems to relish in the final scene as delivers gloomy dialog with such glee while waiting for Francis to get cut into two like a big salami. One of my favorite Price films for sure.

Thursday Vincent Price week continues with the Tingler.

barbara-steele-and-vincent-price-pit-and-pendulum