(1964)
Dir - Robert Hartford-Davis
Overall: MEH
Though it is ultimately a bit undone by its uninspired twist and lackluster, final action sequence, Robert Hartford-Davis' The Black Torment for most of its running time is an above-average, Gothic horror outing. Very deliberately styled after the Hammer films of the day, it was produced by the far lesser known Compton Films and borrows Phantom of the Opera's Heather Sears and even Patrick Troughton in a smaller role, the latter who would go on to be immortalized as the Second Doctor on Doctor Who a mere two years later. The film's opening is quite strong, (before we even see anything no less) and familiar plot devices such as ghostly ladies in white and possible doppelgangers getting into tomfoolery are showcased in a number of wonderfully creepy ways. John Turner as the tormented Sir Richard Fordyke is definitely over the top as he yells and goes into body-convulsing fits of rage, (Oliver Reed would have positively excelled here), but the mystery surrounding him really is rather captivating due to how cleverly the movie teases everything, keeping it from us until the last possible moment. Again though, anything hokey or lame you may have guessed was going on ends up being the case and the payoff does not live up to what came before it, so the movie is still only a partial success.
(1967)
Dir - Terence Fisher
Overall: WOOF
Quite easily the most absolutely boring movie Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee ever made together, Night of the Big Heat is a dated, horrendously dull adaptation of the John Lymington novel of the same name. The alien threat is barely given screen time and they are as convincing looking as any other cheaply made, blob-like creatures. It also takes absolutely forever to get the story to the point where they are even noticed by anyone on screen, let alone the audience. In the meantime, every character is either just there to have a few lines and die, (Cushing is sadly wasted in this regard), or they are just assholes. This includes Lee who is unnecessarily rude and cold to everyone because he is a serious scientist. Patrick Allen is just as arrogantly unlikable, playing a man who is cheating on his secretary that he calls a "slut" a few times in a couple of hilarious rants. All the while, the woman that he is cheating with just wants to be there so she can be annoying apparently while his wife cries a little yet ultimately seems just fine with him saying he only did it because he is a horny guy who does not really love his mistress. The love triangle is so badly written that it makes the totally generic, "handful of people making a last stand against monsters" core element all the more disappointing. Then the aliens get killed because it starts to rain and the credits roll about ten seconds later.
(1968)
Dir - Roy Boulting
Overall: MEH
A rare psychological thriller from Roy Boulting, (who primarily made comedy films and also occasionally co-directed with his brother John), Twisted Nerve takes its title from a poem by German-American writer George Sylvester Viereck, who regrettably was also a pro-Nazi propagandist. Not that any such fascism creeps into the proceedings here, but it does have a rather un-PC premise of a sociopath who pretends to be retarded to manipulate people. Co-scripted by Leo Marks, (Peeping Tom), Boulting keeps everything far enough from getting unfavorably exploitative, but the subject matter and highly disturbed and unlikable protagonist are surely meant to make one rather uncomfortable. Most of the nudity and violence is underplayed, (at least by later standards), and none of the behavior of Hywel Bennett's Martin/Georgie is glorified in the slightest. This is all rather part of the problem with the movie in general though. By keeping itself mostly grounded and safe, it lacks uniqueness and really is not that thought-provoking or shocking. It is just another "crazy guy does crazy things" scenario really. As a fun side-note, the main musical theme by Bernard Herman was later used in a number of other places, least of all two Quentin Tarantino movies.
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