60's British Horror Part Fourteen

HOUSE OF MYSTERY

(1961)

Dir - Vernon Sewell

Overall: MEH

 

British writer/director Venon Sewell filmed Pierre Mills and Celia de Vilyars' French play L'Angoisse four times throughout his career, House of Mystery, (Das Landhaus des Dr. Lemmin), being the final such adaptation and one that was later presented on the American anthology series Kraft Mystery Theater.  Told as a flashback within a flashback that bounces between three different timelines, the structure is clunky, though there are some interesting ideas at play.  A combination of murder mystery, infidelity drama, and ghost story with some scientific experiments thrown in as well, the under an hour running time does not lend itself to expanding on anything going on.  While this gives it a rushed feel coupled with the shifting chronology, it is also incredibly talky and difficult to pay attention to due to a severe lack of action.  That said, the finale almost makes up for the lumbering bulk of the movie as it introduces a clever comeuppance scheme and an effective, spooky twist to go out on.  Said twist might be predictable and the sly, pseudoscience maneuver at the end by Peter Dyneley may seem silly, but they still provide refreshing components to an otherwise stock production. 

 

THE SKULL

(1965)

Dir - Freddie Francis

Overall: GOOD

 

Amicus Productions' second horror film and also the second to be directed by Freddie Francis, The Skull also serves as the company's first collaboration with screenwriter Robert Bloch.  The Psycho author's short story "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade" was reworked by Amicus co-founder and producer Milton Subotsky as well as Francis himself; such script noodling being a frequent practice at the time.  Low on dialog, (at least during the final act), loud on music, and drenched in creepy atmosphere, the simple narrative is given an effective treatment where several unfortunate blokes including Peter Cushing are all supernaturally terrorized by Marquis de Sade's skull.  Though a highly sensationalized explanation is given as do who de Sade was, wisely the fantastical elements are never fleshed-out which gives way to several bizarre, tense set pieces that have no logical footing.  The best and longest of these is the roughly twenty-five minute finale where Francis and cinematographer John Wilcox really lean into the otherworldly mood, basking in Cushing's futile attempt to out-will the evil forces at play.  Christopher Lee, Patrick Magee, Nigel Green, Patrick Wymark, and Michael Gough round out the familiar British horror players, making this one of the better non-Hammer films with Cushing and Lee sharing a few scenes together.

THE FROZEN DEAD

(1966)

Dir - Herbert J. Leder

Overall: MEH

 

The first of two Hammer-style horror movies from writer/director/producer Herbert J. Leder, The Frozen Dead is notable as one of the early ones to combine Nazis with zombies, be it in an off-hand, sugar-coating manner.  It is viscerally uncomfortable to center the entire story on exiled Nazis in hiding who have spent the last two decades since the war ended clandestinely conducing experiments on frozen soldiers in order to eventually resurrect their political party for world domination.  Sans a few non-specific Holocaust references, all real life Nazi atrocities are noticeably omitted and things instead proceed in a bog-standard, campy, mad scientist route.  A severed, telekinetic-powered head being kept alive with wires, severed arms being kept alive with wires, soldiers that are either virtually mindless or frozen, one woman looking like a normal person when she puts on a mask to cover her scars, and various other silliness give it plenty of a tongue-in-cheek, B-movie charm.  That said, Leder's script is too wordy and padded, so the end result cannot overcome its stagnant pacing issues.  At least Dana Andrews doing a German accent is amusing though.