"There's nothing like a good fright for toning up the circulation."
Throughout the mid 60s and early 70s, Hammer Studios counterpart, Amicus Productions, also known as the Studio That Dripped Blood, formed through a partnership with producers Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, churned out a series of wonderful little horror anthologies including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972), Tales From The Crypt (1972), The Vault Of Horror (1973), From Beyond The Grave (1973), and this feature, titled Torture Garden (1967). Written by Robert Bloch (Psycho, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum), and directed by Freddie Francis (The Evil of Frankenstein, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Tales from the Crypt), the film features Burgess Meredith (Rocky, Clash of the Titans), Jack Palance (Hawk the Slayer, Alone in the Dark), Beverly Adams (How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, The Silencers), and Peter Cushing (The Abominable Snowman, Dracula, The Revenge of Frankenstein). Also appearing is Michael Bryant (Bikini Summer II), John Standing (Au Pair Girls), John Phillips (Village of the Damned, The Mummy's Shroud), Barbara Ewing (Dracula Has Risen from the Grave), Robert Hutton (The Colossus of New York), and character actor Michael Ripper, whose appeared in over some thirty Hammer films over the years, including such features as X the Unknown (1956), The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Mummy (1959), and The Brides of Dracula (1960), to name a few.
As the film begins, we're at the carnival, an English one, to be precise...it's ever so much fun with the rides and attractions...would you care for some for some blood pudding? No? How about a creamery scone? Doesn't that sound smashing? Maybe later...oh, look...Dr. Diabolo's Torture Garden...that's an odd attraction. Look, it's Burgess Meredith dressed up like a creepy transvestite, and he's promising the `thrill of a lifetime' to those willing to stick around, and pay a little more after the regular show...I don't like the sound of that...a handful stick around, and soon we're knee deep into the first tale about a man named Colin (Bryant). Seems Colin's in debt up to his neck, but a fair bit of luck comes his way after his seemingly well to do uncle kicks the bucket (with a little help from Colin...nothing wrong with making your own luck, is there?), and Colin is the sole beneficiary. Colin does collect on his inheritance, but it comes with a few strings attached, one being a cat with an unusual diet and psychic powers. The second story features a comely woman named Carla (Adams) who will do anything to make it in the movie biz, including betraying her flat mate (which she does). She soon learns of a group within the business, a select few who never seem to age (can you say Dick Clark?), and will do anything to protect their secret. The third tale involves a woman named Dorothy Endicott (Ewing) as a musical journalist doing a piece on a famed pianist, played by John Standing. The two hit it off quite well, and a romance ensues, but problems arise due to a strange relationship the man has with his piano, one that his mother gave him before she passed. The forth story features both Palance and Cushing as Ronald Wyatt and Lancelot Canning, respectively, both extremely avid Edgar Allan Poe collectors. Turns out this `Poe' passion runs in Canning's family, as his grandfather started the accumulating of Poe memorabilia, his father followed, and now Canning himself maintains that which has grown over the years into what some might call the penultimate Poe collection. Wyatt is envious, especially during a visit to Canning's house, which is basically a shrine to Poe, and discovers there's more to this collection that meets the eye.
This is an anthology, comprised of four stories plus a wraparound (the wraparound is the `in-between' story that ties the rest together). My general conception of these horror anthology type films is that some of the stories work, and some don't, a good ratio being somewhere around 50/50...this applies here, but for me, it wasn't that some of the stories didn't work, but just that they didn't work as well as the ones that did...probably sounds like I'm splitting hairs here, but I have seen an anthology or two where one story was so completely lacking it drew the rest down. Amicus did produce a number of different type films including horror (The Psychopath, Scream And Scream Again), and science fiction (They Came From Beyond Space, The Terrornauts), but their strength was the horror anthology (1972's Asylum is probably one of my favorites, of the ones I've seen so far). The strongest stories, in my opinion, are the first, being a fairly straight up horror tale, and the last, featuring Palance and Cushing, playing off pretty well against each other. You can see Palance's tendencies towards going overboard with a bit here, but it works given the nature of the character, particularly in that of an obsessed collector determined to get what he wants. The second story is more of a science fiction tale, while the third, featuring the man and his unusual relationship with his piano, was kinda goofy, but ended fairly well. The wraparound story, usually the weakest link in these films, is no different here, as Meredith's character comes across as an impish character from the 60s Batman television series, which he actually appeared on as the character The Penguin. Overall the stories aren't very horrific, generally not very shocking, but they do contain some cultivated creepiness, and there's a lot of fun to be had here.
The picture, presented in widescreen (1.85:1) anamorphic, looks very sharp, and the Dolby Digital mono audio comes through clean and clear. There's not much in terms of special features except for some unrelated previews of other Columbia Tristar Home Video releases like Frankenfish (2004), Devour (2005), Vampires: The Turning (2005), and a television mini-series titles Kingdom Hospital (2004). I'm hoping this release is a signal that more of the as yet unreleased Amicus anthologies are making their way to DVD, if only to illustrate to those who have the misconception that the horror anthology film genre originated with the release of Creepshow (1982), which is a great film, by the way (Creepshow 3 is scheduled to be released in 2006).
Cookieman108
ENTERTAINING HORROR ANTHOLOGY.....
From Britain's Amicus Studio's anthology series is 1967's "Torture Garden", a quartet of ironic terror tales featuring a great cast, directed by horror pro Feddie Francis and written by Robert Bloch--no slouch in the horror genre himself. Burgess Meredith is Dr. Diablo, a carnival operator of a "Torture Garden"--a sideshow of ancient to modern torture devices. He lures a group of people into seeking their future from a Sybil he has on display...the Goddess of Fortune. They learn they each have an evil desire and see what happens should they pursue their greedy urge: a greedy nephew falls prey to a demonic cat owned by the uncle he murders; an ambitious starlet, willing to do anything for eternal fame, learns how those big stars last forever; a girl finds she has an unusual rival for her pianist boyfriend's affection....his piano; and there's Jack Palance and Peter Cushing in a tale about a fanatic Poe collector who gets much more than he bargained for. Good fun and a good DVD print make this a collector's item for those who love the old Amicus anthology films like "Asylum", the original "Tales From the Crypt" and "The House That Dripped Blood"---also written by Bloch. Enjoy.
a great british horror 4 in 1 movie.
this is a great little amicus movie finally on dvd!!there are 4 stories in it,the first about a man who murders his rich uncle then is stalked by the uncle's cat who eats human heads.the second one is about a girl who wants to be a big star in hollywood and is "immortalised"as a robot.the third is about a grand piano that is possessed by the spirit of the pianist's jealous mother,and will not let any woman get in the way of her son's success.the 4th and scariest is about a man who has a large collection of poe memorabilia who is killed by an obsessed poe fan,only to discover that poe himself has been kept alive in the basement by the collector.do yourself a favor and get this dvd,you won't be sorry.
It was only a matter of time before Christopher Lee's Dracula visited Swinging London, arriving fashionably late for the party in 1972. In the previous Hammer Films Drac picture, Scars of Dracula, the 19th century Count D was dispatched with a carriage-wheel spoke, a demise included in the opening sequence of Dracula A.D. 1972. The vampire's ashes and fancy ring are handed down to a young Londoner named Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame) who looks as though he's seen A Clockwork Orange too many times. Proposing that his hippie posse look for new kicks ("yet as old as time"), he holds a Black Mass and summons you-know-who. Peter Cushing joins Lee yet again; luscious Stephanie Beacham, in an amazing shag haircut and purple velvet, is Cushing's granddaughter. She... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Alan Gibson DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Val Lewton's name is synonymous with the subtlest, most mysterious brand of horror filmmaking in Hollywood's golden age, and the nine horror classics he produced at RKO between 1942 and 1946 constitute the most remarkable cycle of creativity in B-movie history. (For the record, the Lewton/RKO legacy also includes two non-horror entries, Youth Runs Wild and Mademoiselle Fifi.)
Before becoming a film producer, the Russian-born Lewton was a prolific writer of pulp fiction, nonfiction, and a couple of pornographic novels. He also worked for years as assistant to David O. Selznick, a legendary producer with a distinctive personal signature--and a flair for grandiosity Lewton himself never emulated. It's ever so revealing that, on Selznick's Gone With the Wind, it was... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Boris Karloff DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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"Hammer Horror Series" presents some of the studios best films from the early sixties period, though they might not be the most familiar to Hammer fans. A few, in fact, might come with baggage attached, but this collection dispells some of that baggage. In particular, Hammer's "Phantom of the Opera" has suffered more abuse over the years than any other of its films. The hard truth is, it's pretty good. The reason it has such a bum reputation might be because most people first saw it on television, which seriously impaired it. In it's proper aspect ratio, and with the extra scenes filmed for American TV left out, it's really pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good. The biggest liability with the film are the horrendous opera sequences. "Evil of Frankenstein" has similarly been... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Herbert Lom - Heather Sears Director(s): Terence Fisher DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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THE BELA LUGOSI COLLECTION, from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, is the first Universal DVD I have bought in a while that was a dual density single disk with no technical problems. After having to return two different copies of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS to Amazon.com because of technical glitches from two-sided printing, this technically flawless disk is a most welcome addition to the home of anyone who loves Mr. Lugosi. But I am still knocking it down one star because of laziness on the part of Universal in not having Sara Karloff or Bela Lugosi, Jr. chatting about their fathers. Or not having any real bonus material. Boris Karloff stars in three of these five movies, including one that has Lugosi in only a small role. Visual and sound quality are outstanding on all... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Boris Karloff - Bela Lugosi - David Manners - Julie Bishop Director(s): Edgar G. Ulmer DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Cryogenics...what the heck is that, you ask? The online dictionary defines it as "The production of low temperatures or the study of low-temperature phenomena." Hardball fans got a crash course, in terms of its use on humans, back in 2002 when Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ted Williams had his head separated from his body (post mortem, of course), the two parts now frozen in cold storage somewhere in Arizona, I believe...here lies Ted, there lies his head...but back to my point, it seems the legendary Boris Karloff, as a movie character, had been a pioneer of the process back in 1940 (actually the process, in one form or another, had been around since the turn of the century, although I'm unsure when they actually began freezing humans or their parts) in the film The Man with Nine... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Nick Grinde DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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