Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)

Genre Horror
Country UK
Director Freddie Francis
Screenplay Milton Subotsky

Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Neil McCallum, Roy Castle, Alan Freeman, Donald Sutherland, Michael Gough, Jeremy Kemp, Bernard Lee, Max Adrian, Jennifer Jayne 

Running time 98 mins  |  Colour Technicolor  |  Widescreen Techniscope

British film company Amicus is best known for its series of horror anthologies made in the 1960s and 1970s. The first of these, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, was released in 1965 and starred Britain's two top horror stars of the time, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

The film begins with five men assembling in a railway train compartment on the early evening express. They are Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee), Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum), Biff Bailey (Roy Castle), Bill Rogers (Alan Freeman) and Dr. Bob Carroll (Donald Sutherland). 

When a sixth man (Peter Cushing) joins them he introduces himself as Dr. Schreck, describing himself as a doctor of "metaphysics". He explains that, while he is actually quite friendly, his unusual name unfortunately translates into English as "Dr. Terror". 

When Dr. Schreck's pack of cards spills onto the floor, the others help him to retrieve them and one man, esteemed art critic Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee) recognises them as tarot cards. These, Dr. Schreck tells them, are his "house of horrors", cards used for telling fortunes. 

Marsh is contemptuous of this obvious trickery and suspects some kind of scam. The others, though, are intrigued and agree to have their fortunes told by Dr. Schreck, enabling the film to unfold five separate horror tales.

In the first story, architect Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum) is asked to do some remodelling work on his former family home in the Hebrides in the west of Scotland. The new owner is glamorous widow Mrs Biddulph (Ursula Howells). Exploring the house, Dawson finds a coffin behind a plaster wall that has clearly only recently been installed. 

As it is his old family home, when Dawson sees that the coffin has a wolf's head symbol carved on it, he realises that this relates to a two hundred year old family curse. And soon a werewolf does seem to be on the loose. 

Although moderately interesting, this story seems a little under-developed and the resolution does leave many unanswered questions. And, unfortunately, the werewolf, when it appears, is all too obviously someone's pet Alsatian.

In the second story Bill Rogers (Alan Freeman) and his wife Carol (Phoebe Nicholls) struggle with a seemingly sentient plant that mysteriously appears beside the wall of their house. The plant steadily begins to cover the whole building, is resistant to all attempts to remove it and even appears to attack and kill the family's pet dog. 

The family call in some men from the Ministry, Hopkins (Bernard Lee) and Drake (Jeremy Kemp). Kemp's character now takes centre stage in the efforts to remove the plant, and the two officials soon become aware of the implications of this seemingly indestructible organism. As Bernard Lee says ominously "A plant like that could take over the world".

A killer plant story is one in danger of teetering over into absurdity, but this episode just about manages to hold it together. The continual sound of birds on the soundtrack complements the story's theme that, even while nature may seem harmless or idyllic, it's actually rather ruthless. 

The third story stars musician and TV presenter Roy Castle as jazz trumpeter Biff, whose manager, a little improbably, gets his jazz sextet a booking in the Caribbean. Biff is warned to stay away from the voodoo ceremonies that take place out in the woods, but curiosity gets the better of him and he sneaks out to see for himself. Spying on the rituals, he is entranced by the music being used. When he returns home to England, he then uses the music in his new set, something that rebounds on him disastrously.

Am I in a movie? A post-modern moment as Biff (Roy Castle) runs into the film poster

Director Freddie Francis provides a couple of in-jokes in this story, most obviously when Roy Castle stumbles in the street and looks up to see a lurid poster for this very film looming over him. Except, instead of the names of the actors, the poster features the names of the film's characters. When a figure later appears from the shadows and corners Biff, the Spanish holiday poster behind him has the letter 'S' obscured in shadow so that it looks as if it reads "PAIN" instead of "SPAIN", which may or may not be a dark joke. 

It would be fashionable now to describe this as a story about "cultural appropriation", although the danger here lies specifically in the misuse of something in the wrong context, taking music from a voodoo dance and using it for entertainment, without appreciating what might be unleashed.  

Roy Castle was an actual jazz trumpeter, so he doesn't have to try too hard to pretend here and this story also features Kenny Lynch, another musician and British TV regular, as one of Biff's colleagues. Castle released a tie-in novelty song, "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors", to complement this film, although it doesn't feature in the film itself. The music used in the voodoo story was turned into another song, "Voodoo Girl", which was performed by Castle and used as the 'B' side.

The film's penultimate story teams horror legend Christopher Lee with Michael Gough, another, albeit less celebrated, British horror regular. Lee plays imperious art critic Franklyn Marsh, who enjoys habitually eviscerating the work of those he believes to be untalented, especially painter Eric Landor (Gough). 

But one day Landor turns the tables and humiliates Marsh, leading the latter to take drastic measures by running him down in his car. This results in Landor losing his hand - which seems to take on a life of its own and is soon menacing the unsuspecting Marsh.

This story is arguably the film's most effective, exhibiting a macabre sense of humour without allowing itself to devolve into spoofery. It also ends with a previously signposted, but perfectly good, little twist. 

In the film's final story, Donald Sutherland plays Bob Carroll, a doctor who settles down in Pemberton, a small town in New England, with his French bride Nicolle (Jennifer Jayne). When one of his child patients develops a mystery illness marked by anaemia and puncture wounds to the neck, Carroll's colleague Dr. Blake (Max Adrian) believes that they may be dealing with a vampire.

This story is rather uncertainly set in New England and not all of the supporting actors can manage an American accent. Like the other monster story about werewolves, this also suffers from some iffy effects, particularly a comical-looking vampire bat on an obvious piece of string. The twist in the tail in this one also doesn't really work, because it's too difficult to believe that any man would try to kill his own wife just because someone else said that she might be a vampire. 

The company behind Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Amicus Productions, was founded by two Americans, Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg. Subotsky worked on the creative side, often writing as well as producing the films, while Rosenberg handled the firm's business side. The horror anthology would become Amicus's trademark, with the firm making seven in all between 1965 and 1973. 

Milton Subotsky also worked as the screenwriter on several of the films, including Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, with this film's individual stories being derived from half hour scripts for an aborted series that he had worked on in the late 1940s.

Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee) gets a helping hand

Subotsky was inspired to make these films by an earlier horror anthology, the 1945 Ealing Studios film Dead of Night, and some of the later films in this series would include individual stories somewhat reminiscent of those in the Ealing film.

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors was directed by Freddie Francis, a noted cinematographer who won two Academy Awards, for the D. H. Lawrence adaptation Sons and Lovers (1960) and the American Civil War drama Glory (1989). His directorial career was generally less distinguished and mostly confined to horror films, including work at both Amicus and their more famous rivals Hammer. 

The film was made at Shepperton Studios in London and produced by both Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg. It was made on a fairly tight budget of around £100,000 and was picked up for distribution in the United States by Paramount Pictures. 

Like some contemporaries, including the "spaghetti" western A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and spy thriller The Ipcress File (1965), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors was filmed in the budget widescreen format Techniscope. Widescreen is an unusual choice for a mostly studio-bound production relying on chills and atmosphere, particularly one based around the confined setting of a railway train compartment, but director Freddie Francis works reasonably well with it.

The film has a very solid structure and Francis keeps things moving along at a decent pace. Milton Subotsky's script provides a fair set of stories, although the plotting in some of the individual stories is noticeably iffy. The advantage of anthologies like these, though, is that, even if one story is not particularly compelling, audiences know that another will be along soon enough. 

Subotsky's script also provides quite a range of popular horror subjects, including werewolves, vampires, voodoo curses and disembodied hands. The "hand" story is probably the best one in the film, although the voodoo story has its moments.

Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum) takes one of Dr. Terror's tarot cards

Although Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is not on the same level as its inspiration Dead of Night - which is still probably the best horror anthology of them all - it's a fair example of a format that Amicus would make their own over the next decade. And, while some of the stories are on the weaker side, the film makes up for it with one of the best twist endings of this series, as the evening express, and the characters on board, all reach their final destination. 

Amicus signalled their intention to compete with Hammer early on by poaching their two signature stars, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Lee is fine as the pompous art critic, self-important enough that the audience can enjoy seeing him brought down. But it's Cushing - in black hat and coat, with a beard and hefty eyebrows - who holds the film together as the sinister, if outwardly friendly, Dr. Schreck.

The film is less starry than some later Amicus productions, although it can lay claim not only to familiar British horror stars Lee, Cushing and Michael Gough, but also for providing an early role for Donald Sutherland, then a relatively unknown Canadian actor in Britain.

Some humour is supplied by Roy Castle's guileless young everyman, who slightly nervously tries to make a joke of everything, while there's some solid support from character actors like Jeremy Kemp, Bernard Lee and Max Adrian. Less successful is DJ Alan Freeman who, it turns out, is not the most expressive actor and his film career didn't amount to much after this. 

Jennifer Jayne, who plays Sutherland's wife Nicolle, later became a screenwriter on horror subjects, including an Amicus-style anthology, Tales That Witness Madness in 1973.

Although far from the best of the Amicus anthologies, Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is a reasonable introduction to this series and, with five stories to fit in, even the weakest don't have time to outstay their welcome. The film's linking narrative is one of Amicus's most effective and the final pay-off is quite satisfying.

Amicus would make another six anthology films after this - Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972), Tales from the Crypt (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973) and From Beyond the Grave (1973). Milton Subotsky would make another two similar films without Max Rosenberg and the Amicus branding - The Uncanny in 1977 and The Monster Club in 1980.

Christopher Lee would appear in The House That Dripped Blood, while Peter Cushing would be an Amicus mainstay, starring in five of the six follow ups; Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, Tales from the Crypt and From Beyond the Grave.

Cast 

Peter Cushing  -  Dr. Terror
Christopher Lee  -  Franklyn Marsh
Neil McCallum  -  Jim Dawson
Roy Castle  -  Biff Bailey
Alan Freeman  -  Bill Rogers
Donald Sutherland  -  Dr. Bob Carroll
Ursula Howells  -  Mrs. Deirdre Biddulph ("Werewolf")
Peter Madden  -  Caleb ("Werewolf")
Katy Wild  -  Valda ("Werewolf")
Ann Bell  -  Ann Rogers ("Creeping Vine")
Phoebe Nicholls  -  Carol Rogers ("Creeping Vine") (as Sarah Nicholls)
Bernard Lee  -  Hopkins ("Creeping Vine")
Jeremy Kemp  -  Jerry Drake ("Creeping Vine")
Kenny Lynch  -  Sammy Coin ("Voodoo")
Christopher Carlos  -  Vrim ("Voodoo")
Michael Gough  -  Eric Landor ("Disembodied Hand")
Jennifer Jayne  -  Nicolle Carroll ("Vampire")
Max Adrian  -  Dr. Blake ("Vampire")
Harold Lang  -  Roy Shine ("Voodoo")
Edward Underdown  -  Tod ("Werewolf")
Al Mulock  -  Detective ("Vampire")
Hedger Wallace  -  Surgeon ("Disembodied Hand")
Brian Hankins  -  George ("Disembodied Hand") (as Brian Hawkins)
Faith Kent  -  Lady in art gallery ("Disembodied Hand")
Frank Forsyth  -  Toastmaster ("Disembodied Hand")
Frank Barry  -  Johnny Ellis ("Vampire")
Thomas Baptiste  -  Dambala ("Voodoo")
Isla Blair  -  Pretty girl ("Disembodied Hand")
Judy Cornwell  -  Nurse ("Disembodied Hand")
Laurie Leigh  -  Nurse ("Vampire")
John Martin  -  2nd male friend ("Disembodied Hand")
Kenneth Kove  -  3rd male friend ("Disembodied Hand")
Walter Sparrow  -  2nd ambulance man ("Disembodied Hand")
Irene Richmond  -  Mrs Ellis ("Vampire")
Valerie St. Clair  -  Cigarette girl ("Voodoo")
Russ Henderson  -  Steel band leader ("Voodoo")
Russ Henderson Steel Band  -  as themselves ("Voodoo")
The Tubby Hayes Quintet  -  as Biff Bailey's band ("Voodoo")

Producers Milton Subotsky, Max J. Rosenberg  Cinematography Alan Hume  Art director Bill Constable  Editor Thelma Connell  Music Elisabeth Lutyens  Special effects Ted Samuels  Camera operator Godfrey A. Godar

Production company Amicus Productions  Distributor Regal Films International (UK), Paramount Pictures (US)

See also: The Amicus Horror Anthologies