Directed by Arthur Crabtree
Executive Producer: Herman Cohen
Produced by Jack Greenwood
Original Story & Screenplay by Herman Cohen & Aben Kandel
Director Of Photography: Desmond Dickinson, BSC
Film Editor: Geoffrey Muller
Music Composed by Gerard Schurmann
Cast: Michael Gough (Edmond Bancroft), June Cunningham (Joan Berkley), Graham Curnow (Rick), Shirley Anne Field (Angela Banks), Geoffrey Keen (Superintendent Graham), Gerald Andersen (Dr. Ballan), John Warwick (Inspector Lodge), Beatrice Varley (Aggie), Austin Trevor (Commissioner Wayne), Malou Pantera (Peggy), Howard Greene (Tom Rivers), Dorinda Stevens (Gail Dunlap), Stuart Saunders (Strength-Test Barker), Hilda Barry (Woman in Hall), Nora Gordon (Woman in Hall), Vanda Godsell (Miss Ashton), Gerald Case (Bookshop Manager), Geoffrey Denton (Sergeant at Jail), William Abney (Constable), Howard Pays (Constable), Frank Henderson (Medical Examiner), Garard Green (Fingerprint Expert)
Over the last few months, all sorts of B Movie riches have turned up in my mailbox. From 30s crime pictures (Convict’s Code from Film Masters) and 40s serials (VCI’s Jack Armstrong) to 50s sci-fi favorites (It! The Terror From Beyond Space from Kino Lorber) and on to Roger Corman’s Filmgroup titles (Film Masters again). And there are promises of many more to come.
One I was really looking forward to was Horrors Of The Black Museum (1959), now on Blu-Ray from VCI. I have a real soft spot for this deliciously nasty horror picture.
As a series of brutal murders terrify the people of London, famous (and surly) crime porter Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough) splits his time between annoying Scotland Yard, buying instruments of murder in antique shops, arguing with his mistress (June Cunningham) and hypnotizing his young assistant (Graham Curnow) in his basement/dungeon “black museum.”
Along the way we’re treated to binoculars that shoot spikes out of the eyepieces (a sequence this film is largely known for), a portable guillotine, some sinister ice tongs and a vat full of acid (very similar to the one in House On Haunted Hill from the same year). When it’s not depicting a murder, it’s talking about one — and it would be easy to brand this as a prototype for the slasher and giallo films that came later.
With its Eastmancolor and CinemaScope (shot by Desmond Dickinson), Horrors Of The Black Museum was a bit of a novelty at its time of release. Horror movies were rarely in color and Scope at the time. Hammer’s first color horror picture, Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) was only two years old, and Fox’s color and Scope The Fly (1958) just a year. This gave Horrors Of The Black Museum a bit of prestige (ironic for such a mean-spirited little film) and plenty of marquee value — CinemaScope was still a very big deal.
Michael Gough is a real treat as the demented Bancroft. American producer Herman Cohen wanted to cast Vincent Price, but Anglo-Amalgamated, the British production company, wanted an Englishman. Price in the role would have completely changed the tone of the movie. June Cunningham (above, with Gough) is terrific as Bancroft’s mistress. They have a fun scene together before she meets her untimely end. Cunningham made a couple dozen films in the late 50s and early 60s and that was it.
Geoffrey Keen (seated in the photo below) has a nice part as the Scotland Yard man trying to track down the madman, or men, behind these heinous crimes. Of course, Keen was in everything from Sink The Bismark (1960) and Taste The Blood Of Dracula (1970) to most of the Roger Moore James Bond films (plus 1987’s The Living Daylights).
Along with its promise of gore in “blood-curdling color” and CinemaScope, Horrors Of The Black Museum had an extra lure in the United States — Hypno-Vista, a gimmick worthy of the great William Castle. Hypno-Vista was nothing more than a prologue starring hypnotist Emile Franchele, demonstrating the powers of hypnotism. They say James H. Nicholson of AIP cooked it up.
That gives us a nice segue to VCI’s Blu-Ray of Horrors Of The Black Museum. AIP’s Hypno-Vista introduction is one of the extras on the Blu-Ray. There are also European and U.S. trailers, a commentary by Herman Cohen, another commentary by Robert Kelly, a still gallery, interviews, featurettes, even reversible artwork. Some of this has been carried over from the laserdisc and DVD.
But the real concern is, and should be, how does it look? Here, it comes up a real winner. Tbe picture is sharp. The color is strong, with that harshness that marks most 50s Eastmancolor. Being a CinemaScope picture, there’s the roundish distortion on the sides, noticeable in pans or when you’re looking at something straight like a door frame (it appears slightly curved). These are not complaints about the transfer — the problem would be if they were not there. The sound is clean with plenty of range, which sure helps with Gerard Schurmann’s score.
Horrors Of The Black Museum is a lot of ghoulish fun, and its color and Scope photography has always been a large part of its appeal. So to see it lovingly presented in high definition is indeed a treat, with all the extras a definite plus — so glad they kept Herman Cohen’s commentary! Highly, highly recommended.
The Hannibal 8 