|
For its latest Horror Double Feature Warners unleashes an amiable
pair of thrillers that deliver the chills promised in their garish ads.
Made in different countries, they have plenty of what was required to
compete in the common market of 60s horror: sex, jeopardy, and a little
gore.
1966's Chamber of Horrors began life as a TV pilot called "House of
Wax" before being rerouted for theatrical use. New scenes emphasize bodily
mutilation in low-life settings. Hy Averback's direction is split between
fairly bland TV coverage and scenes designed with much more care and
style. The show's concept -- a pair of good-humored wax museum proprietors
help the Baltimore police solve grisly crimes -- seems like a blend of the
semi-classic House of Wax and the TV favorite Maverick.
Handsome Draco (Cesare Danova) has a female favorite in every bar, while
the genial Harold Blount (Wilfrid Hyde-White) chats up an unbroken line of
guest stars. Their dapper sidekick is Señor Pepe (Tun Tun, aka
José René Ruiz) a gentlemanly dwarf. Action gags from the
Vincent Price movie are recycled in the final chase, and Blount & Draco's
wax museum marquee reads "House of Wax" as well. With its horror element
toned down, Chamber of Horrors could easily fit into an hourly TV
format.
Stopping that idea cold is Jason Cravette, a sadistic maniac played in
high style by Patrick O'Neal: before he cuts off one man's head and arms,
Jason fills him in on the details, like a high-class waiter. Saucy Aunt
Perryman (Jeanette Nolan) describes Jason as a bad boy, a real
understatement. We first see Cravette forcing a minister to marry him to a
corpse -- at gunpoint. To the sound of William Lava's enthusiastic score,
Jason then arranges his bride's body on a wedding bed, like the infamous
Horrible Dr. Hichcock. We learn later on that the "bride" wasn't
raped, at least not when she was alive. Patrick O'Neal's stylish fling at
horror stardom is much more successful than that of Jason Robards Jr., in
American-International's unfocused and pretentious Murders in the Rue
Morgue.
Cravette is arrested in the act of playing "wedding" with a prostitute in
Marie Windsor's brothel; his subsequent escape costs him his right hand.
This cues the entrance of Chinese artisan Berry Kroeger, who fashions a
hook for Jason that can be replaced with a meat cleaver, a scalpel and
other Grand Guignol weapons. Jason prowls the streets in a black cape,
enlisting prostitute Marie Champlain (Laura Devon) to help him trap and
slaughter the lawmen responsible for his conviction.
As Cravette's every bloody outrage becomes an exhibit for their wax
museum, Draco and Blount profit from the very menace they strive to put
behind bars. Their good humor earns Chamber of Horrors points as a
class act, at least until the producers unveil their William Castle-like
promotional gimmick. In a spooky prologue William Conrad explains the
film's "escape valve": just before each of four ghastly sights, viewers
will hear the "horror horn" and see the "fear flasher" to warn them to
cover their eyes and turn away from the screen. It's a good gag, although
it aims Chamber of Horrors directly at a juvenile audience.
Also in the cast of notables are Wayne Rogers, soon to become Trapper John
on the TV series M*A*S*H, model-turned actress Suzy Parker and
Patrice Wymore. None other than Tony Curtis drops by for a "blink and
you'll miss me" cameo. Something of a camp horror hybrid, Chamber of
Horrors definitely has the right Guignol attitude.
Brides of Fu Manchu is the second in a series of Christopher Lee
potboilers produced by Harry Allan Towers at the peak of his career. This
was before Towers worked with Jesús Franco and began chasing around
the world to Spain, Brazil and South Africa in search of local production
bargains. Towers tapped into German production money for this vaguely
007-inspired thriller, which accounts for a cast split between English and
German actors.
Despite its fundamental racism Sax Rohmer's "Yellow Peril" character never
waned in popularity, as demonstrated by the giddy, sadistic Pre-code Boris
Karloff classic The Mask of Fu Manchu. Writing under the pen name
Peter Welbeck, Towers' initial production The Face of Fu Manchu was
a fairly exciting period adventure with plenty of fistfights and chases in
old automobiles. The time frame appears to be the early 1920s. Christopher
Lee is imposing in false eyelids and a long moustache. He'd donned similar
makeup to play a gangster chieftain in Hammer's The Terror of the
Tongs but his Fu Manchu is more of a Mabuse-like criminal
arch-villain. Back at Fu's side is his cold-hearted daughter Lin Tang
(Tsai Chin), an expert in disguises and an aficionado of refined
tortures.
Brides of Fu Manchu sees Fu up to his old tricks, this time forcing
famous scientists (Joseph Fürst, Rupert Davies) to perfect a "radio
death ray" by kidnapping their daughters. Chinese bandits attack in broad
daylight, snatching the women from hospitals or the banks of the Thames.
Into the case come Fu Manchu's Scotland Yard nemesis Sir Dennis Nayland
Smith (Douglas Wilmer) and his assistant Dr. Petrie (Howard Marion
Crawford), characters surely modeled on Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr.
Watson. They try to protect the beautiful Marie Lentz (Marie Versini) from
Fu's henchmen; she finds out too late that her favorite beau happens to be
Fu Manchu's Number One London operative.
Returning for his second Ful/Lee outing, director Don Sharp (Kiss of
the Vampire) keeps the action humming. The radio weapon emanates from
a hideout in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and must be relayed to a
receiver on a truck parked next to the target building; one wonders why a
truck filled with explosives wouldn't produce the same effect.
Nayland-Smith fails to prevent the sinking of an ocean liner by remote
control, but tracks the radio signal to its African source. He joins the
French Foreign Legion to ride to the rescue.
The old cars are quaint and the action is relentless, even if Fu's
knife-wielding henchmen prove to be no match for Marquis of Queensbury
fisticuffs. The few effects utilized are on the weak side. Wrinkled canvas
backdrops represent Fu's mountainous headquarters, where traveling mattes
occasionally render human figures transparent.
A second kidnapped daughter played by lovely Carole Gray (of The Curse
of the Fly) becomes part of Fu Manchu's hypnotized harem of beauties
held in his underground lair, the "Brides" of the title. The German
release of Harry Allan Towers' film reportedly includes extra nudity and
torture footage, which was never part of the version delivered to Warner
Bros.
Although Christopher Lee repeats his familiar curtain line, "The world
will hear from me again!", Towers lost his Warner Bros. distribution
deal after one more effort, 1967's The Vengeance of Fu Manchu. The
producer made two more inferior Lee sequels directed with little style by
Spaniard Jesús Franco.
Both films in Warner Home Video's Horror Double Feature look
splendid in colorful enhanced widescreen transfers. The flat 1.85
Brides of Fu Manchu begins with a grainy and Ill-framed prologue
because it repeats the conclusion of The Face of Fu Manchu, which
was filmed in half-frame Techniscope. No extras or chapter selections are
included, although the discs are encoded with chapter stops and removable
subtitles in English and French. Curiously, three of the five Christopher
Lee Fu Manchu movies are available in Region 1, but not Don Sharp's The
Face of Fu Manchu, which remains the best of the lot.
For more information about Chamber of Horrors/Brides of Fu Manchu,
visit Warner Video.To order
Chamber of Horrors/Brides of Fu Manchu, go to
TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
|
TCM UK
| 
TCM Spain
| 
TCM France
| TCM Latin America
| TCM Asia
| TCM Germany
TCM.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network.
