Torture Garden (film)
| Torture Garden | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Freddie Francis |
| Produced by | Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky |
| Written by | Robert Bloch |
| Starring | Jack Palance Burgess Meredith Beverly Adams Peter Cushing |
| Music by | Don Banks, James Bernard |
| Cinematography | Norman Warwick |
| Studio | Amicus Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Torture Garden is a 1967 British horror film made by Amicus Productions. It was directed by Freddie Francis and scripted by Robert Bloch. It stars Burgess Meredith, Jack Palance, Michael Ripper, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Maurice Denham, Ursula Howells, Michael Bryant and Barbara Ewing. The score was a collaboration between Hammer horror regulars James Bernard and Don Banks.
It is one of producer Milton Subotsky's trademark "portmanteau" films, an omnibus of short stories linked by a single narrative.
Plot
Five people visit a fairground sideshow run by the sinister Dr. Diabolo (Meredith). Having shown them a handful of haunted-house-style attractions, he promises them a genuinely scary experience if they will pay extra. Their curiosity gets the better of them, and the small crowd follows him behind a curtain, where they each view their fate through the shears of the female deity Atropos (Clytie Jessop).
In "Enoch", a greedy playboy (Bryant) takes advantage of his dying uncle (Denham), and falls under the spell of a man-eating cat. In "Terror Over Hollywood", a Hollywood starlet (Adams) discovers her co-stars are androids. In "Mr. Steinway", a possessed grand piano by the name of Euterpe becomes jealous of its owner's new lover (Ewing) and takes revenge. And in "The Man Who Collected Poe", a Poe collector (Palance) murders another collector (Cushing) over a collectable he refuses to show him, only to find his fate with Edgar Allan Poe himself.
Cast
- Jack Palance as Ronald Wyatt
- Burgess Meredith as Dr. Diabolo
- Beverly Adams as Carla Hayes
- Peter Cushing as Lancelot Canning
- Michael Bryant as Colin Williams
- Barbara Ewing as Dorothy Endicott
- John Standing as Leo
- John Phillips as Storm
- Michael Ripper as Gordon Roberts
- Bernard Kay as Dr. Heim
- Maurice Denham as Uncle Roger
- Ursula Howells as Miss Chambers
- David Bauer as Charles
- Niall MacGinnis as Doctor
Critical reception
Allmovie's review of the film was mixed, writing, "Torture Garden lacks the strength and inventiveness to qualify as a top-tier horror anthology but it offers enough spooky thrills to qualify as a Saturday afternoon diversion."[1]
References
- ^ Donald Guarisco. "Torture Garden (1967)". Allmovie. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
External links
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