''Horrors of the Black Museum'' (1959) is a British-American
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
starring
Michael Gough
Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
and directed by
Arthur Crabtree
Arthur Crabtree (29 October 1900 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England – 15 March 1975 in Worthing, Sussex, England) was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthu ...
.
It was the first film in what film critic
David Pirie
David Pirie (born 1953) is a screenwriter, film producer, film critic, and novelist. As a screenwriter, he is known for his noirish original thrillers, classic adaptations and period gothic pieces. In 1998, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best ...
dubbed
Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company, run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, which operated from 1945 until roughly 1971 (after which it was absorbed into EMI Films). Low-budget and second features, often produced at M ...
's "Sadian trilogy" (the other two being ''
Circus of Horrors
''Circus of Horrors'' is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers, and starring Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain, and Donald Pleasence. Set in 1947, it foll ...
'' and ''
Peeping Tom
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...
''), with an emphasis on
sadism
Sadism may refer to:
* Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation
* Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...
, cruelty and violence (with sexual undertones), in contrast to the supernatural horror of the
Hammer films
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...
of the same era.
Plot
A package is delivered to Gail, a young blonde woman with a roommate named Peggy. Gail opens the package to find a pair of binoculars, but when she uses them to look out a window, she screams and collapses, dying. The binoculars are revealed to have two spikes emerging out of the eyepiece.
Peggy is being interviewed by Superintendent Graham and Inspector Lodge when journalist and crime writer Edmond Bancroft enters the room. He wishes to see the binoculars for himself, and Graham remarks on their similarity to binoculars in Scotland Yard's "Black Museum".
Bancroft then purchases a dagger at Aggie's antique shop. Returning to his house, he enters his secret basement museum with his assistant Rick. The museum exhibits various weapons and implements of torture used by criminals.
Bancroft visits his doctor, Dr. Ballan, and tells him that he cannot rest until the killer is apprehended. Ballan observes that Bancroft goes into a state of shock after the murders, noting that he needs psychiatric treatment and should be hospitalized.
Bancroft later visits his mistress Joan in her flat, who argues with him, asking for money and calling him a cripple. Joan leaves her apartment for a bar where she dances provocatively to music from a jukebox. She returns to her flat and prepares to sleep, but when she lays down on her bed she gasps, seeing a guillotine and a man with a hideous face above her bed frame. When the guillotine blade falls she screams, gathering curious neighbors at her door. The hideous man pushes his way through this crowd when he makes his escape. Graham investigates, questioning the crowd of neighbors who mention the man's strange appearance.
At a cocktail party, Graham tells Bancroft that the police have captured Tom Rivers, who has confessed to the murders. Rivers later admits to various other famous crimes, revealing himself to be a fantasist, but Graham keeps Rivers to try to capture the true culprit. Bancroft hears of Rivers' confession and requests to see Rivers, but Graham explains that Rivers has been sent to a mental hospital.
Rick sneaks away from his duties with Bancroft to meet his fiancée, Angela, and he explains that he is being hypnotized and controlled by Bancroft.
When Bancroft returns to the antique shop to purchase ice tongs, Aggie reveals that she knows that Bancroft uses the weapons he buys to murder. She demands £1200 for the tongs to not tell the police. Bancroft uses the tongs to murder her.
Ballan visits Bancroft and explains that he needs psychiatric help. Bancroft knocks out the doctor with a laser from his machine in his basement "Black museum". Rick chains the body then lowers it into a vat of acid. When Rick pulls out the chain only a skeleton is left.
After signing copies of his books at an event, Bancroft returns to his basement museum to find Rick with Angela. When Angela leaves, Bancroft injects Rick with a drug to better control his actions. Bancroft explains that Rick will inherit the "Black museum" when Bancroft dies and commands Rick to deal with Angela.
Later, at a carnival, Angela and Rick ride in the Tunnel of Love. Towards the end of the tunnel, a transformed and hideous Rick takes out a knife and stabs Angela, killing her. Fleeing through the hall of mirrors, Rick is chased by police up a Ferris Wheel. Bancroft is with Graham when he hears that the murderer is trapped. They both arrive at the carnival where policemen are asking Rick to climb down. Rick, slurring, addresses Bancroft, who frantically urges the policemen to kill the monster before he reveals Bancroft's secret. Rick jumps from the wheel and plunges his knife into Bancroft's heart.
Looking at the two men on the ground, Superintendent Graham remarks that the case of the "monster killer" has been solved.
Cast
*
Michael Gough
Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
as Edmond Bancroft
* June Cunningham as Joan Berkley
* Graham Curnow as Rick
*
Shirley Anne Field
Shirley Anne Field (born Shirley Broomfield; 27 June 1938) is an English actress who has performed on stage, film and television since 1955, prominent during the British New Wave.
Early life
Broomfield was born in Forest Gate, Essex (now in t ...
as Angela Banks
*
Geoffrey Keen
Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the ''James Bond'' films.
Biography
Early li ...
as Superintendent Graham
* Gerald Andersen as Dr. Ballan
*
John Warwick
John McIntosh Beattie (4 January 1905 – 10 January 1972), known professionally as John Warwick, was an Australian actor, and television dramatist.
Early life
He was born John McIntosh Beattie (many sources give "Beattle") at Bellingen, New S ...
as Inspector Lodge
*
Beatrice Varley
Beatrice Evelyn Varley (11 July 1896 – 4 July 1964) was an English actress who appeared in television and film roles between 1936 and 1964. She made her screen debut in the 1936 film ''Tomorrow We Live'' and began to portray a variety of ch ...
as Aggie
*
Austin Trevor
Claude Austin Trevor Schilsky (7 October 1897 – 22 January 1978) was an Irish actor who had a long career in film and television.
He played the parson in John Galsworthy's ''Escape'' at the world premiere in London's West End in 1926 an ...
as Commissioner Wayne
* Malou Pantera as Peggy
* Howard Greene as Tom Rivers
*
Dorinda Stevens
Dorinda Stevens (16 August 1932 – 25 October 2012) was a British television and film actress of the 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
Stevens was born Doreen May Stevens in Southampton in the UK, the daughter of and Winifred (née Lucas). Durin ...
as Gail Dunlap
* Stuart Saunders as Strength-Test Barker
* Hilda Barry as Woman in Hall
*
Nora Gordon
''Nora Gordon'' (29 November 1893, West Hartlepool, County Durham – 11 May 1970, London) was a British film and television actress. She was married to Leonard Sharp. Her daughter was the actress Dorothy Gordon. She also appeared in a number o ...
as Woman in Hall
*
Vanda Godsell
Vanda Godsell (17 November 1922 – 2 April 1990) was an English actress. Hal Erickson writes in Allmovie, "Vanda Godsell specialised in playing disheveled housewives, busybody landladies and blowsy domestics." She appeared as Mrs Weaver in ...
as Miss Ashton
*
Gerald Case
(Thomas) Gerald Case (1905 – 22 May 1985) was a British film and television actor known for his role
in the 1976 Wodehouse Playhouse episode, ' Strychnine in the Soup'.
He was the son of Captain Thomas Elphinstone Case, of the Coldstream Guard ...
as Bookshop Manager
*
Geoffrey Denton as Sergeant at Jail
*
William Abney as Patrol Constable No. 1
*
Howard Pays
Howard Pays (11 June 1927 – 12 April 2002) was an English actor who, in partnership with Freddy Vale, started the London-based talent agency CCA.
Early life
Howard Pays was born in West Ham, Essex on 11 June 1927.
Career
His first television ...
as Patrol Constable No. 2
* Frank Henderson as Medical Examiner
*
Garard Green
Garard Green (31 July 1924 – 26 December 2004) was a British actor and commentator.
Green was born in Madras, India in 1924 where his father was superintendent of the government press. When his father died in 1933 the family returned to t ...
as Fingerprint Expert
*
Sydney Bromley
Sidney Charles Bromley (24 July 1909 – 14 August 1987GRO Register of Deaths: AUG 1987 18 2293 WORTHING - Sydney Charles Bromley DoB = 24 Jul 1909 aged 78), credited as Sydney Bromley, was an English character actor. He appeared in more than si ...
as Neighbour
*
John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
as Man in Bookshop
*
Marianne Stone
Marianne Stone (23 August 1922 – 21 December 2009) was an English character actress. She performed in films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s, typically playing working class parts such as barmaids, secretaries and landladies. Stone appe ...
as Neighbour
Production
Producer Herman Cohen said he got the idea for the film after reading a series of newspaper articles about Scotland Yard's
Black Museum
The Crime Museum is a collection of criminal memorabilia kept at New Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England. Known as the Black Museum until the early 21st century, the museum came into existence at S ...
. He arranged through a contact to visit the museum, then wrote a treatment and later collaborated with
Aben Kandel
Aben Kandel (15 August 1897 – 28 January 1993) was an American screenwriter, novelist, and (earlier in life) boxer. He was screenwriter on such classic B movies as ''I Was A Teenage Werewolf'', Joan Crawford's final movie ''Trog'', and one of Le ...
on the screenplay. Cohen says the use of binoculars as murder weapons, and all the other instruments of death in the film, were based on real-life murder cases.
Half the money for the budget was provided by
Nat Cohen
Nat Cohen (23 December 1905 – 10 February 1988)William D. Rubinstein, et al (eds.''The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p.171 was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of t ...
and
Stuart Levy of
Anglo-Amalgamated
Anglo-Amalgamated Productions was a British film production company, run by Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy, which operated from 1945 until roughly 1971 (after which it was absorbed into EMI Films). Low-budget and second features, often produced at M ...
in the UK, the other half from
American International Pictures
American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
. It was the first movie from AIP in CinemaScope and colour.
["Attack of the Monster Movie Makers: Herman Cohen, The London Years"](_blank)
By Tom Weaver ''Hermancohen.com'' accessed 1 June 2014
The credited producer was Jack Greenwood, but Herman Cohen says this came about to ensure the film qualified for the
Eady levy
The Eady Levy was a tax on box-office receipts in the United Kingdom, intended to support the British film industry. It was introduced in 1950 as a voluntary levy as part of the Eady plan, named after Sir Wilfred Eady, a Treasury official. The le ...
, and in fact, Greenwood was more of an associate producer assisting Cohen.
Cohen wanted to hire
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
for the lead and also considered
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
, but Anglo-Amalgamated pushed for a British actor in the lead, as it would be cheaper, so they decided to use Michael Gough.
Arthur Crabtree
Arthur Crabtree (29 October 1900 in Shipley, Yorkshire, England – 15 March 1975 in Worthing, Sussex, England) was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthu ...
was hired on the basis of his work on ''
Fiend Without a Face
''Fiend Without a Face'' is a 1958 independently made British black-and-white science fiction- horror film drama from Amalgamated Productions. It was produced by John Croydon and Richard Gordon, directed by Arthur Crabtree, and stars Marshall T ...
''."The price was right, and the old guy needed a job and I hired him", recalled Cohen. "And he was exactly what I wanted and needed as a good craftsman."
A thirteen-minute prologue featuring hypnotist Emile Franchele and HypnoVista was added for the US release by James H. Nicholson of AIP, who felt the movie needed another gimmick. "We tested it in a few theaters, and the audience went for it like crazy...hokey as it was", recalled Cohen. "It helped make the picture a success, I guess, 'cause people were looking for gimmicks at that time."
Release
The film was given a wide release in the US on a
double bill
The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.
Opera use
Opera ho ...
with ''
The Headless Ghost
''The Headless Ghost'' is a 1959 British comedy horror film, produced by Herman Cohen and directed by Peter Graham Scott. It stars Richard Lyon, Liliane Sottane, David Rose, and Clive Revill. The films tells of three young people who spend the ...
''. It was very popular and earned over $1 million in profits.
Cohen estimated 72% of the audience for this sort of film was aged between 12 and 26.
Cohen says when the movie was released on television they had to take off the hypnotism prologue "because it does hypnotize some people."
The film was later inducted into the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
at the behest of
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
.
Reception
References
External links
*
*
''Horrors of the Black Museum''at
BFI Screenonline
Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...
Review of filmat Variety
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horrors Of The Black Museum
1959 films
American horror films
British horror films
1959 horror films
American International Pictures films
Films directed by Arthur Crabtree
Films set in museums
1950s English-language films
1950s American films
1950s British films