I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

One Damn Cult Movie At A Time

Madhouse (1974)

UK but distributed by American International

Canst thou resist a movie by thy hero Vincent Price? Even if it's a cheesy cult film? Ah well then, there's the rub - we not only get Vincent but Peter Cushing and, through the miracle of moving pictures, get glimpses of Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone as well. Oh happy day! And since 'tis the last of Price's relationship with American International pictures, it is a priceless treat of a final hurrah as well! Never mind that it plays loose with the book it's supposed to be drawn from - Devilday by Angus Hall, this is the great and mighty Vincent! Let the storytelling begin!

I hadn't seen this one yet, so actually I was happy to find it. In classic Vincent style we get a story of a man named Paul Toombes who, for years has been in many Hollywood pictures portraying the character Dr. Death. At a party where one of his movies is being privately screened by his friends, he announces his engagement to a young starlet who, as it turns out, one producer is happy to tell him she has had a past in, let's say not very tasteful adult films. In a fit of rage (and a bit of alcohol) he goes to lay down after rejecting her. She is in her room. Dr. Death comes in and... Paul wakes up, looks at the pocket watch his bride-to-be gave him and regrets their tiff. 

He goes to her room, she's sitting at her vanity and he bends her head back to kiss her - it keeps bending, all the way to the floor. It's been cut off (What did they use, a laser? No blood, perfect slice, no gore whatsoever. Oh well.). The following investigation and his mental breakdown results in him spending over a decade in an asylum, never really knowing whether he himself in fact killed her.

Upon his release, his writer but wants to be an actor buddy, Herbert (Peter Cushing) invites him to England to appear in a television series based on Dr. Death. The producer is coincidentally the same sleaze who informed him of his now-dead fiance's past. On the ship crossing the pond he meets up with a scheming young blonde, knowing his history, thinking she can get some money out of him by blackmailing him. When he orders her out she steals the pocketwatch his deceased fiance' gave him.

Herbert begs Paul to stay at his large home, where he discovers former star of many of his films Faye - she has been burned, scarred and is quite mad. She explains she liked to play it loose with men and one night it got too loose and they set her car on fire and sent it off a cliff. Yikes. Pancake makeup and a red wig makes her almost appear normal - if she wasn't playing with her tarantulas all the time (A funny - one 'tarantula' lands on Paul's shoulder and the string holding it almost looks like a freaking rope by all the lights - they also 'wiggled' when held. While real ones were used, it was clear no one was going to actually touch one).

As soon as he settles in, so does Dr. Death apparently, as he dispatches the blonde blackmailer. When her foster parents are told of her death and have the watch, they spend a bit of the movie chasing Paul around demanding money from him (nice family), threatening to take the watch to the police if he doesn't come through. Dr. Death later makes a sword 'come through' the two and the body count starts to rise...

Back to the television series - people are starting to die, all in precise ways that copy many scenes from Dr. Death's movies. Paul is now tortured by the thought (since he never knew if he really killed his fiance' or not) that the move and the return to his character has split his personality and he actually is killing people. Knowing these movies, and even if you don't, you probably have already guessed who the killer is in the first ten minutes, but this film is fun anyway. At another screening (and when police look at the movies trying to find a clue) we get to see scenes from The Haunted Palace, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, Scream and Scream Again, and House of Usher (all American International films of course). Really cool 'cause some are pretty old, and one has a scene with Basil Rathbone, another with Boris Karloff.

One death does copy (or at least closely resemble) a scene in the original Thirteen Ghosts (1960). There a man is crushed when a lowering canopy goes all the way to the bed. In this movie, a director who is crushed in a prop bed is played by Barry Dennen, famous for his portrayal of Pontius Pilate in Norman Jewison's film version of Jesus Christ, Superstar. Not really necessary to the movie, just a bit of trivia.

Anyway, the deaths continue (bloodless, goreless but okay) and when Paul finds a young blonde assistant killed he seems to crack - he carries her body into the studio, locks the doors by starting to record his 'final scene' and on film, sets the whole room on fire, including the dead girl and himself. This final reel of film is given to his friend Herbert who, through a clause in the contract, will portray Dr. Death now that Paul is dead, which is what he was looking for all along.

He privately screens this film, watching in glee as his 'friend' disintegrates in flames - but no! The flaming figure stands up. He comes closer to the screen, closer, closer... he's out of the screen and in Herbert's face! He asks him how he could possibly do all the terrible things he's done and, since we pretty much knew the killer was probably Herbert, we get the classic confession of his jealousy, how he never wanted to be a writer, he wanted to be Dr. Death and so everyone in his way had to die. He and Paul have a strange struggle, Herbert with a sword, Paul a candlestick holder which gets a bit protracted - until Faye pops out of nowhere to repeatedly stab Herbert in the back. He falls amongst her spiders and we see a later version of his now-eaten body crawling with tarantulas. Now Faye is looking almost normal thanks to better makeup and wig, and Paul? He is making himself over in the mirror as he has done countless times in his life to prepare for his greatest role - playing Herbert playing Dr. Death. Okay, okay that ending is a bit silly, but hey, the movie was pretty good.