ANOTHER OMNIBUS OF HORROR FROM AMICUS: 1967′s TORTURE GARDEN
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010TORTURE GARDEN
1967/Director: Freddie Francis/Writer: Robert Bloch
Cast: Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Maurice Denham, Barbara Ewing, Robert Hutton, Michael Ripper
I remember the first Amicus film I ever saw was Tales from the Crypt on late night TV. I had always been intrigued by the film’s poster art which I saw on one of the issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland. That film and Vault of Horror typify the Amicus approach to many of their pictures as they were patterned after the EC comics of the same name. There are usually four or maybe five stories linked together in some fashion and sometimes featuring a host. In the case of Torture Garden the host is the sinister sideshow carny Dr. Diablo played to the hilt by Burgess Meredith. This sort of story telling –called portmanteau- was certainly not invented by Amicus and probably goes back to the 1945 film Dead of Night. Of course there is the classic Black Sabbath from 1963 by Mario Bava, one of my all-time favorite films, with three supernatural yarns woven together by host Boris Karloff. But the format would become practically synonymous with Amicus though they did produce feature length films as well. Some of their excellent feature films included the atmospheric City of the Dead, The Beast Must Die and At the Earth’s Core. It can be easy to think that you’re watching a Hammer film when watching an Amicus production. The style is often visually similar –though the Amicus stories and settings are less Gothic than Hammer’s– and often the cast and crew included many Hammer notables. Like Hammer Amicus was a British production company though it was founded and ran by two Americans, producer Milton Subotsky and screenwriter Max Rosenberg. Torture Garden lacked Christopher Lee –a decision made by the American producers who felt he did not have box-office power and replaced him with Jack Palance– but was capably directed by Oscarwinning cinematographer and Hammer director Freddie Francis. Francis also directed the first Amicus portmanteau Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors as well as Taled from the Crypt. Hammer institution Michael Ripper has a small but vital role and the film’s final and best story features Peter Cushing. And if you read the credits –like I do looking for some familiar name in the music or make-up department- you will see that the film’s score was composed by James Bernard who did some of the best Hammer soundtracks. In fact during the 60’s it is hard to find a good Hammer film that Bernard did not score.






























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