Dr Terror's House of Horrors [1965]

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1965
Running Times: 98 mins
Format: Technicolor     35mm     Techniscope
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Amicus Productions
Producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky
Production Manager: Ted Wallis

SCRIPT
Script: Milton Subotsky

DIRECTION
Director: Freddie Francis
Assistant Director: Bert Batt

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Alan Hume
Camera Operator: Godfrey Godar
Lab: Technicolor

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Thelma Connell

MUSIC
Music: Elisabeth Lutyens
Jazz Music: Tubby Hayes
Conductor: Philip Martell
Song Performed By: Kenny Lynch
Steel Band Leader: Russ Henderson

SOUND
Sound: Buster Ambler
Sound Director: John Cox
Dubbing Editor: Roy Hyde

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Roy Ashton
Hair: Frieda Steiger
Wardrobe Supervisor: Bridget Sellers

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Ted Samuels

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Bill Constable

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Pauline Harlow
Choreographer: Boscoe Holder

LOCATIONS
Studio: Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, UK

CAST
Christopher Lee [Franklyn Marsh]
Max Adrian [Doctor Blake]
Ann Bell [Ann Rogers]
Michael Gough [Eric Landor]
Jennifer Jayne [Nicolle]
Neil McCallum [Jim Dawson]
Bernard Lee [Hopkins]
Roy Castle [Biff Bailey]
Peter Cushing [Dr Sandor Schreck]
Alan Freeman [Bill Rogers]
Peter Madden [Caleb]
Kenny Lynch [Sammy Coin]
Jeremy Kemp [Drake]
Donald Sutherland [Bob Carroll]
Harold Lang [Shine]
Ursula Howells [Deirdre Biddulph]
Christopher Carlos [musician]
Katy Wild [Valda]
Edward Underdown [Tod]
Sarah Nicholls (real name: Phoebe Nicholls) [Carol Rogers]
Isla Blair [pretty girl]
Al Mulock [detective]
Judy Cornwell [nurse]
Hedger Wallace [surgeon]
Laurie Leigh
Brian Hawkins
John Martin
Faith Kent
Kenneth Kove
Frank Forsyth [toastmaster]
Walter Sparrow
Frank Barry
Irene Richmond
Thomas Baptiste [Dambala]
Valerie St. Clair
Tubby Hayes [member of Bailey's band]
George Mossman [pony and trap driver - uncredited]

Five people aboard a train are joined by a fortune teller who reads their Tarot cards and tells five grisly stories: an architect encounters a vengeful werewolf; a doctor is horrified to learn that his new wife is really a vampire; a carnivorous plant traps a group of people in a house; a musician steals music from a voodoo priest, with terrible consequences; and an art critic is tormented by a disembodied hand.

First of the British made Amicus multi-story films. Stunning linking sequence with Cushing as a mysterious stranger telling the doomed destinies of 5 travellers in a railway carriage. The stories themselves are pedestrian with the Lee / Gough segment the best though British fans may enjoy seeing former radio DJ Alan "Fluff" Freeman in an acting role. Much more than the sum of its parts. The shock ending has been copied ad infinitum especially in other Amicus productions.

UK
Theatrical Distributors: Regal Films International
DVD Distributors: Anchor Bay Entertainment

USA
Theatrical Distributors: Paramount Pictures

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Finland
Rating: banned in 1966

Sweden
Rating: 15

1965
February
28: USA - theatrical release

November
22: Sweden - theatrical release

2004
May
3: UK - television broadcast [on The Horror Channel]

Le cinque chiavi del terrore - Italian title
Gabinet grozy doktora zgrozy - Polish title
Die Todeskarten des Dr Schreck - German title
Le train des épouvantes - French title

REFERENCES

MAGAZINES

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.32 no.374 [March 1965] p.39 [UK]
credits, synopsis, review

Variety 3 March 1965 [USA]
credits, review

OTHER SOURCES

British National Film Catalogue vol.3 [1965]
credits

anthologies, disembodied hands, fortune tellers, giant plants, mirrors, musicians, revenge, tarot cards, trains, twist endings, vampires, vampire slayers, voodoo, werewolves

Last Updated: 15 July, 2007