The House in Nightmare Park [1973]

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1973
Running Times: 90 mins     95 mins     100 mins
Format: Technicolor     35mm
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Associated London Films / Extonation
Executive Producer: Beryl Vertue
Producers: Clive Exton, Terry Nation
Production Supervisor: Edward Joseph

SCRIPT
Script: Clive Exton, Terry Nation

DIRECTION
Director: Peter Sykes
Assistant Director: Michael Dryhurst

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Ian Wilson
Camera Operator: Neil Binney

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Bill Blunden

MUSIC
Music: Harry Robinson

SOUND
Sound Recordists: Rene Borisewitz, Ken Barker
Dubbing Editing: Mike Crouch

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Jill Carpenter
Hair: Ramon Gow
Costume Designer: Judy Moorcroft

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Maurice Carter
Set Dresser: Andrew Campbell

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Jane Buck

LOCATIONS
Studio: Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

CAST
Frankie Howerd [Foster Twelvetrees]
Ray Milland [Stewart Henderson]
Hugh Burden [Reggie Henderson]
Kenneth Griffith [Ernest Henderson]
John Bennett [Patel]
Rosalie Crutchley [Jessica Henderson]
Ruth Dunning [Agnes Henderson]
Elizabeth MacLennan [Verity Henderson]
Aimée Delamain [mother]
Peter Munt [cabbie]

Ham actor Foster Twelvetrees is hired by an eccentric family to perform for them in their remote old dark house. But all is not quite as it seems - a dotty grandmother from the attic attacks Twelvetrees with a knife and someone is abroad wielding an axe and an attitude. Twelvetrees turns out to be the illegitimate son of the dying patriarch in the mysterious locked bedroom and is entitled to half the estate on his death. In truth, the old man is already dead and the rest of the clan are covering up the fact until they find out where his fortune is hidden...

Although the plot is as threadbare as they come, The House on Nightmare Park works thanks to the comic genius of Frankie Howard who mugs his way through the hackneyed script with great aplomb. It's a comfortably familiar act and Howard was canny enough to change his winning formula, developed through years on television. He's aided immeasurably by a cracking supporting cast and by the atmospheric direction of Hammer graduate Peter Sykes. No masterpiece to be sure but a lot of fun nonetheless.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Constellation Films Inc

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Australia
Rating: PG

UK
Rating: PG

USA
Rating: PG

La casa degli orrori nel parco - Italian title
Crazy House
Die Nacht der lachenden Leichen - German title
Night of the Laughing Dead
Nightmare Park
La mansión embrujada - Spanish title

BOOKS

English Gothic pp.205-206
review [by Jonathan Rigby]

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 pp.81, 178
credits, review

Horror and Science Fiction Films Volume II p.178
credits, review

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films p.203
credits

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

actors; families; old dark houses; attics; axes; axe murders; inheritances; treasure