The death cards of Dr. Fright
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The death cards of Dr. Fright |
| Original title | Dr. Terror's House of Horrors |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1965 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Freddie Francis |
| script | Milton Subotsky |
| production |
Max J. Rosenberg Milton Subotsky |
| music | Elisabeth Lutyens |
| camera | Alan Hume |
| cut | Thelma Connell |
| occupation | |
The werewolf
The creeping wine
voodoo
The hand without a body
The Vampire
| |
The death cards of Dr. Schreck is a 1964 British horror film by Freddie Francis , consisting of a prologue, five independent episodes and a short epilogue. Peter Cushing plays the title role . Christopher Lee , Michael Gough , Jennifer Jayne and the young Donald Sutherland can also be seen in other leading roles .
action
prolog
Five men enter the compartment of a train that is supposed to go from London to Bradley. Finally a sixth man enters the compartment, a mysterious gentleman who turns out to be Dr. Schreck introduces. During the joint train ride, Dr. Scare out his tarot cards , which he sybillinically calls the "House of Secrets". Then, while driving, he begins to use the cards to reveal the fate of each of his fellow travelers and tells the following five stories.
The werewolf
The architect Jim Dawson returns to his family's old home on an island in Scotland to do some repairs for the new homeowner, Mrs. Biddulph. The still young widow explains to Jim the reason for her withdrawal into this remote house: She wants to draw new strength here after the death of her husband. During the renovation work on the house, Jim discovers the coffin of a certain Count Cosmo Valdemar behind a false wall in the basement of the property. Valdemar was the first owner of the house and died centuries ago in a violent conflict with the Dawsons' family. It is rumored in the area that Valdemar will one day return home, lay claim to the house and take revenge on the current owner.
Jim Dawson discovers one night that Valdemar has been reborn as a werewolf and has already killed a woman. When Dawson has to assume that the new homeowner Mrs. Biddulph is in great danger, he melts a silver cross to make silver balls. So far this silver cross had done well to protect the house against Valdemar's ghost. When the werewolf appears, Jim is astonished that his silver balls cannot harm the creature. Mrs. Biddulph admits that she had exchanged the silver balls for ordinary ones. She makes it clear to him that, according to legend, werewolf Valdemar wants to take revenge on the last survivor of the Dawson clan. Dawson's body in Valdemar's grave will transform the werewolf back into its original human form. The whole house purchase was a clever trap, as Mrs. Biddulp is none other than Valdemar's wife, who has risen from her own grave after 200 years.
The creeping wine
Bill Rogers and his wife Ann and their daughter Carol are returning from a vacation trip together. Back at home, the family notices that rapidly growing, wild wine has spread in the garden. Soon the plant threatens to overgrow everything and the family decides to prune it back accordingly. But the plant then strikes back and reacts very aggressively to any attempt to lay hands on it. When Bill has gradually run out of ideas how to get rid of the dangerous weeds, he visits the British Ministry of Defense and tells about his problem. There he took advice from the scientists Hopkins and Drake. But nothing helps. The plant shows itself to be so intelligent that it even develops real defense strategies that even take human death into account.
voodoo
Biff Bailey works as a jazz musician in England. One day he receives an offer to perform on a Caribbean island where the voodoo cult is still worshiped. During a voodoo ceremony, the Briton hears a melody and illegally takes it. This is supposed to prove to be a terrible mistake. Biff would like to use this melody later for his own composition. Back in London, Biff actually builds this melody into a new jazz composition, which has fatal consequences. Pursued by an invisible force, Biff finally stumbles against a wall with a glaring poster for "Dr Terror's House of Horrors" - the original title of this film - emblazoned, which seals his fate.
The hand without a body
The inflated art critic Franklyn Marsh delights more in his mocking and hurtful joke, which sometimes leaves a debris field with those to whom it is considered, than that it deals with the assessment of art, his actual field of activity. The painter Eric Landor is the main victim of Marsh's biting sottisen. But he takes revenge on his opponent by publicly humiliating him. When Landor gets too colorful with his accounting, Marsh runs over him in his car in a fit of cold hatred. Landor loses one of his two hands. Stripped of the ability to continue painting, Eric Landor commits suicide. But now Landor's hand begins to lead a life of its own and follows critics Marsh at every turn. Whatever Marsh does to get rid of it, the hand seems indestructible; even fire cannot destroy them. Finally, Landor's detached hand completes Landor's revenge and leaves Franklyn Marsh blind forever after a car accident of her own.
The Vampire
The doctor Dr. Bob Carroll returns home from a stay abroad in the USA and also brings his new fiancée, the French Nicolle, with him. In his hometown, fear soon spreads that a vampire would bypass. Vampire specialist Carroll then joins forces with his colleague Dr. Blake briefly to advise what to do. Both soon discover that only Nicolle can be the bloodsucker. With a heavy heart, Blake advises Carroll to stake his wife, whereupon Carroll actually kills Nicolle. When the police pull up to arrest Carroll for the murder of his wife, Blake firmly denies having ever given such advice. The police bring Dr. Carroll away. Dr. Blake tells himself that this town isn't big enough for two doctors and two vampires. Then he turns himself into a bat.
epilogue
This is where the stories of Dr. Fright. The sinister storyteller reveals to those scared to death that the only way to avoid the terrible fate just presented is by dying first. The train comes to a standstill and all the men find that they are in fact already dead, perished in a train wreck that happened when Dr. Schreck told the stories. The mysterious stranger turns out to be none other than death itself.
Production notes
The shooting of The Death Cards of Dr. Fright began at Shepperton Studios on May 26, 1964 and ended on July 3 of the same year. A budget of £ 105,000 was available for those seven and a half weeks. The film premiered on February 5, 1965. In Germany, the strip started on January 21, 1966.
useful information
With the death cards of Dr. Schreck , the two producers wanted to resume a tradition that the British had started in 1945 with Dream Without End : The episode film in which various horror and horror stories are told. With their production company Amicus Productions , founded in 1962 , their bosses Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky produced further episode horror films that worked on the same principle over the next ten years. It was the torture garden of Dr. Diabolo , the vampire's dance of death , tales from the crypt , Asylum , In the noose of the devil and murder in the horror cabinet .
Reviews
The December 31, 1964 issue of Variety read: "Five short horror episodes, loosely connected to one another, offer a sensible and cool package that gives the viewer some mild shudders and a whole lot of fun."
"... some naive scripts and run-of-the-mill acting."
"... Intelligent episode thriller ... pleasant horror fantasy."
"Metaphysically embellished, highly superficial horror ballad in five episodes, designed according to a horror scheme."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dr. Terror's House of Horrors on variety.com
- ↑ The death cards of Dr. Schreck in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on November 6, 2018
Web links
- The death cards of Dr. Schreck in the Internet Movie Database (English)