Torture Garden (1967 )

 

Back to the horror anthology with Torture Garden from Amicus films and if there is one thing I can count on with Amicus films is they will have great sets and look incredible.  Similar to Hammer films they look impressive from the start.  This one is no different when we start at a carnival.  I loved going to carnivals when I was younger, back when they were something to actually enjoy going to.  Now it's just games you can't win and a beer garden mostly and rides that I don't trust just looking at them.  We meet Dr. Diabolo who is played by Burgess Meredith.  His character seems to be taken directly from the Batman TV show where he played The Penguin.  Diabolo has a sideshow where he allows people to see their fate if they have the courage to do so.  This film offers up four different short stories all presented and connected by Diabolo.  

 

The first story Enoch is about a man who tries to dupe his dying uncle out of his fortune.  The man digs up a coffin and removes the lid.  A good rule of thumb is to never trust the cat that jumps out of the coffin.  Something up with that.  Soon the cat is controlling the greedy man.  This one flew by and even still I kept waiting for more to happen but it never did.  The second story is named Terror Over Hollywood.  An up and coming movie actress and how she gets her big break in Hollywood.  She goes to dinner at a restaurant named Danny's which looks very similar to The Hollywood Brown Derby to me.  There she meets with some Hollywood big wigs and she meets her co-stars from her upcoming film.  In the middle of the restaurant there is a snow globe with actual people in it!  Means nothing to the story I just really dug it.  The leading man in the film she is to be in hangs out with thugs and is soon shot in the head and rolled down a hill.  The man's agent suggests they take him to a sanitarium.  The reason the agent suggests it is because Mr. Storm, the agent, was taken there years ago and he had a crushed skull but the doctor at the sanitarium was able to save him.  That same doctor still works there.  The doctor saves the actor but at what cost?  Soon the actress discovers one of Hollywood's best kept secrets.

 

The third story is Mr. Steinway about a man and his organ.  I mean his piano.  He loves it so much he named it.  The piano is named Euterpe after the Greek muse of music.  The man has a new girlfriend and the piano is jealous.  Many people dislike this one and call it the weakest of the bunch but I disagree so much so in fact I think this is the best story of the bunch.  I mean c'mon a piano?  Seeking revenge?  OK, I'll go with it.  The final story The Man Who Collected Poe features legendary actors Jack Palance and Pete Cushing.  Both play men who collect Edgar Allan Poe memorabilia.  Peter Cushing has something in his collection that is a one of a kind and Palance wants it.  At any expense!  Christopher Lee was originally supposed to play the part Jack Palance played however Columbia Pictures producers wanted an american to play the part.  After the final story it all wraps up with us seeing who or what Dr. Diabolo really is and where his powers come from.  The film is decent overall, nothing really stands out but then nothing is really all that bad with it either.  Not sure if I ever saw this back on Saturday afternoons when I was a boy either on Creature Double Feature or Horror Theater with Dr. Shock (who was Philadelphia's own version of Zacherle) but it would have played on there very well.  Three very sharp pairs of sheers out of five for this average portmanteau that looks really nice still even after more than 45 years.