Starring Lex Barker, Karin Dor, Christopher Lee, Carl Lange, Christiane Rucker
Directed by Harald Reinl
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A wealthy lawyer seeking to find the secret of his parentage travels to the castle of a nefarious count, who was executed for sacrificing maidens 35 years before.
We have here an interesting German production, which borrows more than a bit from Lee's Dracula films for Hammer, but creates its own unique chills with horrific imagery, a grungy castle set, and an appearance by Edgar Allan Poe's famed set piece, the Pit and the Pendulum. I enjoyed the color photography and Peter Thomas' jaunty music score, and Dor and Vladimir Medar add much to the production with her noble beauty and wide-eyed terror as a victim of Lee, and his animated performance as a country priest who may be anything but. Barker, who starred in earlier American productions, cuts a dashing figure as the young hero, but when he's strapped beneath the pendulum, he inexplicably doesn't even try to struggle against his bonds and quizzically fails to emote. Nevertheless fans of Lee looking for another horrific role of his should find this more than worthwhile.
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