Torture Garden (1967)

A special sideshow torture exhibit has the power, according to showman Dr. Diablo, to warn people of evil in their futures. As skeptical customers are shown the greed and violence they're ... See full summary »

Director:

Freddie Francis

Writer:

Robert Bloch

Stars:

Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, Beverly Adams

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jack Palance	...	Ronald Wyatt (segment 4 "The Man Who Collected Poe")
Burgess Meredith	...	Dr. Diabolo (Framework Story)
Beverly Adams	...	Carla Hayes (segment 2 "Terror Over Hollywood")
Peter Cushing	...	Lancelot Canning (segment 4 "The Man Who Collected Poe")
Maurice Denham	...	Uncle Roger (segment 1 "Enoch")
Barbara Ewing	...	Dorothy Endicott (segment 3 "Mr. Steinway")
Michael Bryant	...	Colin Williams (segment 1 "Enoch")
John Standing	...	Leo Winston (segment 3 "Mr. Steinway")
Robert Hutton	...	Bruce Benton (segment 2 "Terror Over Hollywood")
John Phillips	...	Eddie Storm (segment 2 "Terror Over Hollywood")
Michael Ripper	...	Gordon Roberts (Framework Story)
Bernard Kay	...	Dr. Heim (segment 2 "Terror Over Hollywood")
Catherine Finn	...	Nurse Parker (segment 1 "Enoch")
Ursula Howells	...	Miss Maxine Chambers (segment 3 "Mr. Steinway")
David Bauer	...	Mike Charles (segment 2 "Terror Over Hollywood")

Storyline

A special sideshow torture exhibit has the power, according to showman Dr. Diablo, to warn people of evil in their futures. As skeptical customers are shown the greed and violence they're hiding, one of them snaps and kills Diablo. When they run off, we see the murder to be staged as part of the show. One of the customers has hung around to see this, and wants to make a deal with Diablo, aka the Devil.

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Plot Keywords:

exhibit | devil | future | murder | show | 

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Taglines:

Do You Dare See What Dr. Diabolo Sees?

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

November 1967 (UK)

Also Known As:

Der Foltergarten des Dr. Diabolo

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Amicus Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Barbara Ewing receives an "introducing" credit.

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Goofs

(at around 40 mins) Atropos, Dr. Diabolo's dummy of an ancient goddess, is clearly breathing in one shot.

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Connections

Followed by Tales from the Crypt (1972)

User Reviews

Likeable if uneven batch of tales in the familiar Amicus style!

Amicus always managed to get great casts for their anthological films especially, and the fact that one or two decent American actors/actresses are present here merely, emphasises the point.

Burgess Meredith plays Dr. Diablo with marvellous relish in the linking story about a fairground charlatan who presides over "the sheers of fate" (held by an actress who can't keep still!).

Predictably, the stories are of variable quality and, like Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, some of the execution is stagey, mainly because the sets are so cheap-looking.

Story 1 about a dead witch who possesses a cat and causes a inheritor to rue his greediness is satisfactorily macabre and entertaining; Story 2 is more mysterious than horrific but the story about androids is, at least, relatively original; Story 3 is a distinctly silly episode about a piano "with a mind of it's own", who kills it's player's lover; Story 4, however, is the "piece de resistance" about the resurrection of Edgar Allan Poe (wonderful idea by Robert Bloch!). The performances in this story are also worthy of mention - Jack Palance almost puts Peter Cushing in the shade with his eccentric hamminess as a Poe fanatic, but both of them really do bring the best out of the script.

Overall, this compendium has it's faults but some of it's excellent acting and inventive script-writing push it to my second favourite Amicus film (behind The House That Dripped Blood).