Cast overview: | |||
Joyce Taylor | ... | Althea | |
Mark Damon | ... | Eduardo | |
Eduard Franz | ... | Orsini | |
Michael Pate | ... | Bruno | |
Merry Anders | ... | Sybil | |
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Dayton Lummis | ... | Roderick |
Walter Burke | ... | Grimaldi | |
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Alexander Lockwood | ... | Man |
Meg Wyllie | ... | Woman | |
Charles Wagenheim | ... | Mario | |
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Herman Rudin | ... | Pasquale |
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Jon Silo | ... | Benito |
Sometime in the Middle Ages. The young duke Eduardo, heir to the throne, is cursed. Every night he changes into a horrible looking monster. An alchemist, killed by Eduardos father, is responsible for this curse. Only a woman who loves Eduardo can overcome it. But Eduardos fiance Althea suffers a shock when she sees him as the monster. Eduardos brother, Prince Bruno, who has also ambitions to follow his father on the throne, stirs up the villagers to kill Eduardo. Then, one night, the mob catches Eduardo... Written by Andreas Pieper <piepean@uni-muenster.de>
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST was the last movie by experienced Hollywood director Edward L.Cahn who died in 1963. He was a real workhorse and directed some 100 films in 30 years, among them such B-Picture classics as THE CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN, ZOMBIES OF MORA-TAU, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, IT!-THE TERROR FROM BRYOND SPACE and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is an unimportant and pretty boring period picture with well done art direction, but that is all it has to offer. The naive story moves along at a snail's pace without any highpoint and there is no action at all. Although Mark Damon looks like a werewolf after he turns into the beast, this is not a horror film, because Damon is a very tame "werewolf", who does no harm to anyone. Anyway, with or without make-up: Damons acting ability is not very impressive and it was a wise move by him, to give up acting and become a movie producer a few years later.