Chamber of Horrors (1966)

A one-handed madman (he lost the hand while escaping a hanging) uses various detachable devices as murder weapons to gain revenge on those he believes have wronged him.

Director:

Hy Averback

Writers:

Stephen Kandel (screenplay), Stephen Kandel (story)

Stars:

Patrick O'Neal, Cesare Danova, Wilfrid Hyde-White

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Patrick O'Neal	...	Jason Cravatte aka Jason Caroll
Cesare Danova	...	Anthony Draco
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Harold Blount
Laura Devon	...	Marie Champlain
Patrice Wymore	...	Vivian (Delano's hostess)
Suzy Parker	...	Barbara Dixon
José René Ruiz	...	Senor Pepe De Reyes (as Tun Tun)
Philip Bourneuf	...	Insp. Matthew Strudwick
Jeanette Nolan	...	Mrs. Ewing Perryman
Marie Windsor	...	Madame Corona
Wayne Rogers	...	Police Sgt. Jim Albertson
Vinton Hayworth	...	Judge Walter Randolph
Richard O'Brien	...	Dr. Romulus Cobb
Inger Stratton	...	Gloria (one of Corona's girls)
Berry Kroeger	...	Chun Sing

Storyline

A one-handed madman (he lost the hand while escaping a hanging) uses various detachable devices as murder weapons to gain revenge on those he believes have wronged him.

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Plot Keywords:

interrupted hanging | bound and gagged | amateur detective | madman | insanity | 

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Taglines:

The motion picture with the Fear Flasher and the Horror Horn

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Unrated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Last film of Suzy Parker.

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Goofs

At approx. the 13:53 mark, the torch reveals that the footage has been racked forward and backward to pad out the time needed for the verbal description of the crime.

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Quotes

Jason Cravatte aka Jason Caroll: It takes time for a crawling caterpillar to become a true butterfly.

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Crazy Credits

Although he played a major character in the film, Patrick O'Neal's name does not appear in the ending credits.

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Alternate Versions

Produced as a TV series pilot, this film was determined to be too violent for the small screen and given theatrical distribution instead. Added for this release was an exploitation device called the "Fear Flasher/Horror Horn", ostensibly to warn the audience of the "Four Supreme Fright Points" (although it was not applied to the picture's most explicitly violent moment, the climactic fate of the villain). This device was explained in an introductory sequence narrated by William Conrad. Upon first showing on US network television, both the device and its explanation were deleted, but in subsequent syndication to local stations in the 1970s and '80s, some such prints were seen.

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Connections

Featured in Deadly Earnest's Nightmare Theatre: Chamber of Horrors (1978)

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Soundtracks

An der schönen, blauen Donau, Op. 314 (On the Beautiful Blue Danube)
(uncredited)
Music by Johann Strauss
Played at the party

User Reviews

Frightful fun for lovers of classic chills

Borrowing a page from the playbook of producers like William Castle, Al Adamson, Nicholson and Arkoff at AIP and the like, this was a lot of fun for me as a kid with the hokey gimmicks of the "Fear Flasher" and the "Horror Horn" added to prevent the more squeamish members of the audience from dying of sheer fright, (the goosebump-inducing voice of the Narrator in the "Instructional" sequence was none other than CANNON himself, William Conrad, who actually directed one of these horror potboilers for Warner's, the Dean Jones/Connie Stevens starrer TWO ON A GUILLOTINE.)

This rehash of the definitely superior HOUSE OF WAX with Vincent Price, gives us the grisly tale of serial strangler Jason Cravette (Patrick O'Neal in a bravura performance), who is finally caught literally red-handed as he ritualistically weds and beds his latest victim, ex mortis.

His subsequent escape and its gory consequences, (he goes from being caught red-handed to losing one of them), becomes the fodder for a sensational museum of mass murderers run by suave local entrepreneur Anthony Draco (Cesare Danova, one of Warner's second-tier matinee idols.) Once worried about operating in the red, soon Draco and his associates, the marvelous Wilfrid Hyde-White and diminuitive sidekick Tun-Tun (the 'Mini-Me' of his day) are back in business, as the slippery Cravette gives our heroes and the local authorities more red than they know what to do with, cutting a vengeful swath through the ranks of all those responsible for his near-incarceration.

Hy Averback keeps all the right balls in the air with a speedy and sure sense of direction, and there's much delightful interplay between the lead characters, especially Danova and Hyde-White. Look closely and not only will you see Tony Curtis in an uncredited cameo, but a baby-faced Wayne Rogers as well, as a very unlucky constable (whom Averback would direct years later in episodes of TV's M*A*S*H...talk about six-degree associations!)

With the lush photography provided by master d.p. Richard Kline, and a score by William Lava that reminds us that he wasn't just at Warner's to provide soundtracks for Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner, this was about as classy as genre-B pics could get for the mid-'60's, not discounting the efforts of A.I.P. with the Price/Poe films. Not available in any medium that I'm aware of, you'll have to keep your eyes peeled on AMC or TNT late night to catch this worthy rarity.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 October 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

Chamber of Horrors

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min 99 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1