Horrors of the Black Museum

After the onslaught of radioactive bugs and dinosaurs ran their course on cinema screens in the early ‘50s, Hammer Films became the new name in horror.  Building their empire off classic copyright-free monster icons like Dracula and the Wolf man, they created a roadmap for other independent producers to follow, producers like Herman Cohen.  His double-bill of I was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein were big profit makers for AIP, enough so that he branched out overseas to concoct Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), a kitchen-sink slasher that revels in its sadistic, over-the-top kill sequences.

Crime reporter/novelist Edmond Bancroft arrogantly confronts the police – in print and in person – over their inability able to solve a series of gruesome murders, all committed using elaborate tools and techniques found in Scotland Yard’s infamous “Black Museum.”  The museum itself is off-limits to the general public, but Bancroft has created his own in a high-tech dungeon full of deadly weapons and torture devices.  It’s no spoiler to reveal that the writer has been committing these murders himself – with the help of Rick,  his naïve assistant – in order to fulfill his sick fantasies and further his journalistic career.

 

Released in the U.S. with a 13-minute prologue featuring Dr. Emile Franchel, a supposed master hypnotist who regals the audience with corny optical illusions and an exercise in group hypnosis, the film itself was promoted as being shot in Hypno-vista, a marketing gag straight out of the William Castle playbook.  But once the movie proper begins, director Arthur Crabtree stages one gleefully mean-spirited execution after another involving death by guillotine, electrocution, ice tongs and – in the film’s memorable opening sequence – a pair of trick binoculars.  As the obviously unbalanced Bancroft, Hammer vet Michael Gough delightfully overacts his way through every scene, giving his best imitation of Vincent Price (who Cohen originally wanted to cast) while a troupe of British beauties await their fate.

 

There’s an overtly misogynistic streak at work in the film and a great deal of homosexual tension between Bancroft and Rick, which all comes to a head when Bancroft finds him in the arms of another woman.  “They’re a vicious and unreliable breed,” he spouts before sending Rick off on another murderous errand.  The scene also introduces a mad doctor angle that comes out of leftfield, proving Horrors of the Black Museum was still an American film at heart, embracing the idea that if one monster is good, two is even better.  And more profitable.

 

Previously available in Region 1 only on a double-feature DVD with The Headless Ghost, this new Blu-ray from VCI Entertainment looks much improved with strong colors and virtually no print damage.  There’s no info on the transfer source, but there’s no room for complaint.  Extras include 2-sided cover art, an archival commentary from Cohen himself and a new commentary by film historian Robert Kelly.  The original U.S. Hypo-vista opening is included in its gloriously goofy entirety along with additional interviews from Cohen, Michael Gough and actress Shirley Anne Field.

 

 

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