Castle of the Walking Dead (Pan & Scan)

(aka The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism)

 

Picture: C-     Sound: C-     Extras: D     Film: C+

 

 

Castle of the Walking Dead (1967) is one of those Horror films that, for reasons of both rights and censorship, are floating around in several versions.  The German-made film, directed by Harald Reinl, has Christopher Lee as Count Regula, a man back from the dead for revenge, after a particularly nasty execution.  This came complete with a mask filled with spikes facing the face!

 

Horror is revisited upon those responsible 35 years later, including the beautiful Baroness Lilian Von Brabant (Karin Dor, who played a SPECTRE assassin in Lewis Gilbert’s James Bond epic You Only Live Twice the same year, then appeared a few years later in Alfred Hitchcock’s mixed 1969 Spy thriller Topaz).  Here, it does not sound like she has the same voice, though.  She and Roger Mont Elise (one-time Tarzan Lex Barker, who also appeared in Crossfire (1947), Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1950);l both were in the sound Dr. Mabuse series) are the main targets.  Dor is also reunited with Lee, her Face of Fu Manchu (1965) co-star.

 

This is loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum and fares well against similar Roger Corman-type adaptations, penned here by Manfred R. Kohler.  It is not a bad script, despite the dubbing.  This is a very intentionally creepy film, with the hunted suffering many threats, gruesomenesses, and other ugly horrors.

 

The full screen image is pan and scan, from the original 2.35 X 1 Techniscope frame.  Cropped to 1.33, over half of the image is missing and there are vertical scratches like crazy in the beginning.  Even cut down like this, the camerawork by co-cinematographers Ernst W. Kalinke and Dieter Liphardt has a good combination of style and naturalism, while still remaining foreboding and colorful.  There is other print damage throughout, but it is not as grainy as similar prints from the same kind of format shooting, like the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone Westerns.  That is because, whatever generation this print is, the color was a little better than what is still being broadcast on TV.  That’s sad, but this really should be available widescreen, especially after the incredible anamorphic Techniscope transfer seen on the new DVD set of Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America (1969), which shows how such low-budget shooting can look great.

 

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is plagued with the usual dubbing problems, but also has much background hiss and noise.  At least it is not harsh, but that and a by-default lack of compression are the only pluses.  The music by Peter Thomas is not bad either.  The only extra is a more extensive-than-usual look at Lee’s career, but that is all.

 

The film is supposed to run 90 minutes, but earlier prints of this title have been as short as 75 minutes.  The box lists this as 81, but it turns out to be only a few seconds past 70!  This is partly from the credits being cut, but as The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (or other titles like The Blood Demon, Pendulum, or The Torture Room), it would more likely be at its full length.  Someone should restore the extra footage when getting a widescreen picture up.  I actually remembered parts of this film from something like 25 years ago, much to my surprise and what is here is not bad.  For what we can see here, it might be worth the trouble of reissuing the film if The Aikman Archive turns up another print.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo