HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (1959)
Restored Uncut Special Edition Blu-ray
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Raring: R
Duration: 81 Minutes 50 Seconds
Audio: English PCM 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Arthur Crabtree
Cast: Michael Gough, June Cunningham, Graham Curnow, Shirley Ann Field, Geoffery Keen, Gerald Anderson, John Warwick
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) is a gruesome bit of mean-spirited Grand Guignol cinema that must have been quite shocking for it's time, directed by Arthur Crabtree (Fiend Without a Face), the London set film features a couple of wonderfully lurid and exploitative set pieces that just seem to be ahead of their time. The film opens with a now notorious scene of a pair of young women receiving an anonymous special delivery at their flat; opening the box they're excited to find a pair of binoculars, when one of the women go to the window to have peek through the glasses she becomes a victim the eyeball-gouging binoculars that have a retractable pair of spikes that shoot out into her eye, and presumably her brain. She clutches at her face and screams, blood tricking through her fingers, the booby-trapped binoculars fall to the floor, blood dripping off the retractable spikes. Scotland Yards' Superintendent Grahamn (Geoffery Keen, Taste the Blood of Dracula) and Inspector Lodge (John Warwick, The Face at the Window) arrive at the flat shortly after to investigate the murder, but don't have much to go on. Also arriving on the scene is crime journalist/writer Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough, best remembered as 'Alfred Pennyworth' from the Tim Burton Batman movies, but who had a long horror career as well including Horror of Dracula and The Phantom of the Opera) who writes articles on true crime for the newspaper, which are often antagonistic towards the police who seem helpless to solve cases. He also writes best-selling books about the crimes, but unbeknownst to Scotland Yard it's actually Bancroft who is behind the murders! This nugget is broadcast pretty early on so I don't feel too bad about spoiling the sixty-five year-old flick.
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) is a gruesome bit of mean-spirited Grand Guignol cinema that must have been quite shocking for it's time, directed by Arthur Crabtree (Fiend Without a Face), the London set film features a couple of wonderfully lurid and exploitative set pieces that just seem to be ahead of their time. The film opens with a now notorious scene of a pair of young women receiving an anonymous special delivery at their flat; opening the box they're excited to find a pair of binoculars, when one of the women go to the window to have peek through the glasses she becomes a victim the eyeball-gouging binoculars that have a retractable pair of spikes that shoot out into her eye, and presumably her brain. She clutches at her face and screams, blood tricking through her fingers, the booby-trapped binoculars fall to the floor, blood dripping off the retractable spikes. Scotland Yards' Superintendent Grahamn (Geoffery Keen, Taste the Blood of Dracula) and Inspector Lodge (John Warwick, The Face at the Window) arrive at the flat shortly after to investigate the murder, but don't have much to go on. Also arriving on the scene is crime journalist/writer Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough, best remembered as 'Alfred Pennyworth' from the Tim Burton Batman movies, but who had a long horror career as well including Horror of Dracula and The Phantom of the Opera) who writes articles on true crime for the newspaper, which are often antagonistic towards the police who seem helpless to solve cases. He also writes best-selling books about the crimes, but unbeknownst to Scotland Yard it's actually Bancroft who is behind the murders! This nugget is broadcast pretty early on so I don't feel too bad about spoiling the sixty-five year-old flick.
Bancroft along with his loyal assistant Rick (Graham Curnow) secretly curate a "Black Museum" in his basement filled with murder and torture devices, alongside banks of mysterious electronic equipment, some of which he purchases from a curio shop run by the elderly Aggie (Beatrice Varley), which adds a temporary wrinkle to his plans when she begins to suspect him be the murder after peeping items she has sold him in the newspaper crime scene photos - suffice it to say you should not try to blackmail a killer when you've just sold him a pair of antique ice tongs! The same goes for his physician who also bvegins to suspect him of the crimes, and then attempts to persuade him to turn himself, this is ill-advised, especially as he does so while standing in the direct path of an high-voltage electric zapper at the "black museum"!
It turns out that Bancroft is not committing the crimes himself, he's using a combination of post-hypnotic suggestion and drugs to influence Rick, a process which has an Jekyll & Hyde effect on his assistant, causing him to transform into a ghastly, lumpy-faced murder, who carries out some of the diabolical murders, one of which involves a bed-mounted mini-guillotine which takes the life of Edmond secret lover, the voluptuous Joan (June Cunningham, Three on a Spree) and tragically Rick's own secret girlfriend Angela (Shirley Anne Field, Peeping Tom) after he transforms into the killer while riding The Tunnel of Love Ride at the amusement park, plunging a knife into her heart. There's also a fun skeletonizing plunge into a vat of acid!
Watching it today these gruesome somewhat hokey special effects and set pieces won't have the same shock and awe they did in '59 but it's easy to appreciate how mean-spirited and gory this was for that era, I bet there was some howling in the audiences when this first screened, I wish I could have been there! The real draw here is seeing Michael Gough absolutely chewing-up the scenery as the arrogant, self-serious crime-writer turned diabolical killer. Some of the arch-eyebrowed faces he makes throughout this had me in stitches, the final takes place at the carnival with ghoul Rick climbing up a Ferris wheel about to spill the beans on Bancroft's complicity, with the panicked crime writer screaming for the cops to shoot him dead, it's wild stuff, and while it might come off a bit on the hokey side through modern eyes I had such a blast with this one.
Audio/Video: Horror of the Black Museum (1959) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from VCI Entertainment in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1), advertised as being from a new 2023 4K scan of the original 35mm film masters. Before the film proper starts up there is a Studio Canal promo leading me to believe this scan was probable licensed from Studio Canal. The source looks fantastic, nary a blemish to distract the eye is to be found, plus there's a light layer of film grain evident throughout, and while there does look to have been some digital clean-up applied it has not erased the organic filmic qualities with appreciable texture and detail in the close-ups. The cinematography by Desmond Dickinson (A Study in Terror) looks terrific in HD, the colors look fantastic, the primaries are punchy and well-saturated, and black levels are pleasing. Audio on the disc comes by way of uncompressed English PCM 2.0 with optional English subtitles and it sounds great, there were sourced related issues, the dialogue, screams, and the score by Gerard Schurmann (Disney's Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow) are well-balanced and clean sounding.
VCI offer a ic of new and archival extras, new stuff comes by way of a new 2023 Audio Commentary by Robert Kelly. Other extras include the Archival Audio Commentary by Writer/Producer Herman Cohen; a 20-min Video Tribute to Producer Herman Cohen; 11-min Archival Phone Interview/Video Featurette with Herman Cohen; a 3-min Archival Phone Interview with Michael Gough; a 22-min 2018 Interview with Shirley Ann Field; plus the 12-min Original U.S. Hypno-vista opening featuring psychologist, Emile Franchel. Disc extras are finished up with the 3-min Original U.S. Theatrical Trailer; 3-min Original European Theatrical Trailer; and a 4-min Photo Gallery.
The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork featuring the original theatrical art and flip side with a new graphic designer Robert Kelly. I never cared for the original illustration much at all, but Robert Kelly's retro design is certainly an improvement.
Special Features:
- Archival Audio Commentary by Writer/Producer Herman Cohen
- 2023 Audio Commentary by Robert Kelly noted film historian and artist.
- Video Tribute to Producer Herman Cohen (19:51)
- Archival Phone Interview/Video Featurette with Herman Cohen (11:18)
- 2023 Audio Commentary by Robert Kelly noted film historian and artist.
- Video Tribute to Producer Herman Cohen (19:51)
- Archival Phone Interview/Video Featurette with Herman Cohen (11:18)
- Archival Phone Interview with Michael Gough (2:40)
- Original U.S. Hypno-vista opening featuring psychologist, Emile Franchel (11:48)
- Original U.S. Hypno-vista opening featuring psychologist, Emile Franchel (11:48)
- A 2018 Interview with Shirley Ann Field (22:01)
- Original U.S. Theatrical Trailer (3:16)
- Original European Theatrical Trailer (2:54)
- Photo Gallery (3:49)
- Reversible Sleeve of Artwork featuring original theatrical art and a new graphic design by Robert Kelly
Screenshots from the VCI Entertainment Blu-ray:
Extras:
