UK, 1959
95m
35mm film, CinemaScope, Eastmancolor, 2.35:1
mono (Westrex Recording System), English
A British horror film directed by Arthur Crabtree.
Plot Summary
Popular crime journalist Edmond Bancroft is quick to wag an accusing finger at Scotland Yard when they fail to catch the perpetrator of a series of brutal murders but is in fact the mastermind behind the killing spree. He has become morbidly obsessed with the act of murder, converting his home in a black museum, a shrine to homicide. From this base, he send out his assistant Rick, under his hypnotic influence that makes him a willing slave, to commit the crimes.
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Arthur Crabtree
Copyright Merton Park Studios Ltd, London, England 1959
Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy present
Executive Producer: Herman Cohen
Produced by: Jack Greenwood
Original Story and Screenplay by: Aben Kandel, Herman Cohen
Director of Photography: Desmond Dickinson
Film Editor: Geoffrey Muller
Music Composed by: Gerard Schurmann
Sound: Sidney Rider, Ronald Abbott
Wardrobe: Maude Churchill
Makeup: Jack Craig
Hairdresser: Gordon Bond
Art Director: Wilfred Arnold
Cast
Michael Gough (Edmond Bancroft)
June Cunningham (Joan Berkley)
Graham Curnow (Rick)
Shirley Ann Field (Angela)
Geoffrey Keen (Supt. Graham)
Gerald Anderson (Dr Ballan)
John Warwick (Inspector Lodge)
Beatrice Varley (Aggie)
Austin Trevor (Commissioner Wayne)
Malou Pantera (Peggy)
Howard Greene (Tom Rivers)
Dorinda Stevens (Gail)
Stuart Saunders (funfair barker)
Hilda Barry, Nora Gordon (women in hall)
Vanda Godsell (Miss Ashton)
Gerald Case (bookshop manager)
Geoffrey Denton (sergeant)
William Abney, Howard Pays (constables)
Frank Henderson (police surgeon)
Garard Green (fingerprint man)
Ingrid Cardon (little girl)
Alternative Titles
Crime in the Museum of Horrors – US title
Crimes au musée des horreurs – French title
Die Folterkammer des Teufels – Austrian title
Mustan museon salaisuus – Finnish title
Gli orrori del museo nero – Italian title
Das Schwarze Museum – West Germany title
Svarta musets hemlighet – Swedish title
Links
Extracts included in
100 Years of Horror (1996)
Sleazemania: The Special Edition (1985)
References
Periodicals
- Castle of Frankenstein no.10 p.42
- The Daily Cinema no.8139 (10 April 1959) p.9 – credits, review
- The Film Daily vol.115 no.76 (22 April 1959) p.6 – credits, review
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.26 no.304 (May 1959) p.59 – credits, synopsis, review
- Sight & Sound vol.3 no.10 (October 1993) p.60 – video review
- Variety 22 April 1959 – credits, review
- Variety 6 May 1959 – note
Books
- American International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography by Rob Craig p.196
- American International Pictures: A Filmography by Robert L. Ottoson pp.49-50
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror by Phil Hardy (ed.) p.120 – illustrated credits, review
- British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928-1959 by David Quinlan p.323 – credits, synopsis
- English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby pp.74-75, 74, 85, 87, 88, 90, 95,
- Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby pp.111, 163
- Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures by Mark Thomas McGee pp.100, 101, 236; 312
- Horror and Science Fiction Films: A Checklist by Donald C. Willis p.227 – credits
- Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.201 – credits
- Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956-1976 by Gary A. Smith pp.126-127
