Madhouse (1974)

Director:

Jim Clark

Writers:

Angus Hall (novel)
Ken Levison (screenplay)

Release Date:

March 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

If Stark Terror Were Ecstasy... living here would be sheer bliss!

Plot:

Horror movie actor Paul Toombes (Vincent Price), famous for playing "Dr. Death," suffers a nervous breakdown...

Plot Keywords:

Peacock | Studio | TV Show | Pinball | Stabbed In The Neck

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Paul Toombes
Peter Cushing	...	Herbert Flay
Robert Quarry	...	Oliver Quayle
Adrienne Corri	...	Faye
Linda Hayden	...	Elizabeth Peters
Natasha Pyne	...	Julia
Barry Dennen	...	Blount
Catherine Willmer	...	Louise
Ellis Dayle	...	Alfred
Jenny Lee Wright	...	Carol
John Garrie	...	Harper
Ian Thompson	...	Bradshaw
Julie Crosthwaite	...	Ellen
Peter Halliday	...	Psychiatrist
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Boris Karloff	...	Clip from 'The Raven' (archive footage)
Debra Paget	...	Clips from 'The Haunted Palace' (archive footage)
Michael Parkinson	...	TV Interviewer
Basil Rathbone	...	Clip from 'Tales of Terror' (archive footage)

Also Known As:

Deathday
The Madhouse of Dr. Fear
The Revenge of Dr. Death

Runtime:

92 min | USA:89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) | Iceland:16 | UK:X (original rating) | Finland:(Banned) | USA:PG

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Peter Cushing dresses as Dracula, an in-joke as he frequently played Van Helsing in Hammer's Dracula series.

Goofs:

Continuity: On the bed that elevates up and down, that kills one of the crew, the control button clearly has the red button to stop at the top and the green start button at the bottom. Later in the film when the killer is pressing the controls the stop and start buttons are clearly in opposite positions.

Quotes:

Quayle: I don't make that cheap crap any more, I'm in television.
Paul Toombes: I thought television was a family medium.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Horror Business (2005) (V)

I give it a 6 only for the stars

Vincent Price plays Paul Toombes (sigh) who plays a character called Dr. Death in a series of horror movies written by a friend (Peter Cushing). His fiancée is murdered and he has a nervous breakdown. Years later, he's (supposedly) recovered and starts redoing Dr. Death...and a bunch of murders start up.

The teaming of two horror greats (Price & Cushing) and a semi-great (Robert Quarry) is a great idea. Sadly it doesn't work. Since it's an AIP pic it was made cheaply--and it shows. It's dully directed and it has an obvious, boring plot and a totally stupid twist at the end. Also I've never seen such boring murders in my life (it looks like a few of them were cut down to get a PG). And there's WAY too much footage from Price's earlier horror films.

Still, it's great to see Cushing, Price and Quarry all together. They give everything they have to the script. Price is great (as always); Quarry is amusing as a slimy producer; Cushing is criminally underused. There's also a very funny joke in a costume party segment--Quarry (who played Count Yorga, Vampire twice) and Cushing (always fighting vampires in Hammer films) come dressed as vampires!

So, it's almost worth seeing for those three. Almost.