Katakomben

Great script, brilliant casting, fine direction and excellent black and white camera-work make The Woman Who Wouldn't Die (aka Catacombs) one of the most compelling low-budget thrillers of the 1960s. It received only a limited release back in 1965, when I first saw it (three or four times). And though I've kept my eyes peeled ever since, I've never encountered it on TV.

So I was very happy to finally find it on DVD (excellent HD print) -- and it is as gripping as ever.

Jane Merrow has the ingenue role and she was never as alluring. Georgina Cookson is truly terrific as her domineering rich aunt. The two main men in this story, Gary Merrill and Neil McCallum, are just perfect .

Will not give away ANY of the plot here and adamantly advise you not to read any synopses. But believe me, if you enjoy old-time low-budget thrillers in the William Castle or Roy William Neill vein, you shouldn't miss this one. A treat from start to finish.

I did not see this film when it went on release nor can I ever remember seeing it on TV.So this was the first time I had seen this.Whilst no great classic it is still a very effective thriller.Gary Merrill plays a bought husband under the thumb of his rich domineering wife.A young niece returns and soon falls in love with Merrill.His wife has a crooked Secretary.Between the both of them they hatch a plot to murder her.However Merrill murders her before the planned time which complicates matters.He buries her in a shed.However when he and the niece spend time in the house they are haunted by the dead wife.There are a number of twists before everyone concerned are brought to justice.

Gary Merrill plays the husband of a rich dame (Georgina Cookson), who apparently keeps him around for hot sex. She can also put herself into trances, which is probably how she gets through the sex with Merrill. Cookson's gorgeous niece (Jane Merrow) shows up, and Merrill decides he wants to get it on with her. Merrill and his business partner cook up a scheme to off Cookson. After Merrill does the deed, he buries his wife in the pottery shed. Then they hire an actress to impersonate Cookson, so everyone else will think she went to Italy. Then the actress is offed as well. With Merrill and Merrow alone in his dead wife's house, strange events start occurring. Is it Cookson, back from the dead? Is she not really dead? Is someone playing a trick?

The film works, despite the weird casting. It would have worked better with someone younger (and better looking) than Merrill. No one on the planet should believe a babe like Jane Merrow would go for this guy. He is in serious need of some eyebrow trimming, which would at least diminish his Cro-Magnon looks. And Cookson looks like John "One Step Beyond" Newland in a dress and wig. Merrow is worth watching, of course.

Ellen (Georgina Cookson) is the shrewd and shrewish millionaire businesswoman, her husband Raymond (Gary Merrill), from whom she demands frequent sex, is a kept man, and she appears to have occult power, able to read minds, which keeps the larcenous-minded Dick in check, and has command of her own physical frailty - she walks with a stick - and can put herself in a trance to overcome occasional pain from her injured hip.

But when Raymond falls for Ellen's niece Alice (Jane Merrow), an artist returned from a year in Paris, he and Dick concoct a murderous plan. First he hires an actress to impersonate Ellen, known to go off to Italy on her own for spa treatments and with a knack for reckless driving, and then strangles Ellen, and allows Alice, at a distance from an airport viewing terrace, to see her "aunt", complete with walking stick, climbing up the steps of a plane. Faked cables and postcards arrive from Italy purportedly showing Ellen enjoying herself, even visiting the famous catacombs. In Italy Dick fakes a car accident to kill the actress.

And Raymond's plan to live happily ever after with Alice is marred by several creepy incidents, knocking, tapping, door handles turning, shadows, a depression the shape of a body in a bed, cigarettes smoking in ashtrays, lights going on and off, which indicate to the already nervous Raymond and the visibly frightened Alice that Ellen may not be dead after all.

Catacombs is a rather neatly made thriller with supernatural undertones that is quite gripping and benefits largely from the performances. Georgina Cookson steals the show as the imperious businesswoman, with everyone cowering under her glare, Gary Merrill looks suitably tired of her and is quite charming enough in the first half and Jane Merrow does well. She's so naturally pretty and charming. There's some fine twists along the way, though I did predict some of them. It ended with the last twist - this film is a fine example of a well-crafted thriller. Pity it's not well known.

If you seen the overrated Diabolique and similarly overrated Seance on a Wet Afternoon, and liked them, then you will probably like this film. On the other hand, if you are like me and intensely dislike movies which pretend to be supernatural thrillers but which ultimately are not supernatural in nature, then you probably won't like this one. To be clear, unlike what some other reviewers have claimed, this is not a supernatural movie; there is no supernatural content. In addition, anyone who has seen thrillers of this kind - they usually involve a love triangle and infidelity - will probably find The Woman Who Wouldn't Die fairly predictable. I honestly can't understand the appeal of this kind of movie. It falls within an always-disappointing thriller sub-genre.