El castillo de los muertos vivos

I think this movie was the premis for the modern movie Get Out. It's too coincidental not to be. That being said it's not a bad movie. A little slow until the end but worth the wait. It's more mysterious than horror until the conclusion. If you're a Cushing fan I think you'll like it.

Rich men are dying, with no especial connection save they are all trustees for a young girl. Colonel Christopher Lee thinks that's the connection, so he contacts Peter Cushing, because they haven't made a movie together in a month.

Diana Dors appear is this movie, looking a trifle pudgy, alas. She's the mother of the girl, fresh out of prison, ten years after committing a triple murder. Newspaper woman Georgia Brown is trying to get the trust broken, because everyone's in favor of mother love, aren't they? But why did a bus driver die, burnt to a crisp in a bus crash, when there was no fire?

It's a nicely produced movie, but it holds few surprises in its story for the modern viewer. The casting is pretty good, with Michael Gambon giving his second big-screen appearance, but the genre was getting pretty tired by this point.

Every now and then you stumble on an unheard of gem..

This is one of those movies you've never heard of which has a decent story and good cast. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in this modern film about a mystery surrounding the children of an orphanage and a bizarre series of deaths. This is definitely worth watching if you like these Hammer stars and like occult movies. I must admit this one caught me off guard. The end could have been fleshed out a bit more but I definitely enjoyed the story and have even managed to obtain a DVD transfer for my collection.

I think this plot could be done to make a great modern horror. I found it on Youtube...

The pairing of Hammer horror stalwarts Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee doesn't always guarantee a good time -- see Night of the Big Heat (1967) for proof of that. This film - the one and only from Lee's own Charlemagne Productions - isn't the pair's best work together, but it is far from the disaster that some would have us believe.

Lee plays Colonel Bingham, who teams up with eminent pathologist Sir Mark Ashley (Cushing) to investigate the suspicious deaths of several elderly members of the Van Traylen Trust, who fund the Inver House orphanage, home to Mary Valley (Gwyneth Strong), survivor of a mysterious bus crash that claimed the lives of three of the trustees. Prime suspect is Anna Harb (Diana Dors), Mary's estranged mother, ex-prostitute and triple murderess, who is so desperate to be reunited with her daughter that she would kill again if necessary. Mary is sent to back to the orphanage in Scotland for her own safety, but Harb follows, with Bingham and Ashley not far behind; what they discover at Inver House is far more terrible than they could have imagined.

Lee and Cushing put in commendable performances, attacking their roles with gusto and gravitas; in contrast, Dors overacts with ham to spare, her eccentric turn providing the film with a sense of fun. Director Peter Sasdy (Taste The Blood Of Dracula, Hands Of The Ripper) keeps the pace snappy and the mystery intriguing, delivering a surprising Psycho-style death of a major character a third of the way through, a terrific explosion to jolt the viewer out of their seat, the grisly discovery of a mutilated seven year old, and a shocking conclusion that has more than a touch of The Wicker Man about it (beyond Lee's presence and the remote Scottish location).

The horror team of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee team up again in Nothing But The Night produced by Lee himself in his only venture into producing. Lee is a police inspector and Cushing a forensic pathologist who successfully dabbles in hypnotism.

Cushing will need all his skills as he teams up with Lee to solve a group of serial murders involving some truly horrific deaths at an orphanage. The mother of one of the kids there Diana Dors was a prostitute and just came back from serving a prison term for murder. She's demanding answers and doesn't want to wait for Lee and Cushing to work their case.

Of course it involves the kids at the orphanage including Dors's little girl. More I will not say.

Not as good as those old Hammer productions.