La Maison ensorcelée

Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff and Barbara Steele all in one horror flick. How can any fan of British horror from the 1960s fail to be enticed by such a top line-up?

As it happens, Curse of the Crimson Altar is actually an OK film. It was critically mauled and failed to impress at the box office, but it has some enjoyable moments if you're prepared to forgive its rather dated feel. The story is unoriginal and bland, with a young antiques dealer visiting a spooky looking house in search of his missing brother, only to uncover a witchcraft cult. But there are still plenty of moments to savour, such as some deliciously over-the-top sacrificial rituals, plus expertly acted scenes between Karloff and Lee.

The lead character played by Mark Eden (eagle-eyed viewers may remember him as nasty Alan Bradley in the British soap Coronation Street) is a crashing bore, and is nowhere near as handsome as he clearly thinks he is. However, some of the more bizarre characters in this film are really well delineated and make the film worth watching at least once.

Robert Manning (Mark Eden) searches for his vanished brother in a rural English village, where he is entangled in the legend of Lavinia (Barbara Steele), a witch killed 300 years ago. Lavinia's heir, J. D. Morley (Christopher Lee), wants revenge on anyone related to her killers, such as Robert. Robert romances Morley's niece, Eve, and is aided by occult expert Prof. Marsh (Boris Karloff), but it is up to him to repel Morley's evil designs.

Boris Karloff became ill with pneumonia while shooting this project in the freezing rain. It was his last British feature, begun January 22 1968, and he would recover enough to shoot four Mexican features in May 1968, his final screen work. Barbara Steele is always a treat, and she is especially interesting with green skin and a large, feathery hat (if you can call that a hat).

Loosely based off of H. P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House", how does it stack up to the Stuart Gordon version forty years later? Honestly, you cannot even compare them. If there is a connection, it is very limited. There is a witch, there are dreams, but the two films are worlds apart.

Howard Maxford calls the film "dated and somewhat slow", having "a better cast than it deserves". How a film that runs only 87 minutes can be slow is a legitimate question. Ivan Butler also feels the film falls short, saying the "promise of a combination of Lee, Karloff and Barbara Steele is not fulfilled". These are fair assessments.

I recommend the film for the cast and the awesome organ track that opens the film. Beyond that, it is hit and miss and you could skip it.

An underrated slice of late Sixties horror/psychedelia. It was filmed in 1968 and reminded me somewhat of The Dunwich Horror which was made around the same time and similarly attempted to update Lovecraft with setpieces inspired by the drug culture and the Summer of Love. The difference with the Crimson Cult is that it was filmed in England with a stellar cast who can actually act, unlike poor fish-out-of-water Miss Sandra Dee in Dunwich. It is a treat to see Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee trading pleasantries in their scenes. Michael Gough extracts the maximum from his small role as a pitifully unhinged factotum. Barbara Steele exudes a grandly Gothic malevolence in her scenes as Lavinia. She is probably the single most memorable presence in the film and whatever power it possesses is largely thanks to her. (Great costume, too!) The dungeon sequences are probably the best though my favorite moment in the film occurs when the innocent young man asks Karloff's sinister professor "What do you collect?" and with a friendly grin Karloff replies, "Instruments of torture!" Marvelous moment.

This movie is ridiculously difficult to find. After years of searching I located a bootlegged videotape which is in terrible condition--grainy and the colors which should be vividly over-the-top are quite washed out. Also the print lacks the original score which was quite nifty as I recall from seeing it on American television in the early 70s. There is supposed to be a laser disc version from the early 90s. It would be great if a patron who owns this would do a review of that.

A nicely filmed horror movie,unfortunately marred by a botched ending which does not answer all the questions.The main asset is the cast:Boris Karloff,Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele ,all veterans of the genre.

But their parts are underwritten and the real star is actually Mark Eden as Robert Manning,in search of his brother Peter ,an antique dealer ,who disappeared after a visit to a Gothic desirable mansion. Manning,arriving at the place finds weird people ,a mute half wit and a sinister-looking professor(and a gorgeous blonde too).At night,he has bad dreams (which bear the appropriate scars of time: of course there are psychedelic effects!).He begins to investigate and to wonder whether his nightmares might not be reality as he discovers a strange attic.

The cast were the source of interest for Curse of the Crimson Altar in the first place. The film though doesn't see any of the cast at their best and doesn't do them justice. That said Curse of the Crimson Altar is far from terrible. The cinematography and settings are appropriately eerie, and the music gives a real sense of creepiness. Three members of the cast shine. Boris Karloff is even when ill and late in his career commanding and acerbic. Christopher Lee is similarly wonderful and has a character that suits him to a tee. And Barbara Steele is wonderfully wacky and sensual, her costume and make-up are a knockout. Mark Eden however is a monotonously bland lead, and Virginia Weatherell while very pretty is lacking in charisma too. Michael Gough does deserve credit for doing shifty so convincingly, sadly he's woefully underused, and that's pretty much the same with Rupert Davies. While the film doesn't look so bad visually, the special effects do look rather cheap. The script is a complete muddle, it has some amusing lines from Karloff but too much of it is cheesy and severely underwritten. The story drags quite badly and even for a short running time feels on the thin side, complete with an ending that is both under-explained and dramatically undercooked. The dream sequences did come across as hilariously weird too, and the direction is rather flat and doesn't do anything to make the film less dull and muddled. Overall, not a terrible film but a strange one, somewhat difficult to rate this time around. 5/10 Bethany Cox