Tales That Witness Madness

This was actually the first UK portmanteau chiller of the 1970s I saw (on late night TV in the early 1980s). It hooked me into the genre and afterwards I loved seeing Asylum, The House that Dripped Blood, Vault of Horror, etc.

This one is cool and elegant. The tales are all fun and suspenseful, and the excellent framing story (featuring Donald Pleasence acting kind of loopy) lifts things.

The actors are great and seem to be having a ball. The story 'Mel' works especially well, and Joan Collins is great in it. Kim Novak and Mary Tamm are fun in 'Luau' too.

British studios made a number of anthology horror flicks in the '60s and '70s, and "Tales That Witness Madness" is one of them. It depicts a futuristic asylum in which the owner (Donald Pleasence) tells his colleague (Jack Hawkins, who died right before the movie got released) about the patients and how they went insane.

I didn't like this one as much as movies like "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" and "The House that Dripped Blood", but it's still entertaining. The tree segment is the neatest one. It just goes to show that horror flicks - even if they're not particularly scary - are best when they're not just scenes of people crawling around making scared faces. I will say that Kim Novak's character seems kind of flat, but the rest of the movie makes up for that. Also starring are Joan Collins and the recently deceased Mary Tamm.

So yes, does anyone love me?

This is not one of those Amicus anthologies which present unexpected twists: three out of the four stories are utterly predictable from their initial set up. But then it's like one of those fairground rides - you see what you're going to get (eg a 25 foot vertical drop), but if you're into that sort of thing you can still get a thrill out of the ride (the last story in particular is quite unpleasant - watching it is like watching an unavoidable car accident in slow motion). While none of the acting is quite on the level that you get from Peter Cushing in particular in anthologies like 'The House that Dripped Blood' or 'Tales from the Crypt', it is consistently good (Joan Collins actually being more believable than in the silly story she appears in for 'Tales from the Crypt'), and Freddie Francis directs these with a good sense of atmosphere and character. One I wouldn't mind seeing again.

A vintage horror film financed by World Film Services/Norman Priggen with a great British cast and formed by several episodes full of creepy events , chills, thrills , gore and guts . An anthology terror movie formed by four segments professional but uneven realized and ordinarily played by known actors . Dealing with a psychiatrist (Donald Pleasence) tells stories of four special cases to a colleague (Jack Hawkins) . In the tradition of Edgar Allan Poe......Is it just your imagination or your Sanity that's in question? An orgy of the damned! It happens beyond madness - where your mind won't believe what your eyes see. As they receive fantastic visions about their future . And now ...who is next....

It deals with 4 segments titled: "Mr. Tiger" , "Penny Farthing" , "Mel" , "Luau" , all of them are filled with mystery , suspense , terror , grisly killings , cannibalism, twisted events and horrible happenings . Most stories are inspired by American comic books as Tales of Crypt from EC comics . It includes the following ones : 1º : a young son of prominent but constantly bickering parents , befriends an imaginary tiger ; 2ª : A businessman innherits a penny-farthing bicycle which seems to have time travel capabilities ; 3ª : A man displays a human-shaped dead tree at home as a piece of found art , angering his jealous spouse ; 4ª : a wealthy literary agent hosts a new client who seems more interested in her beautiful daughter resulting in fateful consequences . The stories are really uneven, suffering from some weak incidents and of varying quality, packing nice as well as fleeble moments. Taking its cue from the popular portmanteau style of the classic "Dead of Night" made some years before , being "Dr Terror" the first Amicus -from producers Milton Subotsky, Max J Rosenberg- big hit series of terror story compendiums ; however , this one being financed from inferior production company : .World Film Services. The British star-studded results to be pretty good with a plethora of notorious actors such as : Jack Hawkins , Donald Pleasence, Joan Collins , Michael Jayston, Georgia Brown , Donald Houston, Suzy Kendall , Peter McEnery , Charles Gray , Kim Novak , and Mary Tamm's debut .

It packs colorful , adequate cinematograhy by Norman Warwick , shot on Locations in Binfield Manor, Forest Road, Binfield, Bracknell, Berkshire, and Burwood Park, Onslow Road, Hersham, Walton-on-Thamesat and at Shepperton studios , Surrey , England . It was compellingly accompanied by a thrilling and suspenseful musical score by Bernard Ebbinghouse .The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Freddie Francis who had a long cinematic career . He was an expert cameraman who photographed prestigious films such as : ¨The straight story¨ , ¨Cape fear¨ , ¨Glory ¨, ¨Dune¨, ¨The elephant man¨ , ¨Night must fall¨ , The innocents¨, ¨Room at the top and ¨Hell in Korea¨ . He also directed some movies , many of them terror films, such as : ¨Dark tower¨ , ¨Doctor and the devils¨ , The ghoul¨ , Legend of werewolf¨ , ¨The creeping flesh¨ , Trog¨ , ¨Torture garden¨ ,¨The skull¨ , ¨House of horrors¨ , ¨The evil of Frankenstein¨ , ¨Nighmare¨ , ¨Paranoiac¨ , The brain¨ and directed ¨Tales of the Crypt¨ TV series , episode 2 season 7 , titled ¨Last respects¨. Rating : 5.5/10. Average , but passable and acceptable . The motion picture will appeal to terror movies fans .

This stylish horror anthology, made by the same guy who directed the equally effective TALES FROM THE CRYPT a year before, packs a real punch. Each of the four stories are ghoulish and chillingly memorable. The first, MR. TIGER, concerns a little boy who introduces his feuding parents to his "imaginary" tiger. The second, PENNY FARTHING, is about an old-fashioned bicycle which sends its new owner back in time to unveil a sinister crime. The third, MEL(My favorite), has the beautiful and sexy Joan Collins struggling to keep her husband's wandering eyes on her and her alone. The twist is her competition is a tree!!!!! The fourth and final segment, LUAU, is a grisly tale of murder and voodoo rites. Truthfully, the last segment, even though it's the goriest, is probably the weakest, and is notable mainly for the presence of the lovely and talented Kim Novak(VERTIGO) whose first film this was in four years. But each tale is worth viewing, and good fun!