The Dungeon of Harrow

This movie tries to be more than it is. First of all, the acting is horrible. You have to get past the incredibly bad delivering of lines and terrible emoting. The plot is quite interesting. A shipwreck occurs (apparently because it was made out of strings and balsa wood), and a couple of guys find themselves on shore. If this weren't bad enough, some guy named Count de Sade is living there as well. He lives in fear of pirates and has gone utterly insane. Anyway, he has a large slave, a young woman, and some dogs. There's another woman who doesn't speak and his wife, who is a leper. Anyway, things get bad as these men have to deal with this nut case. He is arrogant and likes to pose and deliver lines. The rest of the movie involves an attempt to escape. It has an ironic ending which I won't reveal and it kind of rescues the film. I wouldn't bother if I were you.

Here we have a film that looks like it was filmed over a long weekend. We know right away what we are in for during a storm-at-sea scene when the ships captain (Henry Garcia) bangs on a passengers door and the whole plywood set shakes. This is followed by a shot of a miniature ship in someones swimming pool. Stick around, this one has just GOT to be fun. Sure enough, the captain (Mr. Garcia who also co-wrote and co-produced) and Mr. Fallon (Russ Harvey) son of the ships owner, find themselves washed up on the island of Count DeSade (Bill McNulty). The Count has a little problem . . .he's crazy and terribly paranoid, believing everyone who comes to his island is a pirate. The captain soon finds himself imprisoned in the castle torture chamber while Fallon and Count DeSade's nurse Cassandra (Helen Hogan) try to plot a way off the island of madness. Directed by Pay Boyette, the artist who drew "Howard The Duck", this is the sort of movie Drive-In Cinema managers lived for. An early scene stresses how insane Count DeSade is. He sees a ghostly figure (Lee Morgan, a late night TV horror show host who gets "Guest Star" billing) who claims to be a physical incarnation of his own madness and sees snakes and giant spiders. The prolonged torture of the captain gets pretty tough to watch as the film goes on but the encounter between Fallon and DeSade's leprous, mad wife (Eunice Grey) is truly nightmarish.

Performances are . . .well . . .everyone does the best they can, which sadly is not saying much. Michele Buquor is okay as Anne, mute servant girl. In a nod to the 1960's she is miniskirted and barefoot like a time transplanted hippie chick. Standing out is Maurice Harris as Mantis, the count's devoted servant. he gets some of the best dialog in the picture and his line just before he dies is a sleaze movie classic. Lovers of low budget scary movies owe it to themselves to see this one at least once. No, make that twice; you'll want to see it again to make sure you weren't hallucinating the first time.

Buyer beware. The Alpha Video release uses a print that defies description. The movie was shot in color but you wouldn't know it for the first 25 minutes or so. The print that is used is so faded and decrepit that it appears almost sepia toned. After 30 minutes some color seeps back into the print but from there to the conclusion the color comes and goes. Keep in mind, even at it's best the color is pale and washed out. It looks like the print was recorded off a television that wasn't getting the best reception. Adding to this travesty is the most plodding delivery of lines that I can recollect. Even the voice over narration is stupor inducing. Every line is delivered in this irritating plodding demeanor. I found myself wishing that they would hurry and get the words out. For this reason I couldn't wait for this movie to end. It's one of those so-bad -it's- good movies but I wish that someone would find a half decent print. Adding notation December 2010--Sinister Cinema offers this title and it is struck from a pristine print. This version still has the nude scene censored.

I agree with some comments made previously and I also disagree with a few comments. I concur that this movie has the feel of something from the 1930's that somehow got filmed in color. In my opinion that's not a bad thing cause I love the old suspense films from that era. Make no mistake, this is a C film working with very few resources. Its not a huge stretch to compare this movie with The Terror, the Corman/Karloff/Nicholson epic. There are similarities. The action takes place near the ocean in a creepy old castle with a creepy old man, there is a mysterious and very lovely girl, there is a mystery about the old man's wife, etc. etc. Dungeon of Harrow is sorta and even lower budget version of that low budget classic which I actually loved. There are some very cheesy moments which would have best been left out. The shipwreck is lame, the skimpy Santa Claus outfit Mantis wears is kinda really dumb, and the painting of the Manor is pretty weak.

It doesn't help much that the leading man has zero acting ability. He does kinda look the part which helps. Also, the film moves very slowly at times. However, the overall effect is sorta like watching some surreal play while doing acid. Not a bad thing!

The big payoff for me were the scenes when the leading man is tossed into the dungeon which was more like a massive tomb. What he encounters there actually manages to bring the audience a few moments of rather stark anxiety. The scenes in the "tomb" were awfully effective, I was creeped out.

I am familiar with some of the Director, Pat Boyette's, comic book illustrations. The man had an imagination and the ability to create weird visual images. At the end of the day this movie is one of those "what might have been with more money, real actors, real special effects, and a more experienced director." However, it still manages to be rather watchable for its bizarro value and some out of the box experimentation. I gave it a five because I did enjoy it reasonably well. Its quite a trip if you're into stuff that is sorta "out there." Check it out, its still showing somewhere out there on Planet Weird.

Shipwrecked on an island, Aaron Fallon (Russ Harvey) and the captain of the doomed vessel (Lee Morgan) find themselves at the mercy of the sadistic Count Lorente de Sade (William McNulty), who believes the men to be pirates.

The cast might be lacking in talent and the budget clearly very low, but there's no shortage of Gothic atmosphere in '60s horror The Dungeon of Harrow. From its opening scenes of the storm-lashed ship crashing onto rocks, to the utterly downbeat finalé, this film leaves no tombstone unturned in its quest for ghoulish spectacle.

De Sade's castle is all shadowy corridors and cobweb strewn chambers, lit by flickering torchlight. The kooky staff include beautiful but cold Cassandra, obedient white-haired slave Mantis, and sexy mute servant girl Anne. The gloomy island is fog-bound and booby-trapped. Best of all is the dungeon stocked with torture devices, wherein lurks the Countess, who, driven mad by leprosy, wears a bridal gown believing that every day is her wedding day.

All of this might prove a little too slow and clichéd for many, but I found it all rather entertaining in its excess (especially the stilted, verbose, prolix, periphrastic, circumlocutory dialogue). Two scenes in particular stand out as ghoulish highlights: De Sade's insanity manifesting itself as a man who conjures up giant rubber bats and spiders (hilarious to behold), and the Countess's creepy emergence from her room, a moment of genuine horror handled with surprising skill by director Pat Boyette.