House of the Black Death

Relatives returning to their ancestral home tangle with warlocks and a family curse.

If this was based on an actual novel, as the credits claim, it has to be filmdom's sorriest screen adaptation. (Then again, the book angle could have been fabricated by crudmeister Jerry Warren, whose cinematic transgressions include bogus credits.) Like MONSTER A GO GO ('65), this plays like an unfinished film. You pity old hands Tom Drake and Andrea King, clueless that they'll "star" in what amounts to a series of barely connected scenes.

On the other hand, Lon Chaney and John Carradine probably knew exactly what type of muck they were standing in. Carradine hams his role of family patriarch so badly, Hormel could sue for product defamation. Chaney, possibly hired because the plot includes a werewolf, plays a horned satanist who limps with an (unseen) cloven hoof...or did he just drop a hooch bottle on his foot? Familiar TV face Jerome Thor is screendom's most pitiful lycanthrope, though he gives it what I guess is his best shot.

Master film mangler Jerry Warren attempted to finish the film by randomly inserting new scenes that add nothing but running time. Sparse music cues contribute to the lethargy.

If not for the coupling of horror icons John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr.--who don't share a single scene together--House of the Black Death would be completely worthless. As it is, it's ALMOST completely worthless, being badly shot, appallingly lit, and poorly written. In a plot reminiscent of Roger Corman's version of The Raven, our two stars play brothers and dueling masters of the dark arts, with Chaney sporting a fetching pair of horns that mark him as the bad guy. (He's also called Belial, which doesn't help matters.) The endless exotic dancing sequences echo A.C. Stephens inept Orgy of the Dead, a film that, thanks to its colour photography, is a masterpiece in comparison to House of the Black Death.

This is one movie that probably would have been improved if Ed Wood had directed it instead! The whole thing plays out like a fever dream after you've eating a bad chicken salad. It's impossible to say if Jerry Warren "improved" on it or not; check out the ax job he did on "La Marca del Muerto", repackaging it as "Creature of the Walking Dead". The story of two brothers with Satanic powers dueling it out over the family fortune(and bragging rights over a kitschy-looking standing stone called the "Devil's Saddle") is barely coherent, the direction is barely coherent, the acting is barely coherent, and I was barely coherent after watching it. It was so bad it wasn't even funny--Warren seems to have that magic touch, doesn't he? The only good thing I can think about this turkey is that Bruno VeSota(a reliable Warren alumnus) didn't have to appear in it. Hmmm. Maybe if Warren had taken a cue from "Attack of the Giant Leeches"...but that's just me. BTW: I caught this on the old late-night schlock show, "Fright Night" hosted by "Sinister Seymour". When Seymour did a bumper between commercials, saying "...and we'll be right back with 'House of the Black Death'! Whaddya think of that, fringies?", they cut to John Carradine sitting up in bed and screaming in abject terror! I know how you felt, John, believe me, I do...

"House of the Black Death", an obscure B & W horror pic from the mid-60's, marked Lon Chaney's entrance into the world of Grade Z schlock, a domain already inhabited by his co-star, John Carradine. Unfortunately, both stars would continue a downward career spiral from this point on, making numerous low-grade bombs along the way.

The story here involves dueling warlocks, battling for control of the Desard family in the village of Wydeburne, wherever that is. Chaney's Belial is on the outside, looking in, lusting for his brother Andre's (Carradine)fortune. Belial employs his coven of witches to bedevil the opposing members of the Desard family in his quest for power. Spells are cast, demons and Werewolves are invoked (although mostly off-screen) but the end result is viewer boredom, thanks to an incoherently talky script and stilted performances.

As originally filmed, this picture was obviously an unreleasable mess. Hence, the producers invited noted hack Jerry Warren ("Face of the Screaming Werewolf", "Teenage Zombies", "Incredible Petrified World", plus many more truly awful movies) to try to piece things together. Warren dragged in his longtime "star" Katherine Victor, for a few insert shots and dropped in some dancing girl segments, all to little avail. The movie remained unreleasable and received few, if any, playdates under an assortment of titles.

Don't look for it on TV: your only chance to view this disaster is probably by ordering a copy from a PD video dealer. Take my advice, save your money!

This film starts off wonderfully--with Satan himself introducing the characters. While this was inspired and clever, nothing else in the film was. In fact, it's pretty much a stupid mess about two warlocks who fight over the family fortune in some godforsaken (literally) town. While John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. star in the film, both were at the points in their careers where they would have appeared in ANYTHING--even ads for Playtex girdles if they'd asked! In addition to being an extremely dull and talky film, 'sexy' dancing girls are rather randomly inserted throughout the film to try to keep you awake. However, their alluring antics are about as alluring as a bowel obstruction.

"House of Black Death" (also known as "Blood of the Man Devil") is an absolutely horrible film that has not surprisingly slipped into the public domain. While IMDb often links such films to archive.org, this time they didn't--though if you go to this site you can download it for free. But, in many cases, why should you?! My advice is to only watch it if you love schlocky films--such as those of Larry Buchanan, Ed Wood or William Grefe. In this sense, it is watchable because it's THAT bad! Don't say I didn't warn you.