Latin Quarter

Dancer Joan Greenwood injures herself, so she cannot dance. She marries sculptor Beresford Egan, but gradually his work takes on a grotesque form, and she plans with Derrick De Marney to run away. Their plans are almost complete when Miss Greenwood disappears and Egan is taken away mad. Eventually De Marney takes over the studio, meets model Joan Seton, and they fall in love. However, the studio appears to be haunted.

It's a cheap and obvious creepy-crawly, available only in a poor print, under the direction of B director Vernon Sewell. All the talent in this movie have done better work, so I don't feel the necessity of pointing flaws out individually. With the Second World War moving to its conclusion, horror films were beginning to reappear on the screen, some of them very distinguished in retrospect. This is not one of them.

A sculptor's wife goes missing and the weird occurrences in and around the studio end up requiring a medium to be brought in to reveal what had happened.

Lets not beat around the bush the end of this movie is really creepy. There is something about it that is more than a bit unnerving, even if you're only paying half attention to the movie. It creeped me out.

The problem is that getting to the end is a chore. Based on a play this movie is very talky and stage bound. If you were to do away with a few cinematic flourishes, such as some of the camera angles or the opening pan over the Paris skyline, you'd have yourself what amounts to a filmed stage play. While not the "nail the camera" to the floor sort of film you'd expect from by play comparison, the movie can be rather static; the upshot of it is that it made me want to doze off.

Still there is the ending. which certainly livened things up.

While there are many people who love this film and think its a lost classic (a person I trust strongly suggested I see it), I'm less enamored of it. Certainly worth seeing if you run across it on TV, its probably also worth renting if you run across it at your video shop. I think its an okay time killer, you may think other wise.

5 out of 10.

I saw this movie when only ten or so and even allowing that I was obviously very impressionable the atmosphere and final horrific revelation are powerful enough to have stayed with me for over forty years. The discovery of what has happened to the disappeared wife of the insane sculptor is stil one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced in the cinema. It still astonishes me that this macabre little masterpiece is still so relativley unknown and getting to see it is well worth anyone's time. Highly recommended if you like your dreams with a twist of venom.

A mad sculptor,jealous of his wife murders her! What does he do with the body! Strange things occur in the house where he lives. Flickering lights! Wind blowing in the house not outside! Is he being haunted! What becomes of him. Powerful ending.

Having read the Roger reviews i was expecting a slam bang ending.Instead eBay i got was à reworking of thé House of Wax.One of the main problems of this film is that as we know Joan Greenwood has been murdered and who did it the only question is how and what happened to her.