Catacombs (1965 film)

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Catacombs
Catacombs film Theatrical release poster (1965-2).jpg
UK theatrical release poster
Directed by Gordon Hessler
Screenplay by Daniel Mainwaring
Based onCatacombs
(1959 novel)
by Jay Bennett
Produced byJack Parsons
Neil McCallum
Starring Gary Merrill
Georgina Cookson
Jane Merrow
Cinematography Arthur Lavis
Edited byRobert Winter
Music by Carlo Martelli
Production
companies
Parroch-McCallum
Associated Producers International
British Lion
Distributed by British Lion Films (United Kingdom)
Warner Bros. Pictures (United States)
Release date
  • 5 May 1965 (1965-05-05)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Catacombs (U.S. title: The Woman Who Wouldn't Die) is a 1965 British horror film directed by Gordon Hessler and starring Gary Merrill, Georgina Cookson and Jane Merrow. [1] [2] The screenplay was by Daniel Mainwaring based on the 1959 novel of the same title by Jay Bennett.

Contents

Plot

An astute business woman is murdered by her husband who intends to carry on with his affair with her niece after her death. However, he soon finds himself haunted by his late wife.

Cast

Production

Filming

The film was shot at Shepperton Studios with sets designed by the art director George Provis.

Distribution

Warner Brothers picked it up for distribution in the US. [3]

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "One would have thought that the days of the murder story with the corpse buried in the potting-shed were long over, but the situation is revived here not entirely without effect. The preliminaries setting the domestic scene are much too long, but after the murder things perk up considerably, with one or two nice macabre effects. The acting is sound enough in general, with a striking performance by Georgina Cookson as the bitchy wife." [4]

Variety wrote: "What could have easily been on of those quickie, murder-on-the-moors thrillers which the British seem to turn out over a weekend, this Jack Parsons production comes off something better than average because of a very good performance by Georgina Cookson and taut direction by Gordon Hessler of Dan Mainwaring's spare but neat screenplay. There are few surprises in the basically simple plot but the cast acts with more inventiveness than is usually found in these programners." [5]

Leslie Halliwell wrote "Involved melodrama with rather too many twists." [6]

References

  1. ↑ "Catacombs". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  2. ↑ "BFI | Film & TV Database | 'Catacombs' (1964)". 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009. Retrieved 17 February 2025.
  3. ↑ "British film to be shown here". New York Times. 15 June 1964. ProQuest   115838142.
  4. ↑ "Catacombs". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 34 (396): 9. 1 January 1967. ProQuest   1305827919.
  5. ↑ "Catacombs". Variety . 238 (11): 6. 5 May 1965. ProQuest   962984313.
  6. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 183. ISBN   0586088946.
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