House of Mystery | |
---|---|
Directed by | Vernon Sewell |
Screenplay by | Vernon Sewell |
Based on | play L'Angoisse by Celia de Vilyars and Pierre Mills |
Produced by | Leslie Parkyn Julian Wintle |
Starring | Nanette Newman |
Cinematography | Ernest Steward |
Edited by | John Trumper |
Music by | Stanley Black |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 56 minutes |
Country | UK |
Language | English |
House of Mystery (also known as Das Landhaus des Dr. Lemming) is a 1961 British supernatural mystery film direcred by Vernon Sewell and starring Jane Hylton, Peter Dyneley and Nanette Newman. [1] It was based on the play The Medium which Sewell had filmed three times before. [2] [3] It aired in the U.S. as an episode of the TV series Kraft Mystery Theatre . [4]
A pair of newlyweds visit an old cottage for sale in the country, and hear the housekeeper's account of its macabre history. The previous owners had been disturbed by paranormal activity, and on calling in a medium, the ghost was identified as an eccentric and vengeful scientist, once resident in the cottage. The scientist was obsessed with electricity, and when his unfaithful wife and her lover attempted to murder him, he responded by electrifying the living room floor and fixtures, and challenging the couple to escape. [5]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Though far less stylish in presentation than another of Vernon Sewell's grand guignol exercises, Latin Quarter , this is nonetheless a gripping little film, with a fairly unusual plot and some good touches – mainly in the séance, nicely underplayed by Colin Gordon and Molly Urquhart, and in its revelation, made visual, of the murders. Not all the pitfalls of the flashback device have been avoided, so that there are occasional longueurs, and one or two of the supporting performances are weak. But in the main the narrative is ingeniously worked out, giving full credit to the supernatural, and is full of satisfying yet unsensational surprises." [6]
The Radio Times gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "this is a neat little spine-tingler from writer/director Vernon Sewell, who was something of a dab hand at summoning up demons from beyond, whether benign as in The Ghosts of Berkeley Square or downright menacing as in The Blood Beast Terror . Some aficionados would insist that if it ain't Hammer it ain't horror, but there are plenty of uneasy moments in this haunting story, in which a couple of newlyweds learn the grim secret of their dream house." [7]
Britmovie called the film an "effectively macabre little b-movie narrated in several multi-layered flashbacks." [5]
The Stone Tape is a 1972 British television horror drama film written by Nigel Kneale and directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Michael Bryant, Jane Asher, Michael Bates and Iain Cuthbertson. It was broadcast on BBC Two as a Christmas ghost story in 1972. Combining aspects of science fiction and horror, the story concerns a team of scientists who move into their new research facility, a renovated Victorian mansion that has a reputation for being haunted. The team investigate the phenomenon, trying to determine if the stones of the building are acting as a recording medium for past events. However, their investigations serve only to unleash a darker, more malevolent force.
Peter Dyneley was an English actor. Although he appeared in many smaller roles in both film and television, he is best remembered for supplying the voice of Jeff Tracy for the 1960s "Supermarionation" television series Thunderbirds and its two film spinoffs, Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968), all produced by Gerry Anderson. Uncredited, Dyneley also provided the voice of the countdown that introduces the Thunderbirds title sequence.
Nanette Newman is an English actress and author. She appeared in nine films directed by her husband Bryan Forbes, including Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), The Whisperers (1967), Deadfall (1968), The Stepford Wives (1975) and International Velvet (1978), for which she won the Evening Standard Film Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for another Forbes-directed film, The Raging Moon (1971).
The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story of the same name. Set in sixteenth-century Spain, the story is about a young Englishman who visits a foreboding castle to investigate his sister's mysterious death. After a series of horrific revelations, apparently ghostly appearances and violent deaths, the young man becomes strapped to the titular torture device by his lunatic brother-in-law during the film's climactic sequence.
Double Bunk is a 1961 British black-and-white comedy film directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards and starring Ian Carmichael and Sid James.
Ghost Ship is a 1952 British second feature thriller film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court. It was written by Sewell and Philip Thornton. This was one of four attempts by Sewell to adapt and film the Pierre Mills and Celia de Vilyars Grand Guignol stage play L'Angoisse.
Jigsaw is a 1962 British black and white crime film directed by Val Guest and starring Jack Warner and Ronald Lewis. The screenplay was by Guest based on the 1959 police procedural novel Sleep Long, My Love by Hillary Waugh, with the setting changed from the fictional small town of Stockford, Connecticut, to Brighton, Sussex, while retaining the names and basic natures of its two police protagonists and most of the other characters.
Vernon Campbell Sewell was a British film director, writer, producer and, briefly, an actor.
Burke & Hare is a 1972 horror film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Derren Nesbitt, Harry Andrews, and Glynn Edwards. It is based on the true story of the Burke and Hare murders, and was the last film to be directed by Sewell.
The House in Marsh Road, known on American television as Invisible Creature, is a 1960 British horror suspense film produced by Maurice J. Wilson, directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Tony Wright, Patricia Dainton and Sandra Dorne. The plot centres on a benevolent poltergeist in a country home that protects a woman from her homicidal husband. It may be one of the first films to use the word 'poltergeist' in reference to a spirit or ghost. The film was never released to theatres in the USA and instead went straight to television.
Jane Hylton was an English actress who accumulated 30 film credits, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, before moving into television work in the latter half of her career in the 1960s and 1970s.
Band Waggon is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch and Moore Marriott. It was written by John Watt, Harry S. Pepper, Gordon Crier, Vernon Harris, J. O. C. Orton, Val Guest, Marriott Edgar and Bob Edmunds, based on the BBC radio show Band Waggon.
No Room at the Inn is a 1945 play by Joan Temple that became a 1948 film directed by Daniel Birt. Both play and film are presented in flashback mode and share the same subject matter – cruelty, neglect and mental and physical abuse meted out to evacuee children during World War II. Temple's attack on those who turn a blind eye to child abuse, be they public officials or private individuals, was considered frank and uncompromising in its time.
Pit of Darkness is a 1961 British thriller second feature ('B') film, directed and written by Lance Comfort and starring William Franklyn and Moira Redmond. It is based on the 1960 novel To Dusty Death by Hugh McCutcheon.The film is an amnesia thriller dealing with a man's attempts to piece together a sequence of strange events in which he seems to have been involved during the time of which he has no memory,
The Man in the Back Seat is a 1961 British second feature crime film, directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Derren Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner. It was written by Malcolm Hulke and Eric Paice based on an Edgar Wallace story.
L'Angoisse is a French play by Pierre Mills and Celia de Vilyars. The film rights to it were bought by Vernon Sewell who filmed it four times: The Medium (1934), Latin Quarter (1945), Ghost Ship (1952) and House of Mystery (1961).
The Unkindness of Ravens is a 2016 British horror film directed by Lawrie Brewster and starring Jamie Scott Gordon as a veteran who comes face to face with demonic ravens. The film had its world premiere on 27 August 2016 at the London FrightFest Film Festival. Prior to its release the horror website Bloody Disgusting marked The Unkindness of Ravens as one of their "10 Must-See Independent Horror Films of 2016".
Bloody New Year is a 1987 British supernatural horror film directed by Norman J. Warren and starring Suzy Aitchison, Nikki Brooks, Colin Heywood, Mark Powley, Catherine Roman and Julian Ronnie. The plot concerns a group of teenagers who are trapped in a haunted hotel on a remote island.
Deadly Record is a 1959 British second feature crime drama directed by Lawrence Huntington, starring Lee Patterson and Barbara Shelley. It was written by Vivian A. Cox and Huntington based on the 1958 novel by Nina Warner Hooke. It aired in the US in the Kraft Mystery Theatre TV series.
The history of horror films was described by author Siegbert Solomon Prawer as difficult to read as a linear historical path, with the genre changing throughout the decades, based on the state of cinema, audience tastes and contemporary world events.