Theatre of Death (1967)

What makes it different from others?

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"The Theatre of Death" is a troupe of actors in Paris who put on Grand Guignol type productions. Their director is a cruel, demanding tyrant named Philippe Darvas (Sir Christopher Lee) who manipulates his performers in nasty ways in order to get the kind of performances that he wants. Concurrently, a series of vampire-like killings is plaguing the city, and easygoing police surgeon Charles Marquis (Julian Glover) takes the case. Charles is dating one of the troupes' stars, Dani Gireaux (Lelia Goldoni), and he finds that the murders seem to be leading back to the theatre.Stylishly directed by Samuel Gallu, this slick British production (even though the characters are supposed to be French, very few of the actors bother with attempting French accents) tells a reasonably absorbing mystery. It lays out a few enticing twists and revelations, while filling the widescreen frame with lots of colourful detail. It's a good looking film and fairly effective as a horror story, with a respectable amount of bloodletting. The atmosphere is pretty good, and Gallu and screenwriters Ellis Kadison and Roger Marshall hit the ground running with a gore gag right up front.The brunette Goldoni and the blonde Jenny Till (who plays Nicole) are very lovely, and the acting is solidly engaging from everybody concerned. Handsome young Glover is an amiable hero; Ivor Dean, Evelyn Laye, Joseph Furst, and Steve Plytas all offer indelible support, but it's unsurprisingly the late, great Lee who rates this a must see. He's so utterly commanding and authoritative that the film can't help but suffer a little when he's not around.A worthy viewing for discerning genre fans.Seven out of 10.

A super surprise! I think I have rather dismissed this in the past either confusing it with the Vincent Price classic, Theatre of Blood or taking average reviews at face value. This is great fun and really creepy. Borrowing a little from giallo, this relishes in setting scenes up and then confounding one's expectations by lurching off somewhere else. Quirky and exotic (loved the risqué voodoo dance towards the end- great bra!) this has a great atmosphere throughout and with super cinematography is always good to look at. Lee is fiendishly good and probably at his very best looking. Set in a Paris within a sensational theatre depicting ghoulish and bloodthirsty pieces we get Lee getting involved with hypnotism and the ladies to great effect. Very often such films, whilst pleasant enough, can slow a little but here we just keep going from one surprise to another. There is one particular scene where Lee wants a young women out of his house and he brings her to tears, rubs her mascara about her face and virtually throws her out leaving us reeling because we rather thought he might take her to one side, as it were! Must see.

In Paris a series of grisly murders are taking place, in which the victims are stabbed with a knife that leaves a triangular wound and then are drained of their blood. Inspector Micheaud (IVOR DEAN) and pathologist Charles Marquis (JULIAN GLOVER) suspect that they are dealing with a killer with vampiristic tendencies. Marquis has a girlfriend called Dani Gireaux (LELIA GOLDONI) who is an actress at the "Theatre De Mort" - the "Theatre Of Death" where the principal themes of the plays are murder and mayhem. The company is run by the eccentric and obsessive Philippe Darvas (CHRISTOPHER LEE) who becomes the chief suspect because when Marquis gives him a lift home and tells him that a knife that resembles the murder weapon was found among his props, he seemed eager to get out of the car and continue on foot. Secondly, he seems to have hypnotic control over one of his fellow actresses, Nicole Chapelle (JENNY TILL). Things look worse for Darvas after he disappears late one night leaving his hat and blood soaked cloak in a park, but Nicole's trance doesn't appear to be letting up. Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise and the police must either find Darvas' killer or the true culprit...THEATRE OF DEATH begins slowly and tamely (in every murder sequence the camera moves in for a close up of the victim's terrified face then cuts away to the next scene). However, it cannot be denied that this is a unique film in its own right as it features one of Christopher Lee's best performances and it deals with an ingenious modern day vampire story, which is far more realistic than the mythical vampires that Hammer dealt with. The film pulls every hokey horror trick in the book such as eyes moving in portraits and the French characters speak with impeccable English accents very much as the Transylvanians did in the Hammer films. However, what makes the film unique is that it packs an ingenious twist at the climax and as a result the film has given us these hackneyed horror clichés, it throws them to the winds and when the identity of the killer is finally revealed it comes as quite a surprise as every one is expecting it to be Christopher Lee's character as this is a part than everyone associated with him at the time. Its not him but I won't spoil it anymore for those who have not seen it! Add to that, all the performances are excellent and there is the stylish camera-work of Gilbert Taylor who would later go on to shoot the first STAR WARS (1977) for George Lucas.

THEATRE OF DEATH Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (Techniscope)Sound format: MonoMembers of a Parisian Grand Guignol theatre fall under suspicion when the opening of their latest play - featuring a vampire - coincides with a series of murders in which the victims are drained of blood.Timid shocker, the feature debut of noted playwright and TV/radio producer Samuel Gallu ("Give 'Em Hell, Harry!"). While the theatrical milieu evokes a Gothic tone, the script unfolds like a UK variation on BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964), in which a series of crimes are traced back to a playhouse run by Christopher Lee, an unpleasant Svengali-like character whose sinister demeanour pegs him as an obvious suspect right from the start (which means he's clearly innocent - or does it?). Lee's strengths as an actor are foregrounded during a handful of scenes in which he spars with performers of equal dramatic stature, especially former singing star Evelyn Laye as the theatre's owner, who tolerates Lee's eccentricities for commercial reasons, and talented starlet Lelia Goldoni (HYSTERIA) as the heroine with a dubious history of mental illness who falls under suspicion when Lee goes missing halfway through the picture (or does he?). Jenny Till and Julian Glover are OK in crucial supporting roles. However, the busy plot is stifled by a lack of urgency in Gallu's direction, and Gilbert Taylor's expansive cinematography is slightly compromised by the switch from formal compositions to hand-held anarchy during major (and sometimes not-so-major) set-pieces. Originally released in the US as BLOOD FIEND.