PIT AND THE PENDULUM—–Gothic castle. Roiling surf. Thunder & lightning. Edgar Allan Poe,Vincent Price and a torture chamber: what more do you need?  “TRUE!!!!”   True, it’s Poe content is just the title, period setting and a contraption. True, the acting is either wooden or wild (in a delightful way). True, it’s Spain in 1547, so right off you know you’re in trouble. “TRUE!!!!”

“I will tell you where you are. You are about to enter hell, Bartholomew. Hell! The Netherworld. The infernal region. The abode of the damned. The place of torment. Pandemonium. “Abbadon, “Tophet”, “Gehenna”. “Naraka”, the pit! And the pendulum.”  More proof that you shouldn’t wander unaccompanied into a castle. Occupied by just a few other people. Whose first reactions are…evasive.

Hailing from England, ‘Francis Bernard’ ((John Kerr, 29) arrives at a seaside castle in Spain to find out what happened to his sister ‘Elizabeth’ (Barbara Steele, 24), who is/was/is? married to ‘Nicholas Medina’ (Price, 50) son of infamous inquisitor ‘Sebastian Medina’ (Price). Nicholas, his younger sister ‘Catherine’ (Luana Anders, 23) and a family friend and physician—1557 vintage—‘Dr. Leon ‘ (Antony Carbone, 36) have answers about Elizabeth’s unexpected demise that fail to satisfy Francis. Unsettling questions turns to unnerving mystery that ultimately begets malevolent terror. Doesn’t every multi-roomed dwelling have a special room where there’s “Uh… an apparatus…that must be kept in constant repair…that cannot be stopped ” or maybe we have should have brought a blunderbuss gun from England? At least a sword?

Coming on the cobwebs of House Of Usher, this 1961 American-International Pictures matinee goodie was the second of seven Price-meets-Poe flicks directed by Roger Corman in the early Sixties. Adroitly produced for $300,000, lightning-shot in two weeks, it drew positive reviews, and  stature has risen over time. Of AIP’s Edgar Allan crew this was the most successful at the box office, a gross of $5,700,000 placing #41 in ’61, a year bulging with horror/sci-fi/fantasy fun. *

On the debit side of the cobwebs, Kerr is lackluster (and left his British accent across the Atlantic) and Anders, vocally and visually has two—maybe three—expressions; telling them apart is difficult. Carbone is okay, though the modern American transplant issue is also present. Thankfully, all else works, and well enough to if not banish then at least sideline the iffy elements. From the quasi-hallucinatory montage opener with swirling colors and Les Baxter’s dissonant scoring, to the perfect shock-shot finale, it’s one of Corman’s best directorial turns; he keeps the pace moving throughout. Richard Matheson’s inventive script (with bits nipped by Corman and added by Price) keeps the macabre Poe feel on simmer, a particularly neat job of extrapolation in that the brief short story was confined to internal monologue narration. **

Floyd Crosby’s camera work makes the most of the art direction crafted by Daniel Haller. We do like those waves crashing on the rocks at Palos Verdes (L.A., not Espana), and the exterior views of the matte-created castle are quick enough to convey the intended eerie effect and short enough to disguise their budgetary obviousness. Pray excuse the alliteration, but ravishing Steele steals each scene she’s in; those all-knowing cats eyes flashing a message “Dangerous sex, dead ahead!” —-and, really, who are we to heed such warnings? The casa-bonkers material is tailor-made for Price’s sly style, an ingenious mix of precise diction, heartfelt sincerity, flagrant theatricality and self-aware wit. ***

80 minutes, with Patrick Westwood (“Maximilian, we must break into the torture chamber! Quickly!’) and Lynne Berney.

* Lucky enough to be a kid in 1961? You could badger your folks away from Wagon Train and Bonanza and into Mysterious Island, Gorgo, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Master Of The World (with Vincent), Atlantis: The Lost Continent, The Colossus Of Rhodes, The Thief Of Baghdad and The Curse Of The Werewolf. They could take their frets away from the Berlin Wall and carnage in the Congo to placate junior kiddies (as in ‘too young to be scared’ by pendulums or Khrushchev) with 101 Dalmations, The Absent-Minded Professor, Babes In Toyland, The Wonders Of Aladdin and Snow White And The Three Stooges (unless you were old enough to see that the newest third stooge wasn’t up to Shemp status, let alone Curly).

 ** Poepourri— from big parts in notable movies (The Cobweb, Tea And Sympathy and South Pacific), John Kerr (1931-2013) soon dropped several notches (The Crowded Sky, Girl Of The Night); after this and the awful Seven Women From Hell, he was off the big screen for eleven years, sticking with TV and stage, before swapping scripts for law books and becoming a medical malpractice attorney. The magnetic Barbara Steele is a highlight in every part she drew yet never became a major star; she called it with “You can’t live off being a cult.” Luana Anders (1938-1996) garnered 84 film & TV credits over forty years, notably six with friend Jack Nicholson. Antony Carbone (1925-2020) acted until 1991, but was best-known as a Corman standby: A Bucket Of Blood, Last Woman On Earth, Creature From The Haunted Sea. 

*** Hay, making & raking—along with this and Master Of The World during 1961 Prince Vincent spent eight months in Italy, where he suited up as bad guys in two costumers, Rage Of The Buccaneers, with Ricardo Montalban and Queen Of The Nile, with Jeanne Crain. ‘Rage‘ made it to the States in ’63, ‘Queen‘ not showing up until 1965. (someone please confect these into Raging Queen so I don’t have to). Lest we forget (and be placed upon the rack) the Poe run from AIP also included The Premature Burial, starring Ray Milland, who jump-started the third act of his career with that, Panic In Year Zero! and X-The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. Uh, skip lest for Ray’s sake and head straight to forget when confronted by Frogs or The Thing With Two Heads. Like everyone else, actors do have to eat.