"Torture Garden" (1967), British Horror Anthology by Director Freddie Francis - Staring Burgess Meredith and Jack Palance

[DonRocks]

I've mentioned before that I have a "thing" for 1967 films (especially from Hollywood, but we'll ignore that inconvenient detail) - it was a watershed year in American cinema, and I decided to watch "Torture Garden" preimarily because it was from 1967, secondarily because I had just watched "Requiem for Methuselah" (an *excellent "Star Trek (TOS)" episode which actually premiered in 1969, two years later than this), and that got me in the mood for some cheap escapism, and most 60's British Horror was indeed cheap escapism.

"Torture Garden" - and pretty much anything with Peter Cushing in it - is B-level horror - pulp horror. And in this instance, the movie follows the tried-and-false formula of a central narrative weaving together completely separate short stories (it's not a spoiler for me to be saying any of this). Burgess Meredith is the common root of this tree, starring as Dr. Diablo, a huckster who runs a carnival act called "Torture Garden," luring patrons in, and Luring (capital "L") them in to a second-level, more expensive show which features a wax-like figure which connects with patrons, telling them cautionary tales about what may come to pass ... or not.

It's similar to Vincent Price's "Theatre of Blood," the genuinely scary 1963 Italian film; "Black Sabbath" narrated by Boris Karloff (horror fans: take note of this one, and go out of your way to find it); and to some lesser degree, believe it or not, "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." with Gene Wilder which, if you think about it, is very much of a riff of this classic format. 

I had never even heard of "Torture Garden" before browsing the internet about an hour ago, and pretty much flipped a coin between this and "Berserk!" with Joan Crawford, and even though I'll surely watch both, I'm glad I picked this one - it really is *cheap* *escapism* (emphasis on both words). It has the same feel as ''The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (without being as avant-garde or campy), and also "The Pit and the Pendulum," both starring Vincent Price, and this is precisely the type of movie you'll often see Price starring in (a total waste of a fine actor's talent, but hey, ya gotta make a living).

This is a moral tale about people who either did bad things (eventually realizing they've died and they're in Hell), or might do bad things in the future (getting a glimpse of the Hell that awaits them), and in that sense, it resembles "A Christmas Carol," which, having been released in 1938, makes me wonder if that's the first of this genre - the cautionary-tale, moral-fable, welcome-to-Hell genre that may (or may not) give people a chance to redeem themselves ... if they're still alive. Pre-Mortem and Post-Mortem examples of this class of film abound, and it's up to you to determine which it is ... or maybe it's neither.

For those among us who enjoy gleaning the intellectual from the banal, Atropos, the eldest of The Three Fates, plays a central role in this film. Balthazar, one of the The Three Wise Men, also makes an appearance, as done Euterpe, one of The Three Muses.

Amicus Productions also produced the cult classic, "Tales From the Crypt," and several other cult favorites.