Main Cast: Jack Palance, Burgess Meredith, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Michael Bryant
Release Year: 1967
Country: UK
Run Time: 93 minutes
Plot
The Torture Garden is an "omnibus" chiller, adapted from four short stories by Robert Bloch (Psycho). Each is introduced by Burgess Meredith, playing a sinister carnival barker by the name of Dr. Diabolo. The doctor's audience consists of five people, four of whom are apprised of their ultimate fates as Diabolo weaves his stories. In "Enoch," a young playboy falls under the spell of a cannibalistic cat. In "Terror Over Hollywood," a famous movie star is revealed to be an android. In "Mr. Steinway," the "villain" is a killer piano. And in "The Man Who Collected Poe," the title character murders another collector over a valuable Poe manuscript--only to receive retribution from ol' Edgar himself. If we told you anything about the fifth person in Meredith's audience, we'd be giving away the ending, wouldn't we now? The individual episodes tend to rise and fall depending upon the strength of their stars. Among those present in Torture Garden are horror-flick regulars Jack Palance, Peter Cushing, Robert Hutton, Michael Ripper and Niall McGinniss. No, this isn't a Hammer Production; it was put together by Hammer's principal British rival of the 1960s, Amicus Films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Barbara Ewing - Dorothy; Michael Ripper - Roberts; Timothy Bateson - Fairground Barker; David Bauer - Mike Charles; James Copeland; Maurice Denham - Colin's Uncle; Michael Hawkins - Constable; Ursula Howells - Miss Chambers; Bernard Kay - Dr. Heim; Barry Lowe; Niall MacGinnis - Doctor; Nicole Shelby - Millie; John Standing - Leo Winston; Hedger Wallace - Edgar Allan Poe; Robert Hutton - Bruce Benton; Clytie Jessop - Atropos; Catherine Finn - Nurse Parker; Frank Forsyth - Tramp; Geoffrey Wallace; Norman Claridge; Roy Stephens; John Phillips - Eddie Storm
Credit
Don Mingaye - Art Director, Scott Slimon - Art Director, Evelyn Gibbs - Costume Designer, Freddie Francis - Director, Peter S. Elliott - Editor, Don Banks - Composer (Music Score), James Bernard - Composer (Music Score), Jill Carpenter - Makeup, Bill Constable - Production Designer, Norman Warwick - Cinematographer, Max Rosenberg - Producer, Milton Subotsky - Producer, Andrew Low - Set Designer, Robert Bloch - Screenwriter, Robert Bloch - Book Author
It is one of producer Milton Subotsky's trademark "portmanteau" films, an omnibus of short stories linked by a single narrative.
Plot
Five people visit a fairground sideshow run by the sinister Dr. Diabolo (Meredith). Having shown them a handful of haunted-house-style attractions, he promises them a genuinely scary experience if they will pay extra. Their curiosity gets the better of them, and the small crowd follows him behind a curtain, where they each view their fate through the shears of the female deity Atropos (Clytie Jessop).
In "Enoch", a greedy playboy (Bryant) takes advantage of his dying uncle (Denham), and falls under the spell of a man-eating cat. In "Terror Over Hollywood", a Hollywood starlet (Adams) discovers her co-stars are androids. In "Mr. Steinway", a possessed grand piano by the name of Euterpe becomes jealous of its owner's new lover (Ewing) and takes revenge. And in "The Man Who Collected Poe", a Poe collector (Palance) murders another collector (Cushing) over a collectable he refuses to show him, only to find his fate with Edgar Allan Poe himself.
