HATCHET (1966)

HATCHET (1966). Director: William Castle.

This was Castle and Joan Crawford's unreleased follow-up to Strait-Jacket. That film made so much money that Castle immediately made plans for Crawford to do a sequel, but Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte and Crawford's alleged illness got in the way. By the time Crawford got around to doing the film, there was a brand new script and she was a new character named -- ironically -- Mrs. Vorhees (although spelled with one "o.") Jackie Vorhees owns cabins for rent in Maine. Who should show up one day but the man who jilted her years ago and the woman he married. The two are killed in a gruesome sequence, but their bodies disappear. Eventually there are more murders-by-hatchet and Jackie is the prime -- although certainly not the only -- suspect. Gloria Blondell isn't bad as the manager of the cabins, who has some odd secrets of her own. Cameron Mitchell is a horny handyman, and Christine Jorgenson has a great guest appearance as a traveling saleslady. Gregor Tanese is fine as an overly ambitious reporter. The film was never completed, however, because Joan walked off the set, although the ending was shot and a DVD is expected to surface in early 2019.

Verdict: Compelling hatchet job with a zesty Joan. ***.

THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE

A dramatic moment in Evelyn

THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (aka La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba/1971). Director: Emilio Miraglia. 

This zesty Italian horror film combines several sub-genres to good if weird effect. First we learn from the very first that the "hero," Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) is a serial killer who brings prostitutes to his mouldering castle so he can slay them. Alan proposes to Gladys (Marina Malfatti) the first night that he meets her, and she winds up ensconced in the newly refurbished manor as Lady Cunningham. Then the movie becomes a ghost story as she and others swear that they see the spectre of Evelyn, Alan's first wife, haunting the castle. If that weren't enough, the picture metamorphoses into a whodunit as someone (other than the obvious suspect, Alan) begins wiping out the rest of the cast one by one. Poor Aunt Agatha (Joan C. Davis), in the film's most vomitous scene, becomes pet food for the family foxes. Suspects and victims include Albert (Roberto Maldera), Evelyn's sleazy brother; George (Enzo Tarascio/Rod Murdock), Alan's cousin; family retainer Farley (Umberto Raho); and the handsome family physician, Dr. Timberlane (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart). While at times Evelyn plays like bad softcore porn, it is quite absorbing, unpredictable, and suspenseful, although you may still be a bit confused when the movie is over.

Verdict: Like an Italian verismo opera on uppers. ***.

STRAIT-JACKET

STRAIT-JACKET (1964). Director: William Castle.

Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) was sent to an asylum for twenty years after taking the axe to her husband and his pretty bed mate when she arrived home a day too soon. Now she's moving in with her brother Bill (Lief Ericson), her sister-in-law Emily (Rochelle Hudson) and her grown daughter Carol (Diane Baker) -- who witnessed the murders -- -- at Bill's farm. First Lucy's psychiatrist disappears, then a sleazy worker (a vivid George Kennedy) gets beheaded (in a suspenseful, well-handled sequence), and Carol is getting more and more worried about Mommy. And what will her handsome boyfriend (John Anthony Hayes) and his rather stuffy parents think? [Howard St. John and Edith Atwater are swell as the parents.] The script with its clever twists and dubious -- if fascinating -- psychology is by Robert Bloch, who wrote the novel "Psycho." Crawford is quite good in the movie, which -- like her -- is quite arresting and entertaining. Diane Baker is simply terrific. Atwater later played Aunt Gertrude in a television version of The Hardy Boys. Like many Castle films it's absurd, simplistic, and yet also a lot of gruesome fun. Some may think the best thing about the film is the gag with the Columbia Pictures logo at the very end of the movie.

Verdict: Christina Crawford's favorite movie. ***.

CORRUPTION

CORRUPTION (1968). Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis.

Peter Cushing is splendid as usual as a doctor who accidentally causes the disfigurement of his fiancee (Sue Lloyd) when he engages in a fight with a photographer and a big arc lamp topples on top of her. He affects a skin graft, but when it doesn’t last he discovers that using certain glands from young females will enable the skin to stay fresh for a longer period. Unfortunately, he needs to keep killing women to get at the necessary glands and keep his girlfriend beautiful. Lloyd eventually becomes even more ruthless than Cushing, and the two come afoul of a whole gang of cretins who come looking for the couple’s latest young victim, the gang leader’s girlfriend. This delightfully lurid, decidedly unpleasant, but very absorbing thriller is clumsily directed and features a very inappropriate jazz score that only detracts from the suspense. There is a rather effective murder scene and beheading in a train compartment, however, and the finale – with a laser beam running amok and obliterating almost all of the cast – is one of the most grotesque within memory. Definitely an unusual shocker to say the least, and certainly worth a look if you’re game. Cushing may have deserved much better material, but he’s on top of his game throughout.

Verdict: Gross but entertaining. **1/2.