Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #79 -
The City of the Dead/Horror Hotel (U.S.) (1960) - This is a British movie, but everyone speaks with an American accent, as the story is set in Massachusetts and references the burning of a witch in (fictional) Whitewood, Mass. in 1692 (the same year many of the "witches" of Salem were first executed.) Of course the difference between the film's Elizabeth Selwyn (a very creepy Patricia Jessel) and the innocent women in Salem is that she is a real witch, and has been granted eternal life by the devil as long as she promises to continue her wicked ways. College professor Alan Driscoll (Christopher Lee) sends one of his students, Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson), who is fascinated by the history of witchcraft, to Whitewood to complete her research. Maybe she should have considered changing hr major from occult studies. The movie has the production values of a classic
Avengers episode, but it is still quite effective. The atmosphere is spooky and the story isn't afraid to take a gruesome turn or two. What I found really interesting about the film while I was watching was its similarity to another popular black and white horror film from 1960, Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho. A pretty young blonde arrives alone, in a car, at an eerie old hotel. The hotel owner is strange, but friendly. The girl disappears halfway through the film causing a family member (in this case her brother and boyfriend) to set out to find her. But it's unlikely that
City of the Dead was inspired or influenced by
Psycho. It was originally intended as a TV show, a vehicle for Boris Karloff, but the story was expanded to feature film length. It went into production before
Psycho, and filmed at Shepperton Studios in England, while
Psycho was filmed at Universal Studios and various locations in California and Arizona. Maybe there was something in the air in the winter of 1960 ...
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| You can do a lot with a low budget and some well-placed fog ... |
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| Christopher Lee plays a not evil college professor at all |
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| Maybe one shouldn't pick up hitchhikers on a dark and misty night? |
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| Mrs. Bates, I mean, Newless, bears a striking resemblance to Whitewood's most famous witch |
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| I didn't know New England could get so misty on Candlemas Eve |
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| Road hazard ahead |
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| What all the occult researchers are wearing this year |
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| A trap door leading to a basement grotto full of cobwebs - let's check it out! |
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| Note to self: Avoid graveyards on the Witches Sabbath |
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