The House that Dripped Blood (1970)

 

The House that Dripped Blood (1970)

 

England Hammer Studios was saved from bankruptcy by “The Quartermass Xperiment” (1955) and with it, British Cinema’s a world-wide influence was reborn through Horror films. But in England, Cinema also faced notoriously strict, even silly, Censorship (which the title word “Xperiment” was mocking) and this became a mighty battle for Artistic Expression led by the most disreputable of Genres taking up the Banner of Liberty.

 

Sometimes life is like that.

 

Being the Clarion Call of Freedom in the English-speaking world proved very profitable for the Hammer House of Horror, even more so after it switched from SF/Horror to more Gothic, Costume-Drama stuff with way more Sex & Violence.

 

This encouraged imitators of course, and late in the studio’s life cycle its finest competitor emerged, Amicus. Amicus had a distinctive style from Hammer, but by employed Hammer’s best talent both in front and behind the camera, matching its quality and profitability, or at least until sky-rocketing production costs in the mid-1970s killed them both.

 

Amicus preferred contemporary settings to Costume-Dramas, and Anthology (or Portmanteau) films over more conventional single-narrative features. These Anthology films remain beloved even today and this film is the third of them.

 

This film contains five stories originally penned by USA Horror great Robert Bloch that date back as far as the 1930s. Bloch was by then a regular contributor to the UK company that had been founded by two Producers from the USA, Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg and Bloch wrote this script with contributions from Russ Jones. The tales are diverse. There’s a linking narrative is that their all the to Horrors committed are related to a single mansion, but that turns out not be entirely true.

 

We begin with the framing story which is not completed until the film’s conclusion. Police Inspector Holloway (John Bennett) is Investigating the disappearance of a Movie Star who’d recently rented the apparently Cursed House. Sergeant Martin (John Malcolm) forces him to listen to the house’s bloody history and later on, the house's Relator A.J. Stoker (John Bryans, and the Character’s name is a reference Author Abraham “Bram” Stoker) does the same.

 

Starting with the second story, the film becomes a series of flashbacks. All are well-acted and executed but the second and third are utterly forgettable.

 

So number two, “Method for Murder,” this one concerning Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott), a Horror Author who rented the house sometime before the Missing Actor and looking at the library he says, "Someone who lived here had literally tastes after my own heart." He’s with his haughty, younger, wife Alice (Joanna Dunham), who doesn’t appreciate the place nearly so much. Charles’ new novel concerns the fictional Killer named Dominic who escapes the pages and becomes flash and blood (Tom Adams). Bad things happen.

 

Next was “Waxworks,” wherein retired stockbroker Philip Grayson (Peter Cushing) moves into the house. Wandering around the nearby town he discovers a Wax Museum wherein most of the rest of the tale unfolds. The sculpture of Salome resembles a dead woman Phillip had been in love with and the museum's Proprietor (Wolfe Morris) explains it was based his own late wife (an uncredited Actress or Model), an executed murderer. Phillip is disturbed by this story and vows never to return, but, of course, he does. Bad things happen.

 

Though a mostly indifferent exercise, this episode does best show off the skills of Cinematographer Ray Parslow. Phillip has a Nightmare and in those spare seconds Parlow employs rack focusing, zooms, fish eyed lenses, and showed off his expert lighting skills.

 

Things go on a upward swing with the fourth tale, “Sweets to the Sweet,” which features a Widower John Reid (Christopher Lee), his emotionally fragile daughter Jane (Chloë Franks), and Ann Norton (Nyee Dawn Porter) who is hired to tutor Jane. Ann becomes suspicious that John is abusive to Jane but she doesn’t know of Jane’s cursed heritage. Her well-meaning ignorance makes bad things happen.

 

This is the most admired of the segments and Critic Almar Hafilidason wrote, “The fourth is something else again, a marvellous mood piece of chilling intensity about a lonely, angelic child (the remarkable Chloë Franks) who compensates rather nastily - with wax image and pins - for the neglect to which she has been condemned, not without cause, by her widowed father.”

 

Fifth and final is “The Cloak” which returns us to the main case. Missing Movie Star is Paul Henderson is introduced (Jon Pertwee) and proves to be both temperamental and past his prime. He moved into the house with his much younger girlfriend and co-Star Carla Lynde (Ingrid Pitt). Paul rages at the lack of realism in the Vampire film that he’s now forced to star in. He especially dislikes the costume and goes looking for a better one, “Exactly what a Transylvanian vampire might have worn." He finds one that might, well, be too realistic. Bad things happen.

 

According to Actor Pertwee, this segment (perhaps the whole film) was originally written as a Horror/Comedy. Pertwee is best known for his stint as “Doctor Who” (he took over the role the next year) but he was primarily a Comic Actor and that was why he was cast. According to Pertwee, during shooting “the producer came in, took one look at what we are doing and went raving mad." There was no money for reshoots the tonal changes in what was done thereafter threw the segment a little off-kilter but I still think it’s one of the best of the five.

 

More than one reviewer complained the role, at least as it was presented in the final form, should’ve gone to Vincent Price but personally, I liked Pertwee here. He was also good friends with Actor Lee was parodying him as Character Paul. He even snuck in line where Paul says his favorite actor to play Dracula was "Bela Lugosi" rather than the chap who plays him nowadays,” meaning Lee in his most famous Hammer role.

 

 

Returning to the framing story, Halloway vanquishes one evil but is, in turn, vanquished by another. The last words are offered by the Realtor A. J. who breaks the fourth-wall and reflects that house treats each occupant according to their personality, "There is nothing to fear, provided [they're] the right sort of person."

 

 

Much of the cast is made-up of Hammer regulars and Freddie Francis, Hammer’s most talented Director and the Captain of the first two Amicus Anthologies, wanted the project, but had to leave it to Peter Duffell because of a scheduling conflict. This was Duffel’s first film and Actor Lee dubbed him the UK’s "most under-rated director."

 

Duffell wanted the title to be “Death and the Maiden” after the Franz Schubert composition he employed in the film, but Producer Subotsky nixed that idea, "We're in the marketplace, we have to use that title." Amusingly, despite this film have a substantial body count, not one drop of blood to be seen. (Note: the previous Amicus Anthology “The Torture Garden” (1967) contained neither Torure nor a garden.)

 

 

The reviews were positive. Critic Roger Greenspun seemed surprised that it managed to slip in, “even a bit of characterization." Among Critics seemed to be almost a sigh of relief that it wasn’t just another wannabe-lurid Hammer-knock-off, it put plotting and character ahead of the visceral pleasures of the Genre’s increasing Sex and Violence.

 

The Cast was obviously fond of Director Duffell and he brought some subtle touches into the rushed Production. The house is old and ornate enough for one of Hammer’s Costume-Dramas but he’s constantly slipping in contemporary props. The color palette is mostly muted, but the women’s ‘70s fashions are quite loud. Sly visual jokes keep appearing, like a spooky fog drifting a across a sign the reads, “NO SMOKING.” The Art Director Tony Curtis deserves as much credit for these visual jokes were as much his work as Duffell, like building a deliberately cheap and cheesy looking set that in the script was a movie set, then contrasting it with other, far superior, sets that in the script were real rooms.

Trailer:

The House That Dripped Blood (1971) - Official Trailer - YouTube