HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS

HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS

Back in the 1960’s, American International Pictures, Roger Corman and Vincent Price combined quite wonderfully to bring some classic Edgar Allan Poe tales to the screen. While the majority of these can be filed under vintage horror, an altogether seedier affair, directed by Jeremy Summers, has now been made available on DVD in the UK through MEDIUMRARE ENTERTAINMENT.

HOUSE OF A 1000 DOLLS was apparently sensationally marketed as an "expose of the white slavery racket" back in 1967 upon it initial release. So did the movie live up to this rather bold claim, or was the movie, ( produced by the relentless Harry Alan Towers and starring his wife Maria Rohm) simply an exercise in using prominent Hollywood figures to sell an exploitive tale of titillation?

Price plays Felix Manderville, one half of a cabaret magic act, who along with his partner Madam Rebecca (Martha Hyer) tour prestigious nightclubs with their "The Great Manderville" stage show. It soon becomes apparent however that the hypnotism part of the show is in fact nefariously being used to sedate and capture unsuspecting yet alluring female members of their audience. Once mentally tranquilized the beautiful captives are exported to the House of 1000 Dolls which, as you can guess, is a swanky brothel in the Moroccan city of Tangiers. But it seems the lavish house of ill repute is not simply a solitary operation. It is in fact headquarters for an international ring of White Slave traders who have similar ‘houses’ all over the world to which the brain washed girls can be shipped.

The story really takes off though when one of their hijacked whores Diane (Maria Rohm) is sorely missed for some bizarre reason by her fiancé Fernando (Sancha Gracia). His persistent investigation into Diane’s absurd disappearance coincides with him bumping into some old friends Stephen (George Nader) and Marie (Ann Smyrner). It is when the trio work together exploring the seedy Tangiers underbelly, they hear of a shadowy figure, the King of Hearts. Who is the secretive ‘King’? And even if he can lead them to Diane, what will the cost be?

This was an interesting little oddity whose methodical pace was injected with regular bouts of quick action sequences for the purposes of entertainment it would seem. Sometimes they were pretty naff fisticuffs; sometimes a bit of flagellation. Why, there was even some mud wrestling in there at one point! When is the last time you saw THAT in a Vincent Price movie?!?! Talking of the legendary actor, considering his top billing, I was somewhat surprised to see he didn’t feature as heavily as I thought he might. Not to say the three protagonists didn’t do a fine job, I just was expecting slightly more screen time from Price.

Another more understandable boast the movie didn’t live up to was the titles’ ‘1000 dolls’. It would appear director Jeremy Summers went for quality over quantity when it came to the gorgeous assortment of high class conditioned hookers! Then again, House of a Baker’s Dozen Dolls doesn’t quite have the same ring to it does it???

One thing that did really stand out for me however was the cinematography. Who could fail to appreciate a delightful shot in the opening minutes with the camera’s lens peering out from the mauve silk lined coffin to embrace Vincent Prices faked sympathetic expression? Then there were the subtly voyeuristic shots of revelatory sequences playing out over the black sheen of dark glasses, which again, showcased some striking camera work.

The disc presents the picture in its natural 2.35:1 aspect ratio and runs at 95minutes 41s which suggests it is the full uncensored version of the movie.

Quality wise, I couldn’t help but notice there was an overly warm haze to the picture which although not exactly blurry did mean the natural colours suffered from an almost brownish hue in certain scenes. Audio wise the mono soundtrack is adequate but the speech was noticeably dull to the point of being slightly muffled in places. These minor flaws also seem to be evident in previous Region 1 releases of the movie.

Mediumrare’s disc has an opening menu screen simply containing three options. The first is obviously "Play Movie" with the second being the mandatory "Scene Selection" choice, divided up into 8 segments. Finally there is a "Slideshow" option which is short and sweet but does at least showcase the bevy of European beauties from the movie.

Seeing as the movie has only previously had an overseas release, Vincent Price aficionados in the UK can now at least own a budget copy of a strange movie which is uncut and widescreen without the need to import.

Review by Marc Lissenburg


 
Released by Mediumrare
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
Back