Review: Curse of the Crimson Altar

Looking for his missing brother, Mark Eden heads to Craxton Lodge in Graymarsh, where he is politely greeted by its owner (Christopher Lee), who says he’s never heard of the brother. Nonetheless, he cordially invites him to stick around for at least the night, and he quickly hits it off with Lee’s niece (Virginia Wetherell). However, it’s not long before Eden starts to suspect that there’s something not quite right at Craxton Lodge. This is especially so when he starts to have nightmares about a witch (a blue-skinned Barbara Steele, though some seem to think she looks green), who centuries ago was burned at the stake and swore revenge on her persecutors. The very same incident that the village of Greymarsh is currently celebrating the anniversary of. Oh my, what on earth has our hero gotten himself into? Boris Karloff plays a wheelchair-bound professor who is currently writing a book about witchcraft, and who is eager to show off his collection of torture devices (!). Michael Gough plays the Craxton Lodge manservant, who is acting rather erratically. Rupert Davies briefly turns up as a priest.

 

Look at those names: Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Michael Gough, and Barbara Steele. Pretty impressive horror line-up, isn’t it? And yet the reputation of this film is far from impressive. Having seen the film, it’s a jolly good thing those stars are here because this 1968 wannabe Poe doesn’t have a great deal else going on except being a bit bonkers. It comes from the rather short-lived Tigon British (“Witchfinder General” and “Hannie Caulder” being their best productions that I’ve seen) and frankly it’d be pretty poor without those iconic stars. As directed by Vernon Sewell (Tigon’s mediocre “The Blood Beast Terror” and a godawful version of “Burke and Hare”), it’s not even all that great even with them. Lee, Gough, and Karloff are all solid in their supporting roles, but the bewitching Steele is utterly wasted in a wordless recurring cameo, and although OK, leading man Mark Eden seems like he’d be better suited to comedy. Scripted by Mervyn Haisman (a lot of British TV, including “Dr. Who”) and Henry Lincoln (ditto), the film is merely watchable at best, and most of that is because of the supporting stars. The rest is because it’s a bit bloody weird at times, albeit not quite weird enough. That said, I’m not sure why Lee dislikes the film so much given this is the same guy who made stinkers like “End of the World”, “The Keeper”, and “Police Academy: Mission to Moscow”. I actually expected this to be far worse as a result.

 

The film certainly has a memorable opener, a bizarre and interesting psychedelic bit of S&M nonsense involving a blue-skinned Barbara Steele and a…goat? It’s some goofy-arse stuff, but Tigon and Sewell clearly aren’t Hammer and Terence Fisher or AIP and Roger Corman, to put it mildly. Perhaps they were trying to do with H.P. Lovecraft what AIP did with Edgar Allen Poe. Lee is his usual suave, polite gentlemanly self, and despite what he might feel about the film, you can tell he enjoyed working with the legendary Boris Karloff. Their few scenes together, even in lesser quality stuff like this, do carry some interest for fans of both men, of which I certainly am. Lee would occasionally grumble about his filmic experiences (he was still well pissed in old age about the treatment “The Wicker Man” got on original release), but you rarely if ever saw him letting any frustrations or boredom show in his performances unless it was an intentional character trait. He was an absolute pro and the film is lucky to have had him here. One of the all-time greats Karloff, frail and wheelchair-bound, isn’t exactly in “Targets” form here in his last British film, let alone any of the great turns he gave in films of the 30s and 40s. However, he’s certainly in better form here than any of his Mexico-lensed cheapies of the period like “Isle of the Snake People”. Both actors spend a majority of the film walking a fine line between genial and sinister, though it’s not all that difficult to work out which side of the fence each man ends up (That’s the one downside of their casting one supposes). But what a shocking waste of the lovely Steele, and especially character veteran Rupert Davies (“Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”) in a virtual walk-on towards the end. The best performance is actually given by Tim Burton regular Michael Gough, who lends his stock-standard suspicious butler role a heck of a lot more effort than it probably deserved. He walks off with the entire film, you can’t take your eyes off him even when Lee and/or Karloff are on screen with him. The film has pretty decent production values and solid cinematography by John Coquillon (“Witchfinder General”, “Straw Dogs”, “Cross of Iron”, “The Changeling”), if not quite up to say Hammer or AIP/Corman grade in the ‘Stretching a small budget to paint a pretty picture’ stakes.

 

Watchable and weird, but not particularly essential viewing, despite a top-drawer horror cast doing the best they can. Loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch House this mixture of Roger Corman-directed Poe adaptation and a poor man’s “The Wicker Man” is weird and amusing, to a point. However, the plot isn’t anything special, nor is Sewell’s direction. You keep wishing it was better, though it’s actually a bit better than I expected going in. So I’m not sure I can call it disappointing as such, yet I can’t quite work up to giving it even a faint recommendation, either. It sits uncomfortably in that rather annoying near-miss category. I hate near-misses.

 

Rating: C+