Review: The Skull

Sleazy fence Marco (a wonderfully slimy Patrick Wymark) offers the supposed skull of the Marquis de Sade to Prof. Maitland, a genteel professor of the occult and collector of occult items. Maitland is doubtful of its authenticity and more interested in an autobiography by de Sade bound in human skin (!) Maitland is warned by fellow collector and friend Sir Matthew Phillips (Christopher Lee), the skull’s previous owner, that the skull is very real but contains evil spirits and he shouldn’t mess with it. This being a horror film, Maitland fails to heed the warnings and soon becomes possessed by an evil, homicidal spirit. Nigel Green and Patrick Magee play a policeman and police medical officer respectively, Michael Gough is an auctioneer, George Coulouris is another previous owner of the skull, and Jill Bennett plays Prof. Maitland’s wife.

 

A well-directed, well-shot 1965 Amicus horror pic from director Freddie Francis (“Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”, “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”, “Tales From the Crypt”, “The Creeping Flesh”) that deserves a few more eyes on it. There’s some very weird, creepy stuff here and Peter Cushing delivers one of the best performances of his very fine career in one of his best-ever roles.

 

Scripted by Amicus co-founder Milton Subotsky (“Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”, “Tales From the Crypt”), it’s easily one of Amicus’ finest efforts, even if some of the familiar faces are put to better use than others. Patrick Magee and Nigel Green (the latter perfectly cast) have stock roles, and although wonderful in it, Michael Gough has a mere cameo at the outset. Aside from Cushing, the most impressive cast member here is a scene-stealing Patrick Wymark, in wonderfully slimy form. Meanwhile, ‘Guest Star’ Christopher Lee’s dour seriousness works well for the schlocky material, lending it some credibility that a lesser talent would perhaps not. That might be Lee’s biggest strength as an actor, he rarely phones it in despite whatever the level of quality material he’s working with. I’m always happy to see George Coulouris (“Citizen Kane”) in something, and whilst not the best use of his veteran talents, I was surprised to see him in something like this at all. He’s one of the all-time great character actors and any film is lucky to have him, no matter the size of the role.

 

I suppose one could carp that the material – derived from a Robert Bloch (“Psycho”, “Asylum”, “The House That Dripped Blood”) short story called The Skull of the Marquis de Sade – is much more Bloch meets Poe than anything reminiscent of The Marquis. However, I’m not even sure that counts as a flaw when the story is still entertaining even if I thought the real story of interest lay in the idea of the book about the Marquis being made out of human skin. Now there’s an idea for a crackerjack horror film! Instead the film is about the skull of the Marquis, and that’s just fine, it’s an interesting choice of subject too. Typical of Francis (a cinematographer himself), the film looks terrific, though shot this time by John Wilcox (Hammer’s “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires” and Francis’ disappointing “The Evil of Frankenstein”). I bet set decorator Scott Slimon (“Suddenly, Last Summer”, “Cry of the Banshee”) had more fun than anyone here with all the creepy props and so forth. One of the film’s chief strengths is the music score by Elisabeth Lutyens, thankfully not your usual cheapo Amicus score (such as Lutyens’ work on “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”). It seems the company really went all-out on this one and I appreciated it very much.

 

Here's a sorely underrated one from the folks at Amicus Films. Performances, direction, cinematography, music score, production design – all top-notch. The story is an enjoyable piece of schlock horror, too.

 

Rating: B-