Review: House of 1,000 Dolls

Sancho Gracia tells his friends George Nader and wife Ann Smyrner that his wife (Maria Rohm) has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, nightclub magician Vincent Price and his assistant (Martha Hyer) whose biggest trick is bringing a beautiful woman on stage and making her disappear. Hmmm.

 

One of Vincent Price’s lesser-known genre pictures, this 1967 ‘white slavery’ film was directed by Jeremy Summers of “Five Golden Dragons” mediocrity. A film with Vincent Price and this lurid subject matter ought to be a winner. With Vincent Price, mud wrestling, sex slavery, and so forth the plot synopsis reads much sleazier and interesting than the experience of watching it actually is (I hear the German cut is even sleazier, with scenes filmed without Price or Hyer’s knowledge, the usual Harry Alan Towers tactic). Scripted by the film’s producer Harry Alan Towers (“99 Women”, “The Bloody Judge”), it’s too talky and unwieldy.

 

I can understand the obscurity of this one, even Price seems bored for once. When Vincent Price can’t muster up much enthusiasm on a project, it’s more than a little concerning. His best moments are his stage act where the actor is allowed to act like the Vincent Price you know and love. The rest of the time his character feels less important – and less interesting than his villainous cohorts. You see, they’ve given Price the role of the bad guy looking for a way out of the seedy side of life. Where’s the fun in Price playing that? The perfunctory – and sometimes plain clunky – dialogue he’s given doesn’t help. Sancho Gracia and George Nader are particularly tedious in colourless good guy roles. Nader is like a mixture of George Peppard and Martin Landau but about half as interesting as that combination sounds. Herbert Fux is more fun as a photographer, but used far more sparingly. Maria Rohm is lovely as always as the missing woman, Martha Hyer gets to have some fun as Price’s partner, but I was even more impressed by Russian actress Yelena Samarina as the particularly nasty madame for the stable of young women. These three actresses are all you’re likely to remember from this one. Sure, there’s nice camerawork and costuming but it’s a pretty stiff, messy affair.

 

Although not as bad as other Price films like the “Tower of London” remake or “Confessions of an Opium Eater”, this is a real mediocrity that even its charming star and a couple of decent supporting turns can’t do much to aid. It just doesn’t hold one’s interest for very long.

 

Rating: C

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