Crucible of Horror (1971)

Waste of time

Instant Favorite.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

"Crucible of Horror" a.k.a. "The Corpse" is a moderately enjoyable, little-seen psychological thriller from Britain. Michael Gough stars as Walter Eastwood, domineering patriarch of a repressed family, and a case study in misogyny. He has little time for his wife (Yvonne Mitchell) and teen aged daughter (Sharon Gurney), and his son (played by Goughs' real-life son Simon) shamelessly sucks up to him. The two females eventually decide that they've lived with his various forms of abuse for far too long, and plot to do him in. They poison him, and make it look like a suicide. Then...when they get back to the family cottage, they find that the corpse has disappeared.Overall, the film is fairly well made by director Viktors Ritelis, who often favours surrealism, close-ups of eyes, and quick cutting. Still, it pales when compared to its obvious inspiration, "Les Diaboliques". It just doesn't have the same amount of style, imagination, or tension. The plodding tale was scripted by actor Olaf Pooley (who also plays the role of the architect Reid), and it's not completely without interest as a look at a dysfunctional upper crust family. It does have an eerie, haunting music score by John Hotchkis going for it, as well as decent use of locations.The acting helps to keep it watchable. Your heart does go out to the sad-eyed Mitchell. Gough Sr. plays this a lot more straight than you would expect him to, in a genre role, and he's excellent. Gough Jr. is okay, but then he doesn't have all that much to work with; his sexy co-star Gurney (soon to be seen in the fantastic Brit horror classic "Deathline") has been his wife in real-life to this day.The ending can be interpreted in more than one way, and it's not going to satisfy all viewers; this viewer has to admit to being somewhat disappointed.Certainly this obscurity is worth a look for the curious; mild doses of nudity and violence add some spice to what is basically a dreary tale.Six out of 10.

A wealthy man's wife and daughter plot to kill the nasty brute who is greatly abusive to the both of them. Taking this past the plot line of the cult French film "Diabolique", this brings on a horror element to a familiar plot and ties mother and daughter together in a way that binds them externally. The only real shocker is their inability to dispose of Gough's corpse as it keeps showing up again Michael Gough, the talk and lanky British character actor, played many villains in his career, and this one is one of the most despicable. Yvonne Mitchell and Sharon Gurney give crafty but sensitive performances as two women you truly root for to get away with their crime. There's a lull between the murder and the repercussions, and with a spoiled son in danger of discovering their secret, this lull brings on a great level of suspense.It's funny to see how much Michael Hough resembles Anthony Perkins who played his share of horror villains himself. This is more a psychological thriller than a horror movie, and for that, this really doesn't belong in horror movie DVD collections. Michael's son Simon plays his son here, although this is isn't a really large part.

Michael Gough plays a man who routinely berates his wife and his daughter--sometimes even beating them. They've had enough, kill him and dump the body. However they start realizing that they may have not killed him...or is it his vengeful ghost coming to take revenge?Yup--it's a British redo of the French classic "Diabolique". As with most remakes this is pretty terrible. There's absolutely no reason to remake "Diabolique" at all. Over here in the US it was remade AGAIN in 1996. That version was bad but this is much much worse. It's slow, dull, poorly directed and thoroughly predictable. Also the ending is handled so badly that most people won't have a clue as to what just happened! It has a great cast (Michael Gough is magnificent as usual) but it's just so poorly made you won't care. Unless you're dying to see every ripoff of "Diabolique" you can safely skip this.

Might be spoilers This film focuses on the odd relationship of an affluent British family that could easily be described as "dysfunctional." The mother (Mitchell) locks herself away in the house to work on her paintings, the father is obsessed with order and cleanliness, the son is his old man's lap dog and the daughter (Gurney) is the oddest of the lot. After father (Michael Gough) is informed that his daughter has robbed the country club's golf shop, he beats her with a bit of wood. The following morning mother and daughter decide to rid themselves of the domineering patriarch.The women refuse to attend the family's weekend retreat at their isolated cottage so father heads out by himself for some hunting and relaxation while his son Rupert (SImon Gough) stays in the city to hobnob with clients. The cottage becomes a sanctuary for daddy who hunts birds and listens to classical music without the intrusion of his irrational female family members. But the two dames show up unexpectedly with intentions of poisoning dear old dad and setting up the scene as a suicide. But the women's plans were not well thought out and when they return to the cottage, believing that they killed the old man, they find his bed neatly made and his corpse missing.STORY: $$$$$ (Olaf Poolay writes a very strong story with exceptional characterization. This is a real horror movie that focuses on the inner terror rather than an outwardly psycho with a hatchet. What begins as a sort of a feminist's dream--women standing up for themselves and demanding personal freedom--evolves into a statement on female irrationality. The two women yearn for the shackles of the man's world to be removed but once they are taken off, they have no direction--no purpose. I can see how women could hate this movie).ACTING: $$$$ (The acting is top notch all around. Michael Gough is brilliant as the father. He expertly plays this demanding character and the viewer gets the sense that he has started a family not because he wanted a wife and children but because that is what is expected of respectable men. He is far more content alone at his cottage and even busying himself at work than he is around his wife and daughter, who are a constant source of annoyance. Yvonne Mitchell is equally strong as the passive mother who devises the plan to murder Michael Gough but needs the support of her daughter to carry it off. Sharon Gurney showed quite a bit of talent as the eccentric daughter but her career never took off. She does a stellar job with the tortured, misunderstood young lady role).NUDITY: $$ (Very little here. There are a few breast flashes from Sharon Gurney but nothing gratuitous. She is shown skinny-dipping in a creek when Michael Gough catches her and beats her. It is his goal to make certain that she doesn't fall for some "shaggy-haired lay-about.")