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Crucible of Horror (1970)

Corpse
Velvet House


Cast:

Michael "Alfred from Tim Burton's Batman" Gough is Walter Eastwood
Yvonne Mitchell is Edith Eastwood
Sharon Gurney is Jane Eastwood
Simon Gough is Rupert Eastwood
David Butler is Gregson


What the IMDB says about the plot:

A mother and daughter hatch a scheme to murder their family's domineering and sadistic patriarch.


Plot:

Walter Eastwood is acting creepy when he's not engaging his OCD traits and not trusting his family. His daughter, Jane, is hiding some money she's stolen. That night at dinner, Gregson, Walter's friend, stops by because of Jane writing some IOUs. Walter pays back the debts.

Later, Walter searches through Jane's room and finds the hidden money and whips out the belt. Elsewhere, Edith is starting to hear voices telling her to kill her husband, Walter.

The next morning, Edith convinces Jane to help her with the plan.

Walter heads up to the cottage for the weekend. Rupert (son), Jane, and Edith are unable to attend. Edith and Jane arrive at the cottage later that night and act nicey-nice as they get part of plans in order like spiking his drink, diconnecting the phone, etc... Edith grabs the gun.


For years I've had to listen to all the Clint Eastwood jokes...

She wants her freedom and to take Jane with her. Of course, being a tyrannical patriarch, he refuses to free her when the drink kicks in and falls over.

The ladies cover up their tracks, and pour water down Walter's throat before carrying upstairs to place him in this bed. They drive back home unaware that Walter looks not quite dead or just mostly dead.

They learn from Rupert that dear old dad hasn't got back to work on Monday morning. They head back to the cottage and find Walter's not where they left him but find his corpse stuffed in the outside trash bin.

Reid, the neighbor, talks with the ladies. He's unaware of his dog acting awfully intensed by the trash bin.

That night, on the drive back home, Walter's box gets dropped off into a pit quarry. At home, the 2 try to calm down when Edith keeps nightmaring. Walking around, she's shocked by a wax dummy of Walter and chased by a masked Walter... Suddenly, Walter checks in on Edith and Jane at breakfast when Rupert walks in. Edith sits at the table with a vacant stare on her face with no response.


What I say:

English horror/thriller movies weren't all from Hammer Studios in the early 1970s and automatically starred Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing. Well, Michael Gough starred in a number of the horror/thriller movies to earn his B-English horror stars: Satan's Slave, They Came from Beyond Space, and Trog. However, the late 80s and 1990s gave him a more known character: Alfred, Bruce Wayne's trusty butler from the start of Time Burton's Batman through the Perpetual Noctural Flying Rodent-Mammal to the Bat-Man and Robin.

Michael Gough is normally the background character be he the butler or villain. In this movie, he is to paraphrase the great philosopher George Thorogood, "bad to the bone." Gough is the family tyrant who believes in spoiling the rod to spare the child. This is the guy who should have been separated from his family because of his attitudes.

Some movies lose things in translation. However, Crucible of Horror wasn't translated. What makes this movie lose? Well, the ending comes straight out of base from a few states away. Was it a dream, hallucination, ghost, or the concept used on a Scooby Doo episode? The neighbor snooping around almost seems like a 1970s Columbo investigating. This is a more psychological thriller than the kind of movie with a title like Crucible of Horror would imply even with it's various other names: Corpse and Velvet House.



3 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"Doesn't matter which part, I can't manage it."
"I suppose there was a time when wigs were fashionable."
"I'm not bloody interested in what you should say!!!"
"Am I a nuissance?"
"Hey, Sam, wretched beast!"
"It's full of grammatical errors..."


Morals of the Story

Compuslive hand-washing was prevalent in the early 1970s...
Wigs are easy places to hide money.
Marquis de Sade is required reading material for teenagers.


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