FANTASIA OBSCURA: Karloff, Nicholson, and Some Time to Kill With a Castle Set
There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure.
Sometimes, though, just because it’s a bargain, doesn’t make it worth having…
The Terror (1963)
(Dist: American International Pictures, Dir: Roger Corman)
There’s no figure in American cinema quite like Roger Corman (who just turned 90 last week). His champions cite his innovative approach to mounting independent productions and his having given many talented film makers their start in what’s been referred to as “The Corman Film School.” His detractors point to his draconian cost cutting and the way his need to produce product results in schlock over art more often than not.
Both sides can cite his 1963 film The Terror to buttress their arguments. For a film that exists solely to take advantage of a few extra days’ rental of the sets, there’s a lot of foreshadowing as to what’s to come from Hollywood over the next few decades that tries to overcome the limits of a cobbled-together-if-nonexistent story.
The film owes its existence to the American International film The Raven and its efficient production. At the end of 15 days of shooting, some of it improvised during the shoot, Corman found himself with a castle set that he’d rented but didn’t need. While some producers might have tried to negotiate a rebate and gotten some of their deposit back, Corman decided instead to mount another quickie production with what he had on hand.
He commissioned Leo Gordon and Jack Hill to come up quickly with a script built around the set, a story about a haunted castle. He got two of his actors on The Raven to stick around for another few days of shooting, built the rest of the cast with a handful of folk looking for work, and got busy shooting on the set with what looks like incomplete and conflicting story notes to work off of.
Andy Hardy putting on a show, this ain’t…
Boris Karloff’s participation in The Terror following his work in The Raven is both sad and puzzling. During this stretch of his career, he was taking whatever work he could, continuously busy on television and stage as well as smaller films; the fact that he was no longer a studio player and typecast so that he would be steered to only macabre works was likely a great frustration for him. (His voice work in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which raised his profile, was still three years in the future.) Furthermore, he was not enthusiastic with his experiences on doing The Raven according to other Corman and co-star Vincent Price; the fact that Corman promised him a $15,000 bonus for appearing in The Terror (that he would never see thanks to ‘Hollywood accounting’) suggests needs that trumped Karloff’s trepidation about the shoot.
Karloff’s character, Baron Frederick von Leppe, is the occupant of the castle Corman was desperately filming in the few days he had the set for. The Baron has spent the last few years isolated in his castle with his manservant Stefan (Dick Miller), coming to terms with having come home from war and killing his bride when he found her in the arms of another man. In fact, the only visitor he’s received since that horrible time is a soldier in Napoleon’s army (and fellow alum from The Raven), Lt. Andre Duvalier (Jack Nicholson) on his way back from the front, a visitor who claims that the Baron is not in fact alone in his abode.
There are plot points beyond this set up, involving the spirit of the Baron’s departed wife Ilsa (Sandra Knight), a witch who has her own plans for the Baron (Dorothy Newman), and a twisted reveal that feels like it was all thrown together in a hurry. Which, actually, it was; principal shooting revolved around Karloff doing three hurried days with that castle before it was taken away, interspersed with a few scenes in a part of Europe during that 1800s that can’t help looking like Big Sur, where the exteriors were filmed.
In terms of those exteriors, there’s some claim that the film’s associate producer did uncredited work shooting those scenes. And there’s every reason to believe that yes, the film’s AP Francis Ford Coppola, did actually lens these shots; the fact that these segments bear a strong resemblance stylistically to the scenes set in Sicily in The Godfather give the claim strong credence.
As fun as The Raven is to watch, its successor The Terror is just tortuous to sit through. There’s no spark or center to the story, which is to be expected from a script that had days, if not hours, to go from commissioning to shooting. And it shows every time an old pro like Karloff and a rising talent like Nicholson try and fail to find anything to work with in any of their scenes, either alone or together; their inability to make anything in the barely existing script work leaves them flustered to the point that you feel frustration too just by watching them.
While The Terror gives us a taste of what to expect from Nicholson and Coppola over the two decades following its release, it demonstrates succinctly the value of having a good script to work with; even some of the best talent available can’t go anywhere without one.
As well, it also proves that no, no matter how good you might be, that sometimes you should not consider serving leftovers; if you have a castle for a few days, get the damn deposit back!
NEXT TIME: Man, dig what some crazy cats will do to make the art scene…
