The Terror (Roger Corman, 1963)

Corman and his uncredited team of co-directors (among them both Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Nicholson) came up with one of Corman's (relatively) strongest movies here, pitting Nicholson and Boris Karloff against one another over the affections of Sandra Knight. Don't get me wrong, in many ways this movie is as terrible as anything Corman ever churned out, but at least it's jam-packed with atmosphere and scenery-chewing. Filmed just after Corman finished The Raven (he had five free days that had been budgeted for that one), Corman and his principal cast and crew knocked this out, in Hollywood terms, overnight.

The plot concerns one Andre Duvalier (Nicholson), separated from his regiment, who seeks shelter in a small house for the night after running into a lovely young woman who calls herself Helene (Knight) down by the sea. She drops hints that she can be found at the castle of Baron von Leppe (Karloff), and when Duvalier rides that way, he spies her in a window. Duvalier demands admittance, and the game is on: is Helene really a prisoner in the castle, or is she the ghost of Ilsa, von Leppe's wife, dead twenty years?

While Nicholson and Karloff do the jobs expected of them, the real lynchpin of this movie is Stefan (Dick Miller), von Leppe's servant, who's never quite sure which side he's on in this battle of wills. He doesn't get as much screen time as the stars of the film, but what we see of him makes me wonder how much fun this could have been had he ended up as the main character. Still, he lends an intriguing presence to an otherwise dull film. The rest of it's pretty useless, with nary a scare to be found and very few thrills on top of that, but it's not an awful way to kill eighty minutes if you happen to be in the mood for Corman. **

OK...it's not great by any means...but it's atmospheric and gloomy and mysterious and it's got Jack before he was JACK. It's not the fastest paced film in the world either...but it's good and fun to watch. So if you in for an interesting film that is a classic in the b-horror world...this is for you!!!

Jack Nicholson plays a french officer in Napoleon's army who ends up at the castle of Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff), after wandering around lost for seven months. He's met a mysterious girl who just might be a ghost! Von Leppe is pretty mysterious too! He's been in the castle for 20 years after murdering his adulterous wife, Ilsa. Is Ilsa the same girl that Jack ran into? And what about the strange witch who lives near the castle? And the hawk that seems to possess human intelligence? THE TERROR is one of Roger Corman's better films, leaving his infamous rubber monsters behind, in order to get under our skin with creeping undercurrents of fear and dread. Nicholson is great, actually showing some of the snearing stuff that would one day make him a megastar. Karloff is himself, in one of his better latter-day performances. Also watch for Jonathan Haze (Little Shop Of Horrors) as Gustav, and Dick Miller (Bucket Of Blood) as Von Leppe's faithful servant. Enjoy...