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2014.01.08
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The City of the Dead (1960) a.k.a. Horror Hotel - Xvid 1cd - Christopher Lee Horrror Witchcraft [DDR]
The City of the Dead (U.S. title: Horror Hotel) is a 1960 horror film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Christopher Lee and Valentine Dyall. Produced in England but set in America, the British actors were required to speak with American accents throughout.
CAST:-
Dennis Lotis as Richard Barlow
Christopher Lee as Alan Driscoll
Patricia Jessel as Elizabeth Selwyn / Mrs. Newless
Tom Naylor as Bill Maitland
Betta St. John as Patricia Russell
Venetia Stevenson as Nan Barlow
Valentine Dyall as Jethrow Keane
Ann Beach as Lottie
Norman Macowan as Reverend Russell
Fred Johnson as The Elder
James Dyrenforth as Garage Attendant
Maxine Holden as Sue
William Abney as Policeman
Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
Produced by Seymour S. Dorner, Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky, Donald Taylor
Screenplay by George Baxt
Story by Milton Subotsky
Music by Douglas Gamley
MOVIE REVIEW:- City of the Dead - Horror Hotel (1960)
On the recommendation of her professor (Christopher Lee), a young female student (Venetia Stevenson) travels to the fictional Massachusetts town of Whitewood to do some research into witchcraft. She finds the town occupied by the reincarnation of an infamous witch (Patricia Jessel) burned at the stake in the 17th century; in order to sustain her immortality, virgins must be sacrificed to her every year – and this year, the student has been the chosen victim.
CITY OF THE DEAD in COMPARISON to PSYCHO
This film has been compared to Psycho due to structural similarities. Both films begin by establishing an attractive blonde woman as the viewpoint character, leading the audience to assume she will be the protagonist through the rest of the story. In both films, the blonde travels to a remote location and checks into a hotel or motel run by an eccentric manager. In both cases, the audience's expectations are shattered before the midpoint of the story when the blonde is abruptly stabbed to death. IMDb notes that "The City of the Dead (1960), a British horror picture that was released three months after Hitchcock's film, seems to have independently hit upon the idea of killing its [blonde] protagonist before the film is half over"
and on another page notes that "Both [films] have as protagonists attractive blonds who are unexpectedly killed off less than halfway through the film while staying at a remote hotel/motel. Both have a sibling--in Psycho it's a sister, in City of the Dead a brother--who go looking for them. Both siblings are joined in the investigation by someone of the opposite sex..And both are joined by a third person who gets killed" Both films include a "shock" scene in which a corpse is revealed, and both films were released in the same year (1960). A review in Images, remarks about City of the Dead that
This story has several striking similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. In both cases, a heroine drives to an isolated town, well off the main road, and stays at a hotel. After she disappears, police investigate but make little progress. So a sibling and a lover continue the investigation--and are nearly killed for their efforts. In addition, in scenes very near the end of each movie, the hero sees someone sitting in a chair and tries to talk to them. He turns the chair and discovers a corpse. The heroine screams. This last scene is so similar to Psycho that it seems absurd to think there is no connection between the two movies. But as director Moxey and star Stevenson point out during the supplementary interviews on VCI Entertainment's disc, The City of the Dead was released BEFORE Psycho. (So is it possible the reverse is true? Was Psycho affected by The City of the Dead?)
Other sources state that City of the Dead was released 3 months after the premier of Psycho. Psycho was released June 16, 1960 in the United States, The City of the Dead released September, 1960 in the United Kingdom. However, since the two films were produced an ocean apart at virtually the same time - The City of the Dead began shooting October 12, 1959, while Psycho started November 11, 1959 - the plot similarities must be mere coincidence. The earlier production date gives a little credence to producer Milton Subotsky's claim that "...we did it first."
SYNOPSIS:- City of the Dead - Horror Hotel (1960)
George Baxt scripted this extraordinarily good chiller from a story by Milton Subotsky, who also co-produced. A college student (Venetia Stevenson) with an interest in witchcraft goes to the Massachusetts town of Whitewood. It's a foggy, spooky town which gets even scarier when Stevenson discovers that the owner of the Raven's Inn, Mrs. Newlis (Patricia Jessel) is in fact a 268-year old witch. Jessel sold her soul to the Devil to regain her life after being burned at the stake. The whole town is her coven, including Stevenson's kindly history professor (Christopher Lee). Stevenson's boyfriend and brother arrive to look for her and discover human sacrifices and all sorts of evil goings-on. One of the few horror films of the period which still has the power to frighten, Horror Hotel is required viewing for genre fansOn 3 March 1692, in Whitewood, Massachusetts, the witch Elizabeth Selwyn is sentenced to be burned at the stake, and her partner Jethrow Keane asks Lúcifer to save her. About three hundred years later, the college student Nan Barlow decides to spend her vacation in the town to research witchcraft. Her professor Alan Driscoll suggests Nan to lodge in the Ravens Inn, managed by Mrs. Newless. Once in the village, the naive Nan is advised by the local priest, Reverend Russell, to immediately leave the place, where devil has ruled over for three hundred years, but she decides to stay and find that she is in a coven of evil witches. Nan vanishes, and the granddaughter of Reverend Russell, Patricia Russell, pays a visit to Nan's skeptical brother, Richard Barlow, and her boyfriend Bill Maitland, and they decide to follow her steps. Once in New England, they realize that a group of immortal witches have to sacrifice two beautiful women per year, one on Candleman Eve on February 1st, and the other on the Witch Sabbath, to stay alive forever, and only the shadow of a cross would be able to destroy them
     
       
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Video Bitrate: 855 kbps
Video Resolution: 640x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec: 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages:English
RunTime 76 mins
Subtitles: NONE
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 76 mins |
