Not copyright. U.S. release through World Entertainment Corp./United Pictures: November 1966. U.K. release through Compton-Cameo: February 1967. Banned in Australia. 7,241 feet. 81 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Six people are summoned to a remote Caribbean island for a reading of a disfigured chemist's will. The chemist's ghost informs the heirs that one of them was directly responsible for his disfiguration. That night, the chemist's doctor is murdered. The housekeeper is also fatally attacked. Before dying, she explains that her master had created an electronic monster who has been programmed to kill the heirs one by one.
COMMENT: Even rabid Virginia Mayo admirers will be hard put to glean much satisfaction from this cheapjack "attraction". Not that the fault is Miss Mayo's. It's rather the ploddingly unexciting script and mindlessly static direction that are chiefly to blame for the movie's almost total lack of suspense. In fact, the only player who comes across with credit is Shelley Morrison who corners all the most colorful scenes and has all the attention-grabbing lines. The director seems to like her too. She gets just about all the close-ups - only the monster runs her anywhere close.
OTHER VIEWS: Any hopes aroused by the tensely ingratiating confrontation between Natividad Vacio and Shelley Morrison in the pre-credits Prologue, are quickly dashed by a couple of exceptionally tedious scenes of boring exposition before our travelers are eventually ensconced in the title castle.
Even the robotic zombie as woodenly enacted and none too convincingly made up, fails to inspire much interest, let alone terror. The plot invention leading to the monster's final demise is introduced with all the subtlety of an elephant stampede. Penny-pinching production values and an abrupt conclusion don't help either. - JHR writing as George Addison.
Lyon's direction is so labored, the film sinks without trace, despite competent performances from Scott Brady and Hugh Marlowe. - Monthly Film Bulletin.
SYNOPSIS: Six people are summoned to a remote Caribbean island for a reading of a disfigured chemist's will. The chemist's ghost informs the heirs that one of them was directly responsible for his disfiguration. That night, the chemist's doctor is murdered. The housekeeper is also fatally attacked. Before dying, she explains that her master had created an electronic monster who has been programmed to kill the heirs one by one.
COMMENT: Even rabid Virginia Mayo admirers will be hard put to glean much satisfaction from this cheapjack "attraction". Not that the fault is Miss Mayo's. It's rather the ploddingly unexciting script and mindlessly static direction that are chiefly to blame for the movie's almost total lack of suspense. In fact, the only player who comes across with credit is Shelley Morrison who corners all the most colorful scenes and has all the attention-grabbing lines. The director seems to like her too. She gets just about all the close-ups - only the monster runs her anywhere close.
OTHER VIEWS: Any hopes aroused by the tensely ingratiating confrontation between Natividad Vacio and Shelley Morrison in the pre-credits Prologue, are quickly dashed by a couple of exceptionally tedious scenes of boring exposition before our travelers are eventually ensconced in the title castle.
Even the robotic zombie as woodenly enacted and none too convincingly made up, fails to inspire much interest, let alone terror. The plot invention leading to the monster's final demise is introduced with all the subtlety of an elephant stampede. Penny-pinching production values and an abrupt conclusion don't help either. - JHR writing as George Addison.
Lyon's direction is so labored, the film sinks without trace, despite competent performances from Scott Brady and Hugh Marlowe. - Monthly Film Bulletin.