Sadly Over-hyped

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

just watch it!

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Most folks might hate this one, but I found it to be about as fast paced as these mysterious castle on a mysterious island films can be. Our Mr Fallon is some upper crust guy stranded on an island with the skipper of the ship. After hearing a woman being mauled to death in the middle of the night, the duo set off for help, only to be attacked by a giant man with a slingshot. Turns out this guy works for the Count De Sade, a guy so crazy that his craziness make a physical appearance and starts throwing bats and spiders at the guy! With that truly surreal scene over with, De Sade and our man Fallon (what with the skipper nursing a bad head wound, which turns out to be the least of his problems) have dinner together where we're introduced to Cassandra, another of the count's employees. She's thankfully not so crazy as the count, who believes that pirates are invading his home! Throw in a mute slave girl, and the big slave fella, and top it all off with what the count keeps in his basement, and you've got a full crazy-fest of doom!Fair enough there. This might be a very cheaply made (check out the toy boat!), badly acted b-movie, but there's plenty going on and a few good creepy moments thrown in to boot. For an early sixties film, it does seem to be a bit violent too, what with the whippings and the rack and such like. For those with low expectations and a forgiving mindset towards low budgets, I think you'll find something to enjoy here. I suppose even those out for a laugh at rubber spiders and amateur dramatics might enjoy it too.

Two survivors from a ship that crashed in the rocks wash ashore on the island of a count going mad (his madness "manifests itself" in the form of a devious fiend prone to histrionics), captured and at his mercy. The performers in this cheap Gothic dreck are a cast of zombies, as lifeless and tedious as the pacing of the film itself. Not one performance distinguishes itself enough to awaken the audience out of their slumber, and the subject matter doesn't help, either. There's a castle within the island setting, but due to a lack of skill in the direction, hardly any atmosphere is established (there are a couple of good moments, like a grim dungeon and certain cob-webbed rooms lit by torches), so therefore nothing can salvage this hokum or rescue it from the doldrums. Like a slow-moving poison, the pace is excruciating to the point of agony. Certain dialogue scenes between trapped hero Aaron Fallon (Russ Harvey, zero charisma and one giant bore of an actor) and the miserable Cassandra (Helen Hogan) stretch on and on to infinity, while William McNulty's deranged, sadistic Count Lorente de Sade fails to muster enough villainy for us to really enjoy his lunacy. The film has one GREAT sequence, however, when Fallon is chained to the castle's major dungeon as a maniacal leprous hand of the imprisoned Countess de Sade (Eunice Grey) frees herself from the room holding her at bay, slowly creeping towards him, so diseased she frightens him to the point his hair turns gray. Other characters include tormented mute servant girl, Ann (Michele Buquor) and black man-servant Mantis (Maurice Harris), both having endured Lorente's constant belittlement and mistreatment for quite a length of time under his rule. One thing this film has going for it and that is the bleakness of the setting under Count's demented supervision, his madness deriving mainly from the belief that pirates are certain to rob him. Mantis obeys Count practically all the way to his unfortunate fate. One scene that bugged the stew out of me was Aaron's disinterest in helping his ship's captain in a fight with Mantis, resulting in his own imprisonment in the castle dungeon. Cassandra has been Count's "companion" over the last few years, and the film tries to show the burden she has been under, but, like all the performances, she seems too bored to summon up the emotion to grip the audience. This film might've been a bit better had it been directed by someone more talented, but as is, "The Dungeon of Harrow" is a chore to get through, and I was delighted as it ended.

Words fail me – well nearly. Never heard of this one but it could well be a contender for one of the worlds worst movies – yes, it's that bad. Thankfully it's also great fun with a good few laugh out loud moments and i must say by the end i had a warm spot for it – no i don't mean Hell. Direction, photography, editing, performances all stink like week old fish but oddly the script has, in between plenty of crap dialogue some wonderfully lucid and poignant lines that could have come straight from the pages of a 19th century novel by M.R. JAMES or some other notable genre scribe of the period. The story itself is quite strong and given some money, a decent cast and crew there was a good movie waiting to be made here. Certainly worse than anything EDDIE WOOD ever did and i suspect this is what an ANDY MILLIGAN picture might look like – i've only seen trailers of that guy's .....'work'. At least originally it would have looked nice enough having been shot in EASTMAN COLOR – alas the print here ( on YOU TUBE ) had very faded colours.

This movie tries to be more than it is. First of all, the acting is horrible. You have to get past the incredibly bad delivering of lines and terrible emoting. The plot is quite interesting. A shipwreck occurs (apparently because it was made out of strings and balsa wood), and a couple of guys find themselves on shore. If this weren't bad enough, some guy named Count de Sade is living there as well. He lives in fear of pirates and has gone utterly insane. Anyway, he has a large slave, a young woman, and some dogs. There's another woman who doesn't speak and his wife, who is a leper. Anyway, things get bad as these men have to deal with this nut case. He is arrogant and likes to pose and deliver lines. The rest of the movie involves an attempt to escape. It has an ironic ending which I won't reveal and it kind of rescues the film. I wouldn't bother if I were you.