I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is one of those films from 1965 that my friends and I went to in our small-town movie theater. I remember it as being full of those jump-out-at-you moments with people in the theater screaming. Connie Stevens is the heir to her father's estate but must stay in the old house for seven days. He is one of the great magicians of his time and has promised, upon his death, to return to the house. The house itself is great fun, full of remnants of his magic world. There is a cabinet that opens when a switch is flipped, allowing a skeleton on a wire to come face to face with the unwary victim. The guillotine in question is part of the act that killed the man's wife and assistant. Stevens then was farmed out and never saw her father again. She also never knew what happened to her mother. It's full of fun stuff with a plot that shouldn't be too closely evaluated. There are two characters that are left out of the will who become suspects. What they really know is always in doubt. Connie Stevens was a cute TV star at the time and well worth watching and makes a good victim. She is stubborn on the one hand and terrified on the other. She can also scream with the best of them. Dean Jones (a long time Disney staple) plays the love interest.

"Two on a Guillotine" is an effective little BW chiller when aiming for the scares, but when that's not the case it becomes ponderous (the budding romance between the leads) and it in end too long-winded when it finally reach it very foreseeable conclusion. Still it's entertainingly solid with able performances by the ever delightful Connie Stevens and a charming Dean Jones. They work off each other rather well and the script stays compelling within its mystery building or trivial exchanges. Some slow spots, but never that distracting.In order to inherit her recently deceased father's fortune, his only daughter (who hadn't seen her father in years after an incident during a magic trick featuring her mother in a guillotine) must stay seven nights in his mansion. If not, the fortune is split between his carer and manager. Things soon get weird, but it hard to tell if it's just games or the house is really haunted. Although he did promise to return from the dead.The plot is a typical haunted house mystery (as nothing seems quite like what it is), but it's well presented and exemplary photographed. Director William Conrad mixes successfully the playful elements (an acceptable light-hearted funny bone) with the creepy moments (where it can draw some intensity). Cesar Romero is quite good as the illusionist too. An earnest little spook drama.

My Mom and I just watched this movie on DVD, not the greatest copy but very very viewable. some really good and creepy scenes that almost reminded me of the old black and white The Haunting. Also, there is a scene where the hero and girl are attending a 60's wild night club complete with Go Go girls in cages, I howled, but then the mood deepens as they stare at each other in lust, pure unadulterated lust. I was almost embarrassed for my dear sweet old Mom as the couple meet lips and violins swell and the camera swirls over them....it was truly a hitchcock moment. It was a long hot kiss and they end up horizontal. Worth the price of admission alone. I read one comment that there is no gore, HA! The opening scene where the magician pierces his wife on stage, plenty of blood and you see the sword goe thru her body! not for kiddies! To buy this movie on DVD, go to ioffer.com, click on movies and television and type in Two On A Guillotine. Look for the DVD cover with Romero's picture. It'll be a black and red cover. It is DVD and widescreen and excellent copy.

As for the gory movies of today, This movie is not as scary as The Nightmare On Elm Street. I wish this movie could be released to video. I haven't seen it, since I was a child. Please put this movie on tape I likewise wasn't fond of Parley Bear, when he played Mayor Roy Stoner, on The Andy Griffith Show.