Torture Garden

Jack Palance - Ronald Wyatt
Burgess Meredith - Dr. Diabolo
Beverly Adams - Carla Hayes
Peter Cushing - Lancelot Canning
Michael Bryant - Colin Williams
John Standing - Leo
Barbara Ewing - Dorothy Endicott
Robert Hutton - Paul
John Phillips - Storm
Michael Ripper - Gordon Roberts
Bernard Kay - Dr. Heim
Maurice Denham - Colin's uncle
David Bauer - Charles
Niall MacGinnis - Doctor

Robert Bloch penned this horror anthology in which Burgess Meredith promises to reveal to his customers their innermost desires and promptly proceeds to indulge in a quartet of horror yarns. This anthology of grizzly tales linked by Meredith's gleefully sinister Dr Diabolo was produced by Amicus studios, one of the few British studios in competition with Hammer. The stories are developed economically and inventively, both from script and Freddie Francis' firm direction. The cast is competent, considering the apparent fast shooting schedule and limited productions expenditure.

Dr Diablo (Burgess Meredith), a creepy circus mystic, gives a special after-hours show to five willing patrons. The first, Enoch, involves Colin Williams (Michael Bryant) murdering his frail old uncle to get his hands on a fortune. But the uncle's telepathic cat uses Williams to stock up on its supply of the human heads he feeds on. The next story, Terror over Hollywood, focuses on would-be actress Carla (Beverly Adams), discovers the horrific secret of her favourite actor’s success and his seemingly eternal youth, Dr Heim (Bernard Kay) had turned her idol into a living automaton with a metal body beneath the flesh exterior. A similar fate befalls Carla, and the never-aging screen star is greeted at her premiere by an all-too truthful fan who cried out, 'Isn't she a beautiful, a living doll!’

Next up in a story entitled Mr Steinway is Carla’s friend Dorothy (Barbara Ewing), sent to interview piano virtuoso Leo (John Standing). The famous pianist's Steinway is possessed by the malevolent spirit of his dead mother, and when Dorothy falls in love with Leo his piano retaliates by forcing her through a window to her to death. The final and most effective segment, The Man Who Collected Poe, features an ardent collector (Peter Cushing) of all Poe’s works and memorabilia that he had the author raised from the dead so he could go on writing in his basement hideaway. Wyatt (Jack Palance), a fellow Poe obsessive, will do almost anything to achieve eminence in his hobby.