Lon Chaney Jr. stars as a family chauffeur and caregiver of three orphaned siblings suffering from a rare disease that sees them mentally and socially regress sometime around the age of pubescence. They live in a creepy old mansion pretty much left to themselves, until distant cousins Peter and Emily (Quinn Redeker, Carol Ohmart) come a-knocking. With a lawyer named Schlocker (of course) in tow, they hope to claim the property for themselves. Unfortunately, these kids and their guardian don’t take kindly to being removed from their rightful home, and set about dealing with their intruders in a truly bizarre and homicidal manner. Jill Banner plays Virginia, who likes to play an unusual and dangerous game called ‘Spider’, whilst Beverly Washburn is her equally kooky sister Elizabeth, and Sid Haig rounds out the siblings as hulking, mute man-child Ralph. Mantan Moreland has a role early on as a frightened delivery man (Racist Stereotype #3, I believe).
Top exploitation writer-director and AIP alum Jack Hill made his directorial debut with this cult favourite, which is a true oddity. Some of the basic plotting is familiar (halfway between “The Old Dark House” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) and has a bit of an “Addams Family” vibe about it but for the most part I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s hard to look away from it, no matter what one ultimately makes of it. I bet it through audiences in 1964 for a loop.
Despite only costing about $65, 000, this is a pretty damn good-looking film, with impressive B&W cinematography by Alfred Taylor (something called “The Atomic Brain”) as a highlight. There’s some good camerawork but especially fine is the depth of field and use of shadow throughout. The music score by Ronald Stein (“The Terror”, “The Haunted Palace”, “Dementia 13”) is a little less juvenile than most of the scores for AIP films (especially those by Les Baxter), but it does still feature way too much oboe (or is it a clarinet?) for my liking. It’s certainly a bit more varied, at any rate.
The cast is really eclectic and mostly pretty impressive I must say. The standouts are Sid Haig and Lon Chaney Jr., no doubt about it. Haig steals the film from moment one with a really oddball turn, making the most out of what little he is given. Chaney, meanwhile, is one of the most underrated actors of all-time and brings a peculiar sincerity to the otherwise batty proceedings. He was a damn good actor who rarely got a proper chance. Jill Banner is unforgettable as the creepy Virginia, and looks a bit like a young Barbara Steele. Quinn Redeker (who has a kind of Robert Culp vibe to him), who would later gain some success as dapper businessman Rex Sterling on “The Young and the Restless”, is perfectly fine in a sort of straight man role. Meanwhile, I hope the film’s $5 budget mostly went to paying Mantan Moreland, once again given a servile, somewhat racist role. The comedic actor isn’t looked back on terribly fondly in this PC era, but he did his job with what he was given, it’s not really his fault. Then again, it’s not our fault that his performances now prove hard to watch without cringing, either.
OVERALL SUMMARY
This is a B film through and through, and a not very expensive film at all. It’s definitely a worthwhile experience for those in tune with its…oddities.
