The Terror
Directed by Roger Corman et al
Written by Leo Gordon and Jack Hill
1963/USA
Roger Corman Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime
[box] Helene: The crypt! It must be destroyed, and with it the dead.[/box]
Roger Corman let all his proteges take a hand in this one. The result did not wow me.
Jack Nicholson plays Napoleonic officer Lt. Andre Duvalier. Somehow Andre has become detached from his regiment and meets up with the mysterious, beautiful Helene (Sandra Knight). She disappears and he searches for her only to be told by everyone there is no such person. Eventually she reappears and he follows her to the castle of Baron Victor Frederick Von Lippe (Boris Karloff) who also denies knowing anything about her.
Naturally, most everyone is lying. It turns out Helene may have something to do with the Baron’s young wife Ilsa, now long deceased …
Roger Corman was a great judge of talent. Although the bulk of the film was shot in only four days, the second-unit work was filmed over a nine month period by Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Jakob, Monte Hellman, Jack Nicholson, and Jack Hill. Too many cooks?
The story is all over the place and is the main problem. This may be the only wooden performance I have ever seen from Nicholson as well.
