A Freddie Francis movie with Kim Novak, Donald Pleasence and Jack Hawkins... how bad can it be? Well, pretty lousy actually.
The movie starts with a car entering a psychiatric hospital. Then we hear from Dr. Tremayne that he's going to show us four extraordinary cases, after which we are subjected to them, in true porte-plumeau style. Err, wait a minute, wasn't there a movie called 'Asylum' (1972), a movie where (to finish this sentence, please re-read the paragraph above). So, by the end of the movie, you're pretty much expecting that the film will end in a similar way. Alas, it doesn't. The ending is even more ludicrous than the four stories you saw before. Yes, it's an invisible tiger. Yes, there's the story of Uncle Albert, a man on a painting who makes his next-of-kin ride on a bicycle (which makes them go back in time where they're observed by Albert, in the shape of a moving statue). Yes, it's a the man who falls in love with a tree (though, as he's married to Joan Collins, we cannot blame him). Yes, it's a man who has to devour the flesh of a maiden. And yes, the ending is even more ludicrous. (Although the last minute itself isn't too bad.)
Jennifer Jayne wrote only two movies (as Jay Fairbank). The other is "Son of Dracula" (1974). Avoid the ludicrous Tales and watch "Son of Dracula" and Roy Ward Baker's "Asylum" instead.
The movie starts with a car entering a psychiatric hospital. Then we hear from Dr. Tremayne that he's going to show us four extraordinary cases, after which we are subjected to them, in true porte-plumeau style. Err, wait a minute, wasn't there a movie called 'Asylum' (1972), a movie where (to finish this sentence, please re-read the paragraph above). So, by the end of the movie, you're pretty much expecting that the film will end in a similar way. Alas, it doesn't. The ending is even more ludicrous than the four stories you saw before. Yes, it's an invisible tiger. Yes, there's the story of Uncle Albert, a man on a painting who makes his next-of-kin ride on a bicycle (which makes them go back in time where they're observed by Albert, in the shape of a moving statue). Yes, it's a the man who falls in love with a tree (though, as he's married to Joan Collins, we cannot blame him). Yes, it's a man who has to devour the flesh of a maiden. And yes, the ending is even more ludicrous. (Although the last minute itself isn't too bad.)
Jennifer Jayne wrote only two movies (as Jay Fairbank). The other is "Son of Dracula" (1974). Avoid the ludicrous Tales and watch "Son of Dracula" and Roy Ward Baker's "Asylum" instead.