This is one of those clunky, underpowered movies that doesn't seem to know what to do with itself once it establishes the basic premise, which seems to be to rip off a better known (and much better) Vincent Price movie. (Or to take the idea in a different direction, if you are feeling generous).Price's movie was a classic - this one, well, isn't.
Cameron Mitchell does his usual workmanlike job from behind an eye-patch, scars, an omnipresent cloud of cigarette smoke, and a cape that must be there to invoke the spirit of Quasimodo...or is it the Phantom of the Opera? (That costuming choice indicates everything that's wrong with the movie right there.) Give him credit,he's the best thing about "Nightmare", which gives you an idea of how dull and dumb the rest of the movie is, but I was thoroughly tired of him (and his character) by the end of the movie.
The director (and the screenplay) can't decide whether to go for horror, or soap opera, or Hollywood-is-a-snake-pit "Day Of The Locust" style intrigue. Problem is, the writing and the dialog isn't sharp enough to make any of those styles work.
One of the choices that sinks it is the casting of the role of main "diva" movie starlet, who is supposed to be the romantic desire of all manner of Hollywood leading men and producers. The role calls for Elizabeth Taylor - what we get is Anne Helm, who is mousy,immature, and unimpressive...and who talks in a little girl voice that is not at all compelling. She's OK to look at (if you like kewpie dolls), and she may have been the best they could get for this movie,but a sex bomb? Not hardly. She pretty much deflates every scene she's in. I see in IMDb that she actually got a lot of work in television (and good for her), but the director and cameraman didn't do her any favors here.
What the movie is really lacking, is energy and a sense of conviction. Do this same basic treatment with a British film crew, who would treat it like Shakespeare, and the odds are very good that the results would be quite watchable. But the movie just mopes along from one plot point to the next, and the whole thing just goes down the drain well before the end of the first act.
Also, the ending really sucks - it's a "surrealistic" cop-out that basically admits to the audience that the writer couldn't think of a good ending either.
Cameron Mitchell does his usual workmanlike job from behind an eye-patch, scars, an omnipresent cloud of cigarette smoke, and a cape that must be there to invoke the spirit of Quasimodo...or is it the Phantom of the Opera? (That costuming choice indicates everything that's wrong with the movie right there.) Give him credit,he's the best thing about "Nightmare", which gives you an idea of how dull and dumb the rest of the movie is, but I was thoroughly tired of him (and his character) by the end of the movie.
The director (and the screenplay) can't decide whether to go for horror, or soap opera, or Hollywood-is-a-snake-pit "Day Of The Locust" style intrigue. Problem is, the writing and the dialog isn't sharp enough to make any of those styles work.
One of the choices that sinks it is the casting of the role of main "diva" movie starlet, who is supposed to be the romantic desire of all manner of Hollywood leading men and producers. The role calls for Elizabeth Taylor - what we get is Anne Helm, who is mousy,immature, and unimpressive...and who talks in a little girl voice that is not at all compelling. She's OK to look at (if you like kewpie dolls), and she may have been the best they could get for this movie,but a sex bomb? Not hardly. She pretty much deflates every scene she's in. I see in IMDb that she actually got a lot of work in television (and good for her), but the director and cameraman didn't do her any favors here.
What the movie is really lacking, is energy and a sense of conviction. Do this same basic treatment with a British film crew, who would treat it like Shakespeare, and the odds are very good that the results would be quite watchable. But the movie just mopes along from one plot point to the next, and the whole thing just goes down the drain well before the end of the first act.
Also, the ending really sucks - it's a "surrealistic" cop-out that basically admits to the audience that the writer couldn't think of a good ending either.