Horrors Of The Black Museum is a 1959 British American horror film. Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel wrote the original story and the screenplay, Arthur Crabtree was the director. While Herman was mostly a producer of B films, he did pen several that I've seen, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, How To Make A Monster, The Headless Ghost, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Konga, Berzerk and Craze. No real gems there, but somewhat entertaining in their way. Aben started writing films in 1932 but only a couple of titles are familiar. He did some TV in the early 50s and then he started working with Herman on a bunch of pictures.
Arthur Crabtree directed 16 movies between 1945 and 1959, this was the last. I'm betting his most beloved film among 50s SF and horror fans would be the 1958 film Fiend Without A Face. It's a darn good one. Arthur directed 12 episodes of the 1958 Roger Moore TV show Ivanhoe. I remember liking that show when I was a kid but the few I've seen in recent years just weren't as entertaining to the older me.
A woman is killed with a pair of trick binoculars, spikes pierced her eyes when she used them. Michael Gough is a crime writer and journalist, he stops in at the police station to have a look at the murder weapon. That's Michael on the right. On the left is Geoffrey Keen, he's Superintendent Graham, the other fellow is John Warwick, he's Inspector Lodge. Long term Brit film fans will know Geoffrey, he's has been in way too many movies and TV shows to mention. John was an Australian fellow who was in the holy grail of TV shows for me, he was a copper in 4 episodes of The Flying Doctor.
Michael has a secret museum of weapons and torture devices in his basement. Michael has an assistant called Rick. Michael is a bat shit crazy murderer.
It's a fairly good film with interesting stuff going on. It's moody and a bit creepy. Good actors with a good script, and plenty of nice locations, sets and props. I thought it was worth a look when I was done. I picked up a DVD and will want to watch it again.
You can try it out on YouTube here, sadly some guys blather on at the start, the middle, and at the end of the picture. You can fast forward them or listen. If you are watching a YouTube video you can use the left and right keyboard arrows to jump ahead, or back, 5 seconds at a time. It doesn't work during the ads.
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