Dos en la guillotina

This was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up. They just don't make movies like this anymore. I have been trying to find this movie on VHS or DVD for years, apparently it is not available to buy, which doesn't make any sense considering there are a ton of stupid movies out there by the billions and none of this one - which is one of the greatest movies ever! I really hope that Two On A Guillitine comes out on video really really soon, this movie mesmerized me when I was very young, it would be nice to go back to it again! It wasn't a gory type of movie, I am surprised it's considered a thriller actually. I never thought of it as scary. But it definitely should get a lot more credit, A LOT MORE!!!!

Connie Stevens was a huge favorite in the 60's due to her appearances on Warner Brothers great hit TV show "Hawaiian Eye" Connie was also cast in WB hit films such as Parrish and Susan Slade both with her friend and WB's big male star Troy Donahue. Troy was announced for this film but rebelled and was placed on suspension. Troy finally came to his senses and retuned to WB and starred in "My Blood Runs Cold". Troy hd everything going for him at WB with hits like Parrish, Rome Adventure, Palm Springs Weekend but asked for his early release from his 7 year contract. Troy claimed JL Warner blackballed him in the Industry.

This suspense movie was I think Max Steiner's last film at WB. Steiner made many movies better with his music! An Artist!

Troy was replaced in this film by the very able Dean Jones and together with Ms. Stevens were very effective. The film with top notch WB production values was directed by William Conrad. Connie after 5 years at WB got first billing on a picture. Connie was a star at WB. Natalie Wood was the Queen of the WB Lot, but Connie drew more fan mail.

This is what I would have called a "studio picture" made with contract players at the studio: some example: Diane McBain, in "Claudelle Inglish" , Clint Walker and Edd Byrnes om "Yellowsyone Kelly" Troy Donahue on "My Blood Runs Cold". Ty Hardin in "Wall Of Noise" Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Ty Hardin and Bob Conrad in "Palm Springs Weekend". Troy Donahue and Diane McBain in "A Distant Trumpet", Diane McBain in "Black Gold". Shirley Knight in "House of Women"

Like some others who've seen this film as children, I have fond memories of Two On a Guillotine when it played as a Friday night movie on network TV in the mid-1960s. The sight of a lifeless Cesar Romero being lowered into a grave in a glass coffin at the beginning sets the spooky tone for the rest of the story. His character, a famous magician, promised to one day perform his greatest feat of all by returning from the dead. His wife (identical to his daughter) died some years before when he botched the guillotine trick she was assisting with. Without giving anything away, a lot of the suspense is built on the anticipation of his re-materializing at any time, to the horror of his daughter. This is a movie which has many of the elements necessary for genuine horror. No spilled guts, no splatter. It works on a neater, more effective plane.

This is one of those films from 1965 that my friends and I went to in our small-town movie theater. I remember it as being full of those jump-out-at-you moments with people in the theater screaming. Connie Stevens is the heir to her father's estate but must stay in the old house for seven days. He is one of the great magicians of his time and has promised, upon his death, to return to the house. The house itself is great fun, full of remnants of his magic world. There is a cabinet that opens when a switch is flipped, allowing a skeleton on a wire to come face to face with the unwary victim. The guillotine in question is part of the act that killed the man's wife and assistant. Stevens then was farmed out and never saw her father again. She also never knew what happened to her mother. It's full of fun stuff with a plot that shouldn't be too closely evaluated. There are two characters that are left out of the will who become suspects. What they really know is always in doubt. Connie Stevens was a cute TV star at the time and well worth watching and makes a good victim. She is stubborn on the one hand and terrified on the other. She can also scream with the best of them. Dean Jones (a long time Disney staple) plays the love interest.

"Two on a Guillotine" is an effective little BW chiller when aiming for the scares, but when that's not the case it becomes ponderous (the budding romance between the leads) and it in end too long-winded when it finally reach it very foreseeable conclusion. Still it's entertainingly solid with able performances by the ever delightful Connie Stevens and a charming Dean Jones. They work off each other rather well and the script stays compelling within its mystery building or trivial exchanges. Some slow spots, but never that distracting.

In order to inherit her recently deceased father's fortune, his only daughter (who hadn't seen her father in years after an incident during a magic trick featuring her mother in a guillotine) must stay seven nights in his mansion. If not, the fortune is split between his carer and manager. Things soon get weird, but it hard to tell if it's just games or the house is really haunted. Although he did promise to return from the dead.

The plot is a typical haunted house mystery (as nothing seems quite like what it is), but it's well presented and exemplary photographed. Director William Conrad mixes successfully the playful elements (an acceptable light-hearted funny bone) with the creepy moments (where it can draw some intensity). Cesar Romero is quite good as the illusionist too.

An earnest little spook drama.