La casa de terciopelo

Right from the opening seconds we know that something is seriously wrong with the Eastwood family.

Mother and daughter (Yvonne Mitchell and Sharon Gurney) scurry about surreptitiously, like prisoners, while husband / father Walter Eastwood (Michael Gough) dominates, lurks, and spies on them. Walter is an irredeemable pig. He's also violent. His son, Rupert (Simon Gough) is a chip off the old blockhead. A mere dinner at home is a maddeningly tense experience. Calling this family "dysfunctional", would be like calling the sun "warm".

It doesn't take long to see where this is heading.

CRUCIBLE OF HORROR is sort of a familial version of DIABOLIQUE, up until the jaw-dropping-ly impossible, ambiguous, yet perfect ending. Many questions arise, such as, "Was it all a dream / fantasy?", "Was there something afoot PRIOR to the vengeful scheme?", "Were supernatural forces at work?". Of course, this is all left open-ended, so, it's up for debate. Worth a watch. See if you can figure it out.

Michael Gough gives one of his best performances...

Michael Gough is his creepy best as a sadistic man whose wife and daughter plot to kill him.But is he really dead?With more than a nod to DIOBOLIQUE this movie kinda creeps to an ambiguous(to me,anyway)end.I liked it.

This had all the ingredients to be a classic film, but ultimately doesn't quite completely hit the mark. The story revolves around the daughter and wife of a dictatorial and cruel man who concoct a seemingly clever method of killing him - making it look like suicide. After quite a muddled start, the film picks up pace once we witness the uncomfortably violent beating by Walter (played by Michael Gough) on his demure and beautiful teenage daughter Jane (Sharon Gurney).

Jane and her mother Edith decide enough is enough, and hatch their plan - but could it be that Walter is already one step ahead of them?

My favorite era for British horrors is the early 70s, and this film certainly delivers with its tense atmosphere, quirky direction and colorful dream sequences. The music is good too, and helps to really punctuate the action.

There's some good countryside locations, and the bonus of Michael Gough in a memorable role - seeing him immediately brought back memories of his role as the creepy butler in the first Hammer Dracula movie more than ten years earlier.

But the film ultimately belongs to Sharon Gurney, who gives an amazingly understated and moving performance as the troubled victim Jane. Besides being a beautiful 'English Rose', she has a wonderful screen-presence and charm, and as a viewer you desperately want her to triumph and find some happiness and peace away from her father.

The film builds well to a tense and unexpected climax - but ultimately the viewer is left feeling rather short-changed by an inexplicable and abstruse final scene - one which left me completely befuddled!

But, this aside, it is still a very enjoyable film for lovers of this genre, and it's a pity it doesn't seem to be more highly regarded than it maybe is.

Really a very good example of British repression.Michael Gough is a bullying sadistic father of "Jane" (played by the young and beautiful Sharon Gurney, daughter of English actress Rachel Gurney).The actors are top drawer and the script by Olaf Pooley is tight and suitably grim. The seemingly genteel facade of a respectable English family is ripped aside. The girl and her mother plot the ultimate revenge on Gough--but do they manage it? You'll have to try and track down this mini-gem to discover what happens. Or does it? Some exploitation of young Gurney with Gough playing some sort of nasty escapade with her whilst she is nude in a river - quite a revealing scene - and then a scene in her bedroom at night when he shows up with a thin cane and bends her over the vanity for a ferocious beating. Nice work also by Yvonne Mitchell as the worldweary mother who sees all and says little. She has a plan, though. If can find this one, buy it.

Even for the Seventies I found this quite a disturbing movie. Michael Gough plays a sadistic father and husband to Jane and Edith, and his son Rupert is not much better really. Anyway the two females hatch a plan to kill Gough whist he's away for the weekend. I won't spoil the ending but this is a very underrated British film filled with an impending sense of doom throughout. In fact there's hardly a smile in the entire film.