Acceptable horror movie revolving around a mysterious sculptor and an eerie basement with plenty of murders , creepy sculptures and ghastly events . A blind sculptor called Franz Badulescu (Boris Karloff) works on his magnum opus unaware that the skeletons he has been using for armatures are provided by his nasty wife , using them as foundations for his projects : some evocations of famous paintings . As Karloff unaware that the bones come from the unfortunate victims of his heinous wife Tania (Viveca Lindfors) and her murderous lover , the evil Shanghai (Milo Quesada) . Along the way , the French journalist Claude Marchand (Jean-Pierre Aumont) is in the little town of Torremolinos (Spain) to interview Badulescu for a magazine and posing as a photographer attempts to know some strange issues about him . Things go wrong when his sweetheart Valerie (Rosanda Montero) stumbles upon the body of her latest victim . Tops In Total Horror!
Thrilling Spanish horror with typical characteristics of the Sixties , displaying chills , shocks , fights , violence and a creepy acid-filled cauldron with abundant smoke . Despite a few escenarios and its shot budget the movie results to be passable , thanks to the adequate filmmaking , atmospheric cinematography taking nice use of lights and shades as well as camera positioning to complement appropriate horror set pieces , especially at its final . And main attraction of the movie lies on watch as Torremolinos (Malaga) has changed from a little tourist village to become , nowadays , a holiday metropolis . Here Karloff plays a blind sculptor , who creates his masterpieces-3D representations of figures from old masters-using real skeletons as armatures provided by his wicked wife by delivering undercoverly the remains of the victims , being well played by Viveca Lindfords , though she gives overacting , at times . One of the several movies Karloff played outside the US shortly before his death , along with his Mexican period ; this one is far from one of his best , but better than those directed by Jack Hill and Juan Ibañez . Karloff had a long and important career from his big hit Frankenstein (1932) by James Whale , he quickly appeared in many other sinister roles , including Scarface (1932) , the black-humored Old dark house (1932), as the namesake Oriental villain of the Sax Rohmer novels in The Mask of Fu-Manchú (1932) or as undead Im-Ho-Tep in The Mummy (1932) and the misguided Prof. Morlant in The Ghoul (1933) and special mention for his role as a religious fanatic in John Ford's The Lost Patrol (1934) that hee thoroughly enjoyed . He donned the signature make-up , neck bolts and asphalt spreader's boots again to play Frankenstein's monster in the extraordinary The bride Frankenstein (1935) and the less thrilling The son of Frankenstein (1939) . Karloff , on loan to Fox , turned up in one of the best of the Warner Oland Chan entries , Charlie Chan in the Opera (1936) . He was a wrongly condemned doctor in Devil's Island (1939), shaven-headed executioner "Mord the Merciless" in Tower of London (1939) , a crazed scientist surrounded by monsters, vampires and werewolves in House of Frankenstein (1944), a murderous grave-digger in The Body Snatchers (1945) and a Greek general fighting vampirism in Val Lewton's Horror Isle of the Dead (1945). Main starring Jean Pierre Aumont , Karloff , Viveca Lindfors , Rosanda Monteros are well accompanied by a good Spanish support cast , such as : Milo Quesada , Dyanik Zurakowska , Manuel de Blas , Rubén Rojo , all of them ordinary actors who played a lot of films of the regular genres of the Sixties and Seventies as Spaghetti/Paella Western , Terror , Giallo , and Eurospy .
The picture was professionally written/produced/directed by Santos Alcocer and Edward Mann, but it has a lot of failures , flaws and gaps . These filmmakers use ordinary visual tricks, sustaining interest enough through the dark and well-designed scenarios and when there shows up the really creepy acid-filled cauldron that definitively steals the show. The picture will appeal to terror genre buffs and Boris Karloff fans . Rating 5.5/10.
