House of 1,000 Dolls

White slavery is not a topic that gets much play nowadays, but it gets a full writeup in this film. And I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing.

The film has a very strange setup. Garcia plays a man looking for his wife, who has been abducted in Tangiers. He finds that she has been forced to work in a brothel, The House of Dolls. He's discovered and killed. His friend Nader then takes it upon himself to figure out what happened to Garcia. What he uncovers is a white slavery ring run by magician Price, who uses the female volunteers from his magic act to stock The House.

The odd thing about this movie is that everything is presented rather matter-of-factly. There's no surprise to anything. We find out in the first five minutes what Price is doing. We already know what happened to Garcia and his wife. It's a suspense movie with no suspense. They throw in a twist at the end, but who cares? It has so little to do with the movie that it's completely irrelevant. There's other problems. Price is billed first, but has only about 20 mins of screen time (in the second half mostly), and he doesn't appear to be having any fun. All of the actors in the movie appear to be speaking English, yet it sounds as though the whole soundtrack (which is in English) has been looped. It's never boring, but there's no action, no excitement, no nothing. Price fans may not even enjoy this one.

One of many international co-productions that Harry Alan Towers produced in the late 1960s, HOUSE OF A THOUSAND DOLLS was shot in Tangiers and is chiefly of interest for the casting of Vincent Price in a typical villain role. The story is about a magician and his wife assistant who front an international kidnapping ring, with the usual stock protagonist characters doing their best to break the ring and rescue the girls. Maria Rohm has a smaller role. The film itself is sunny but pedestrian, the thriller aspects pretty muted, although Price is of course good value when he's allowed to be.

Here in UK among the swelling amount of potty TV stations , there is one labeled Horror. It is very good at showing missing films from the 60s that are not as yet on DVD. This is not a horror film, waste of great title, just an action crime mystery.18 cert is odd too. A very bored looking Vincent Price along with equally bored all purpose actress Martha Hyer plays a famous magician who calls up pretty girls from the audience on stage to have them disappear completely, as they end up in the White Slave trade in Morocco run by a mystery mastermind.

The best thing by far in this, is lead George Nader, gay beefcake pin up of the 50s. Looking very smart in good suits as the investigator,this actor had moved to West Germany in the 60s.Here he found stardom again in a series of thrillers as Jerry Cotton. He would return to USA,to find he had been left a large money legacy from old friend Rock Hudson.He turned to being a successful author, dying at 80. No I didn't guess the mastermind, but it was so improbable like the rest of this movie. Low brow fun.

To begin with, this was yet another "Movies 4 Men" screening hampered by the usual garbled sound problems! It is also an example of a maligned Vincent Price film (Leonard Maltin says he "walks through it in a daze"!) which is actually not too bad. That said, the actor was not well served by "Euro-Cult" (this is a Spanish-German production, despite the British involvement of the writer-producer and director), as can also be gleaned from his sole Mario Bava collaboration DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS (1966)!

Price and co-star Martha Hyer are a couple engaged in a magic act (called Manderville, so that he is later mockingly dubbed "Mandrake"!) who are involved in the trafficking of women for the purposes of prostitution (they purposefully choose lonely girls to make them disappear both on stage and in real life but, of course, they are bound to slip sometime...because otherwise there would be no film!). Considering the subject matter and Towers' resume', this is remarkably chaste; in any case, the very first victim we see here (being transported in a coffin!) is none other than Maria Rohm aka Mrs. Towers. Her boyfriend sets on her trail, which leads him to Tangier, where he seeks the help of criminal pathologist George Nader (the hero inevitably played by an ageing Hollywood presence). Hindering their progress is local photographer Herbert Fux, while the proper Police investigation is carried out by Wolfgang Kieling (who had just been a villain, served with a memorable death scene, in Alfred Hitchcock's TORN CURTAIN {1966}).

Typically, the identity of the organization's head is a mystery to all; hence, the ultimate revelation proves quite a surprise...and, though it then transpires that Price was not as villainous as had been inferred, he still gets a melodramatic demise. By the way, I was surprised to notice the Maltese name of Charles Camilleri as the film's composer; actually, I had already heard his (only other film) work on Jess Franco's THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU (1968) and, interestingly enough, he died a couple of years back right in my home-town!

If you like Price, this is an offbeat roll for him as this is not straight classic horror, but a mystery thriller with some sexed up 60's kittens and a brothel.. The film takes place in Tangiers and it is basically a clever and tame way to present a plot involving the white slavery trade. The films promo makes one think this is a very prevalent and serious issue, and perhaps it ws then? who knows? Price is a magician of sorts who gets beautiful women to get into his live stage act and then they disappear to the house of 1000 dolls. No one close to them ever sees them again, until a couple gets curious about this phenomena. The ending is a twist that you would not expect.. Perhaps the most memorable thing about this film is the theme song which gets cut off in the VHS version but exemplifies 60's groove with some cheesy pop rifts.. I mean when my ex husband an I saw this in like 1990, we laughed and sang this song for years! Then we recently turned on a few friends to it who were equally amused! don't take it so seriously, get a Pizza on a rainy weekend night and cuddle up for some excitement and intrigue with House Of 1000 DollS!