Crucible of Terror ** (1971, Mike Raven, James Bolam, Mary Maude, Ronald Lacey, Melissa Stribling) – Classic Movie Review 5601

The old House of Wax (1953) plot is revamped for co-writer/ director Ted Hooker’s fairly stirring 1971 British horror film starring former BBC radio disc jockey Mike Raven as a mad artist/ sculptor, who kills his models and covers their bodies in wax.

He makes a bronze cast of them to sell and it seems that he is possessed by the spirit of the first young woman he murdered.

Co-writer/ director Ted Hooker’s début is bitty but sometimes involving and atmospheric thanks to the lip-smackingly hammy performances and Cornish exteriors filming. Raven gets by creepily, while practised hands James Bolam, Ronald Lacey and Melissa Stribling know what they are doing.

Also in the cast are Mary Maude, Betty Alberge, John Arnatt, Beth Morris, Judy Matheson, Kenneth Keeling and Me Me Lai.

It is an adult horror with a 18 certificate.

It runs 93 minutes, is made by production company Glendale, is released by Scotia-Barber, is written by Ted Hooker and Tom Parkinson, is shot in Eastmancolor by Peter Newbrook, is produced by Peter Newbrook and Tom Parkinson, and is scored by Paris Rutherford.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5601

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