The Black Torment **½ (1964, Heather Sears, John Turner, Ann Lynn) – Classic Movie Review 4443

‘Terror Creeps From the Fringe of the Fear to the Pit of Panic.’

Director Robert Hartford-Davis’s creepy 1964 British Rebecca-style chiller The Black Torment is set in 1780 in England, where a baron’s new second wife Lady Elizabeth Fordyke (Heather Sears) investigates the suicide and ghostly reappearances of the first Lady Fordyke.

The sanity of the baron, Sir Richard Fordyke (John Turner), is called into question when a number of evil events are laid at his door. Lady Elizabeth hears rumours that her new husband has secretly committed several murders. But his first wife’s sister is another suspect in the deaths.

The Black Torment (aka Estate of Insanity) is an effective minor costume Gothic horror mystery melodrama with stalwart playing by a good, none-too-starry cast of actors, a handsome, atmospheric production and solid plotting. Only the rather plodding, unimaginative direction holds it back.

Also notable in the cast are Ann Lynn, Joseph Tomelty, Peter Arne, Raymond Huntley, Patrick Troughton, Francis de Wolff, Edina Ronay, Annette Whiteley and Norman Bird.

The film is scripted by brothers Donald Ford and Derek Ford, who later wrote Corruption (1968) for Hartford-Davis. It is similar to the 1960s Hammer productions but is made by Tony Tenser and Michael Klinger’s Compton Films.

Heather Sears previously starred for Hartford-Davis in Saturday Night Out (1964),

The cast are John Turner as Sir Richard Fordyke, Heather Sears as Lady Elizabeth Fordyke, Ann Lynn as Diane, Peter Arne as Seymour, Norman Bird as Harris, Raymond Huntley as Colonel John Wentworth, Joseph Tomelty as Sir Giles Fordyke, Francis de Wolff as Black John, Patrick Troughton as Regis, Derek Newark as Tom, Edina Ronay as Lucy Judd, Annette Whiteley as Mary, Kathy McDonald as Kate, Roger Croucher as Brian, and Charles Houston as Jenkins.

The films of Robert Hartford-Davis: Crosstrap (1962), The Yellow Teddy Bears (1963), The Black Torment (1964), Saturday Night Out (1964), Gonks Go Beat (1965), The Sandwich Man (1966), Corruption (1968), The Smashing Bird I Used to Know (1969), Incense for the Damned (1970), Nobody Ordered Love (1972), The Fiend (1972), Black Gunn (1972) and The Take (1974).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4443

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