Catacombs [The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die] *** (1964, Gary Merrill, Jane Merrow, Neil McCallum, Georgina Cookson) – Classic Movie Review 13,474

Gordon Hessler’s creepy low budget 1964 British horror thriller film Catacombs [The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die] stars Gary Merrill, Jane Merrow, Neil McCallum and Georgina Cookson.

Director Gordon Hessler’s creepy low budget 1964 British horror thriller film Catacombs [The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die] stars Gary Merrill, Jane Merrow, Neil McCallum and Georgina Cookson, along with Rachel Thomas, Jack Train and Frederick Piper. The screenplay by Daniel Mainwaring is based on Jay Bennett’s 1959 novel.

Wealthy, astute, difficult 50-something business woman Ellen Garth (Georgina Cookson)’s American husband Raymond (Gary Merrill) and her blackmailed reluctant male secretary (Neil McCallum) are in league in a complicated plot to bump her off. Ellen follows an Eastern religion that believes in coming back from the dead and can put herself in a trance when her hip injury is too painful.

Raymond plans to enjoy carrying on loving her beautiful young niece Alice (Jane Merrow) after Ellen is murdered. However, with the corpse buried in the potting shed, he soon finds himself haunted by his late wife. But is she still alive?

Catacombs is a typically convoluted, preposterous old-school mystery. It is rather creaky but nevertheless quite entertaining and enjoyable as quick-moving, escapist horror-thriller hokum, with a smart, knowing screenplay by legendary Daniel Mainwaring, and capable direction by Gordon Hessler. Gary Merrill, Jane Merrow, Neil McCallum are all good, but Georgina Cookson gives the film’s outstanding performance.

The film is co-produced by actor McCallum and Jack Parsons.

The film was shot at Shepperton Studios, Surrey, England.

Release date: 5 May 1965.

It is released as Catacombs by British Lion in the UK and by Warner Bros in the US as The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die.

It is Hessler’s first feature film after working on the TV series The Alfred Hitchcock Hour from 1962 until its cancellation in 1965. His next film is The Last Shot You Hear, made in 1967 but not released until 1969, the last film from prolific American film producer Robert L Lippert.

Daniel Mainwaring had a successful career as a mystery novelist (under the name Geoffrey Homes), worked as a film publicist and eventually abandoned fiction for a successful career as a screenwriter. His final published novel, Build My Gallows High is regarded as his best and he is legendary for its 1947 film noir adaptation (by himself as Geoffrey Homes), Out of the Past.

The cast

The cast are Gary Merrill as Raymond Garth, Georgina Cookson as Ellen Garth, Jane Merrow as Alice Taylor, Neil McCallum as Dick’Corbett, Rachel Thomas as Christine, Jack Train as solicitor, and Frederick Piper as Inspector Murcott.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,474

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