The Black Castle *** (1952, Richard Greene, Stephen McNally, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr, Paula Corday) – Classic Movie Review 11,829

‘Terror Stalks Its Turreted Battlements… and Horror Crawls the Catacombs Beneath! This is the Night that Horror Walks on Two Feet!’

Director Nathan Juran’s 1952 black and white horror thriller The Black Castle stars Richard Greene, Boris Karloff, Stephen McNally, Paula Corday [Rita Corday] and Lon Chaney Jr in his last horror film for Universal Pictures.

Richard Greene plays British nobleman Sir Ronald Burton, who assumes the identity of Richard Beckett and travels to the Black Castle in the Black Forest to investigate the disappearance of a pair of his buddies who joined a hunt in Africa arranged by evil Austrian Count Carl von Bruno (McNally).

It soon turns out the Count (McNally) murdered the duo and now wants to do likewise to him, so he makes a desperate bid to escape from the Count’s black castle with the latter’s abused wife Countess Elga von Bruno (Corday).

This clichéd Gothic melodrama is rather slow moving but not unenjoyable, thanks to story and screenplay writer Jerry Sackheim’s brew of mystery, adventure, romance and Gothic horror, Irving Glassberg’s black and white cinematography, Bernard Herzbrun’s sets, and Juran’s atmospheric filming.

Unforgiveably, horror icons Karloff and Chaney Jr are pushed off to the sidelines as the castle’s doctor Dr Meissen and bodyguard Gargon. This leaves most of the acting work to lesser talents in Greene, McNally and Corday, but they are good enough, with offbeat choice McNally enjoying himself in the film’s best role of the sadistic villain.

Original director Joseph Pevney was unhappy with the script, but Universal Pictures refused to make his changes and he quit. Universal promoted art director Juran to director two weeks before filming. Bernard Herzbrun and Alfred Sweeney took over as art directors and designed the sets. It was shot in 20 days. Universal rewarded Juran with a contract.

Juran said Karloff ‘put so much into the character that wasn’t in the script’.

Universal premiered it as a Special Pre-Release Show on Halloween night on 31 October 1952 before the Los Angeles release on 20 November 1952.

The cast are Richard Greene as Sir Ronald Burton, Boris Karloff as Dr. Meissen, Stephen McNally as Count Carl von Bruno, Paula Corday [Rita Corday] as Countess Elga von Bruno, Lon Chaney Jr as Gargon, John Hoyt as Count Steiken, Michael Pate as Count Ernst von Melcher, Nancy Valentine as Therese von Wilk, Tudor Owen as Romley, Henry Corden as Fender, Otto Waldis as Krantz the Innkeeper.

Rita Corday was born Jeanne Paule Teipo-Ite-Marma Croset on 20 October 1920. RKO Pictures signed her to a long-term contract in 1942. She married producer Harold Nebenzal in 1947 and retired to raise a family but returned in 1951, credited as Paula Corday.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,829

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