The City of the Dead [Horror Hotel] *** (1960, Christopher Lee, Dennis Lotis, Patricia Jessel, Betta St John, Valentine Dyall, Venetia Stevenson, Tom Naylor) – Classic Movie Review 4288

College professor Christopher Lee sends his student Venetia Stevenson to a creepy Massachusetts town to research witchcraft, in John Moxey’s rough-edged but effective 1960 British horror movie The City of the Dead [Horror Hotel].

Venetia Stevenson plays Nan Barlow, a co-ed student studying the occult who disappears at the creepy Raven’s Inn in fictional Whitewood, Massachusetts, in director John Moxey’s rough-edged but effective 1960 British horror movie The City of the Dead [Horror Hotel] that plays like a witchcraft version of Psycho. Its eerie supernatural terror tale is written by George Baxt and executive producer Milton Subotsky.

Dennis Lotis and Tom Naylor play Nan’s brother Richard  ‘Dick’ Barlow and her fiancé Bill Maitland, who arrive on the scene to look for her. Christopher Lee also stars as Stevenson’s spooky university history professor Alan Driscoll, predictably up to no good (he is a secret member of Whitewood’s coven), while Betta St John plays antiques dealer Patricia Russell, and Patricia Jessel looks remarkably good for a witch burned at the stake 270 years previously (she is reincarnated as the innkeeper Mrs Newless).

It starts as the witch Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel) is burned at the stake in Whitewood in 1692. But she and her accomplice Jethrow Keane (Valentine Dyall) have sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for eternal life and revenge on Whitewood by providing two annual virgin human sacrifices on the Hour of Thirteen at Candlemas Eve and the Witches’ Sabbath.

Some of the acting lacks finesse, as does the low-cost production, but the tension steps up as the film goes along, there is a fine eerie atmosphere throughout, and it all builds to a reasonably exciting climax. Christopher Lee has trouble with the North American accent, but he’s as classy as ever in the show’s best turn. It may not be a masterpiece, but it is still a prized minor icon of its era, admired by horror buffs.

The screenplay is written by George Baxt, who also scripted the interesting Circus of Horrors (1960), and the story is credited to executive producer Milton Subotsky. Baxt originally wrote the script as a pilot for a TV series starring Boris Karloff but Subotsky later wrote an extended version with a romantic subplot about the fiancé Bill who goes looking for Nan.

Also in the cast are Valentine Dyall as Elizabeth’s lover and fellow witch Jethrow Keane, who has a central role in selecting human sacrifices, Norman MacOwan, Fred Johnson and Ann Beach as Lottie, the mute housekeeper at Raven’s Inn, who tries to work against the coven.

The City of the Dead UK cinema poster.

Filmed at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, on a budget of £45,000, it was belatedly released in the US in September 1962 as Horror Hotel in a version around two minutes shorter. Though made in the UK, it is set in America, so the British actors are speaking with unconvincing North American accents.

It was produced by Vulcan Productions, and released in the UK by British Lion. As it was produced by Subotsky and his film business partner Max Rosenberg, it is sometimes considered the first of their Amicus Productions films.

It was financed by TV producer Hannah Weinstein and Nottingham Forest Football Club, and they did make a small profit.

It is the directorial debut of John Llewellyn Moxey (billed as John Moxey).

Heavy metal band Iron Maiden use scenes from the film in their music video for their 1990 song ‘Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter’.

Horror Hotel US cinema poster.

As the film is in the public domain, many distributors have released it on VHS and DVD. There is also a colorised version on You Tube. It has been restored on 2K restored by VCI (with the cooperation of the British Film Institute) and released by Cohen Media Group. The DVD and Blu-Ray have a commentary by Christopher Lee, a 45-minute interview with him, and the theatrical trailer.

Venetia Stevenson (10 March 1938 – 26 September 2022) frequently dated Tab Hunter in the 1950s, but much later in the 1990s revealed that she was a large part of the social life of him and his then-boyfriend Anthony Perkins, acting as a ‘beard’ when they double-dated.

The cast are Christopher Lee as Alan Driscoll, Dennis Lotis as Richard ‘Dick’ Barlow, Patricia Jessel as Elizabeth Selwyn / Mrs Newless, Tom Naylor as Bill Maitland, Betta St John as Patricia Russell, Venetia Stevenson as Nan Barlow, Valentine Dyall as Jethrow Keane, Ann Beach as Lottie, Norman MacOwan as Whitewood’s blind pastor the Reverend Russell,  Fred Johnson as The Elder, James Dyrenforth as Garage Attendant, Maxine Holden as Sue, and William Abney as Policeman.

The City of the Dead [Horror Hotel] is directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, runs 78 minutes, , is made by Vulcan Productions, is released by British Lion (UK), is written by George Baxt (screenplay) and Milton Subotsky (story). is shot in black and white by Desmond Dickinson, is produced by Seymour S Dorner, Max Rosenberg (uncredited), Milton Subotsky and Donald Taylor, and is scored by Douglas Gamley and Ken Jones (jazz).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 4,288 

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