The Curse of the Living Corpse * (1964, Roy Scheider, Candace Hilligoss, Helen Warren, Robert Milli, Margot Hartman, Hugh Franklin) – Classic Movie Review 7820

A terminally sick millionaire, wracked by seizures that make it seem like he is dead, fulfills his threat made in his will to come back from the dead and kill his family if they bury him alive – his big phobia. Naturally his relatives then do just that, and soon a hooded man rampages as the relations are in turn drowned, burnt alive and disfigured.

This splendidly Gothic premise is sadly turned into an inept and tacky low-budget ($120,000) horror quickie by writer/ producer/ director Del Tenney. The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) is notable only for Roy Scheider’s début (billed as Roy R Scheider) as Philip Sinclair and a co-starring appearance as Deborah Benson by Candace Hilligoss, who was the star of the cultish 1962 movie Carnival of Souls. Hilligoss helped Scheider to land his role.

At original American screenings in a double bill with Tenney’s The Horror of Party Beach, cinemagoers had to sign a ‘fright release’ before they entered the cinema to agree to release the theatre of all responsibility for death by fright.

Also in the cast are Helen Warren, Margot Hartman, Hugh Franklin, Robert Milli, Dino Narizzano, Linda Donovan, J Frank Lucas, Jane Bruce, Paul Haney, George Cotton and William Blood.

The Curse of the Living Corpse is directed by Del Tenney, runs 84 minutes, is made by Deal Productions and Iselin-Tenney Productions, released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Del Tenney, is shot in black and white by Richard L Hilliard, is produced by Del Tenney and Alan V Iselin (associate producer), is scored by George Burt and Wilford L Holcombe, and is designed by Robert Verberkmoes.

It is shot on the estate of Gutzon Borglum (who carved the US Presidents on Mount Rushmore). The exteriors were filmed on the grounds and sets were built in Borglum’s sculpture studio. Tenney (1930–2013) was married to actress Margot Hartman, whose father owned the property then.

It is available as a Del Tenney Double Feature DVD, with The Horror of Party Beach [Region 1] [US Import].

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7820

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