‘An orgy of the damned!’
Tales that Witness Insanity is a 1973 horror anthology movie produced by Norman Priggen, directed by veteran horror director Freddie Francis, and written by actress Jennifer Jayne as Witness Insanity. Though it’s typically mistaken for an Amicus manufacturing, it was truly produced by World Movie Companies.
Jack Hawkins died shortly after his scenes had been filmed. Hawkins had had his larynx eliminated in an operation in 1966, and right here his voice was dubbed by Charles Grey (The Legacy; The Rocky Horror Image Present; The Satan Rides Out) in post-production.
Kim Novak broke a four-year hiatus from movies along with her look in Tales. She changed Rita Hayworth shortly after manufacturing began.
The film stars Donald Pleasence, Joan Collins (Darkish Locations; Tales from the Crypt; Concern within the Night time), Kim Novak (Bell, E-book and Candle), Jack Hawkins (Theatre of Blood), Donald Houston (A Examine in Terror), Georgia Brown (Nothing However the Night time; A Examine in Terror), Peter McEnery (Witchcraft TV collection; Hammer Home of Horror; The Cat and the Canary), Suzy Kendall (Torso; Spasmo; Assault), Michael Jayston (Dominique; Craze), Michael Petrovich (Turkey Shoot; Neither the Sea, Nor the Sand), Mary Tamm (Doghouse; Twisted Tales), Leon Lissek (Bloodmoon; Journey to the Unknown), Frank Forsyth (Craze; The Vault of Horror; Asylum), Zohra Sehgal.
Plot [spoilers]:
Within the ‘Clinic’ hyperlink episodes, Physician Tremayne (Donald Pleasence), a psychiatrist in a contemporary psychological asylum, reveals to colleague Physician Nicholas (Jack Hawkins) that he has solved 4 particular instances. Tremayne explains the case histories of sufferers Paul, Timothy, Brian, and Auriol, presenting every in flip to Nicholas:
In ‘Mr. Tiger’, Paul (Russell Lewis) is the delicate and introverted younger son of regularly bickering dad and mom Sam (Donald Houston) and Fay Patterson (Georgia Brown). Amid the sad home scenario he befriends an “imaginary” tiger.
In ‘Penny Farthing’, vintage retailer proprietor Timothy (Peter McEnery) shares an odd portrait of “Uncle Albert” (Frank Forsyth) and a penny farthing bicycle he has inherited from his aunt.
In a collection of episodes, Uncle Albert compels Timothy to mount the bicycle, and he’s transported to an earlier period the place he courts Beatrice (Suzy Kendall), who was younger Albert’s love curiosity. These travels place Timothy’s girlfriend Ann (additionally Suzy Kendall) in peril.
In ‘Mel’, Brian Thompson (Michael Jayston) brings house an outdated lifeless tree, which he lovingly calls Mel, mounting it in his fashionable house as a weird piece of discovered object artwork. He more and more reveals uncommon consideration to Mel, angering his jealous spouse Bella (Joan Collins).
In ‘Luau’, an formidable literary agent, Auriol Pageant (Kim Novak), lasciviously courts new consumer Kimo (Michael Petrovich); he reveals extra curiosity in her stunning younger daughter Ginny (Mary Tamm). Auriol plans a luxurious luau for him; when the plans fall by way of, Kimo’s affiliate Keoki (Leon Lissek) takes over.
The luau, as organised by Keoki, is definitely a ceremony to guarantee Kimo’s dying mom Malia (Zohra Sehgal) passage to “heaven” by appeasing a Hawaiian god, and a requirement is that he devour the flesh of a virgin: Ginny.
Within the ‘Epilogue’, Tremayne watches as manifestations of the sufferers’ histories materialise. Nicholas can not see the manifestations and has Tremayne declared insane, apparently for believing the sufferers’ weird accounts. Nicholas enters the affected person holding space, and is killed by “Mr. Tiger”.
Evaluations:
” …avoids farce and develops a properly deadpan type of humour which is ably sustained by the wonderful forged wherein solely Novak seems unable to hit the correct notice.” The Aurum Movie Encyclopedia: Horror
” …there’s a level of campy enjoyable working by way of this piece which exonerates it from a few of its inbuilt weaknesses. Any movie that has Alexis Carrington Colby duking it out with a tree definitely has one thing very particular to supply a sure class of discriminating viewer.” Jeffrey Kauffman, Blu-ray.com
“…not as unhealthy as you may bear in mind it – the tree phase is bloody terrible (though surprisingly entertaining), however regardless of the ridiculous notion of a haunted bicycle, Uncle Albert’s story is kind of properly executed, and Mr Tiger has a gory sufficient ending to make it worthwhile sitting by way of. The main drawback is the voodoo story – it’s painfully apparent what’s going to occur…” British Horror Movies
“Completists will in all probability get extra out of Tales that Witness Insanity than the informal viewer, however even with its fashionable advances like occasional splatter and a pair bits of nudity, it’s fairly C-list materials at greatest, and Francis made a lot better movies than this one…” Mark Tinta, Good Environment friendly Butchery
“Tales that Witness Insanity virtually finds a thematic and tonal unity in its off-kilter, black humored have a look at the delicate viciousness of the fashionable milieu, however the “Penny Farthing” episode disrupts this a bit. The movie finally ends up being a kind of anthologies that by no means has an actual, sustained breakthrough resulting from its peaks and valleys of high quality.” Oh, the Horror!
“The third story can be an enthralling little bit of WTF-ery, involving a person who finds a peculiar tree and decides to place it up in his front room, a lot to the chagrin of his spouse (a smoking sizzling – and hopefully not associated – Joan Collins). As time goes on he turns into fixated on the tree, at one level opting to brush it as a substitute of becoming a member of Collins in mattress regardless of her advances.” Horror Film a Day
“Tales that Witness Insanity presents moderately simple path from Freddie Francis, who actually solely lets his inventive facet present throughout a dream sequence in “Mel” the place Joan Collins is whipped by a tree’s slithering limbs, whereas multicoloured lights intensify the nightmare…” George R. Reis, DVD Drive-In
“Although it comes up brief every so often, even the weakest entry in Tales that Witness Insanity boasts an attention-grabbing premise, and whereas the movie definitely received’t set your world on fireplace, it’s going to, undoubtedly, maintain you entertained.” DVD Infatuation
“Even with a maestro comparable to Francis behind the digital camera, that is an especially combined bag of unusual little b-movies. Nonetheless, it isn’t solely with out benefit. It’s camp, and persistently humorous (whether or not intentional or not) and this makes it very watchable.” John Parker, Leisure Focus
“Regardless of high quality premises, the tales usually undergo from the flat-minded literalness that beset lots of the lesser Amicus entries. That is notably so with the final two segments, which fail to carry as much as their preliminary conceptual inventiveness and taboo-daring.” Richard Scheib, Moria
” …the film is much less considering theories than in grotesque results, a few of that are comedian with out being particularly humorous.” Vincent Canby, The New York Instances, November 1, 1973
“The gradual crawl in direction of the predictable finale, and the dearth of any actual twist in any of the tales, highlights simply how threadbare Jayne’s script truly was, a predicament not helped by some lackadaisical path which stubbornly refuses to inject any power into the movie.” John Hamilton, X-Cert 2: The British Impartial Horror Movie: 1971 – 1983
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
“[Jennifer Jayne’s] concepts ranged from the truthful sufficient, nothing spectacular to the downright weird, however with a feminine perspective on what was as much as that time largely a male protect, so there have been robust female characters considerations right here, not that it made her oddest premises any the much less outré.” Graeme Clark, The Spinning Picture
“The pleasing vignettes profit from some stable performances: the Luau phase might be probably the most enjoyable with Novak’s broad flip midst the cannibal workings.” The Terror Lure
“Extra like “Tales That Witness Yawning”. Typically uninspired and poor anthology horror has a set-up much like the earlier years Asylum that has physician Donald Pleasence (who’s utterly wasted right here) telling the 4 tales inside.” The Video Graveyard
For YouTube evaluations, the trailer, the movie itself and extra information please go to web page 2
MOVIES and MANIA gives previews of latest movies, our personal film evaluations/rankings, and hyperlinks to different evaluations from reliable really helpful sources – multi function helpful net location. Plus, hyperlinks to legitimately watch 1000s OF MOVIES FREE ONLINE by way of platforms comparable to Amazon Prime, Plex, Roku, Tubi and on YouTube. As an Amazon Affiliate, we earn a really tiny quantity from any qualifying purchases.
Customer ranking! What do you consider this film? Click on on a star to charge it
