1963 was a busy year in Italian horror for Christopher Lee, kicking off in high style with Mario Bava's "The Whip and the Body," followed in rapid succession by the little seen "Katarsis," Antonio Margheriti's "Horror Castle," and finally the Le Fanu adaptation "Terror in the Crypt." Margheriti had made a name for himself on science fiction titles like "Assignment: Outer Space" and "Battle of the Worlds," but with "Horror Castle" entered the field of Gothic terror with a modern day storyline in splendid color that still reeks of 19th century atmosphere with the American bride of a German nobleman making inquiries on the elaborate torture chamber kept in pristine condition under the care of chauffeur Erich (Lee), a symbolic relic of a notorious 17th century ancestor known as 'The Punisher.' The picture opens with her discovery of a young woman's corpse inside the iron maiden, or "The Virgin of Nuremberg," the title bestowed upon most European prints, though her husband is eager to convince her she was only dreaming. Rosanna Podesta's wife is a stubborn young woman who refuses to abide by any rules and persists in exploring every avenue inside the foreboding castle, which later pays off when she rescues another innocent maiden whose face was gnawed by a hungry rat in the most grueling sequence. Lee's character is mostly a shadowy red herring figure granted less than 10 minutes screen time, but does feature prominently in the climactic conflagration (reuniting with Mirko Valentin in 1964's "The Castle of the Living Dead" to close out this period of Euro horror). As the suspicious behaving husband, Georges Riviere would soon follow with a second Margheriti Gothic, "Castle of Terror," a more traditional black and white entry opposite Barbara Steele.
Review of Horror Castle
