Torture Garden [DVD] [1967] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Hmmm... It seems that opinions are divided about this 1960s' Amicus Anthology film. I think it is generally fair to say that the first and last stories are probably the best but the other stories do have their good points as well. The film is helped immensely by a very good cast and stylish direction by Freddie Francis (check out the cool black and white colour scheme in the story featuring a supposedly jealous piano).

I particularly liked the interplay and dialogue exchanges between Peter Cushing and Jack Palance in the final story. In fact Jack's performance in this film is a real revelation. He often played the bad guy in dozens of westerns but here he is cast against type as a man obsessed with anything and everything connected with the great writer Edgar Allan Poe and he plays this part really well. His performance as Dracula in the 1970s is also well worth checking out if you are a horror fan and this further goes to prove what a versatile and underrated actor Jack was.

The cast also includes Burgess Meredith (best-known as The Penguin in the 1960s' Batman TV series and as the trainer, Mickey, in the Rocky films), Barbara Ewing (who went on to appear in Hammer's Dracula Has Risen From The Grave and Guardian Of The Abyss) and Hammer film regular Michael Ripper.

Okay so this film may not be up there with some other Amicus films such as Beyond The Grave but it isn't that bad either and is definitely worth a look, particularly if you like horror anthology films.

Torture Garden is one of Amicus films first anthology efforts and the end results are - could do better.
There are 4 stories here, all flicker with some delight but all have weak points or just go plain silly.
Our guide is played by the excellent Burgess Meredith who in all fairness absolutely steals the show here.

Indeed Meredith seems right in his element here.

The first story is a bit of a yawn if not a little eerie, involving withcraft, money and a thinking cat that prefers human heads to whiskers. Personally I do like the quite frankly over the top second story involving a desperate actress trying to make it to the top in Hollywood. Feels like it came straight out of a Twilight Zone episode, but I like the feel for this one.

Next up is a jealous piano, yes you heard that right. I couldn't really get on with this.
Perhaps the best is saved for last. Peter Cushing and Jack Palance co starring in an episode about who has the bigger collection of Edgar Allen Poe. The climax is a little far fetched, but seeing these two greats share screen time is good enough.

All in all Torture Garden isn't that tortoureous but it isn't as good as later Amicus offerings.

Ain't dat da' truth, Ruth! While this may not be as downright creepy as a few other Amicus anthology creep-fests it is certainly not what "May West" described! I don't know which film he/she was watching, but in this film a well-disguised group of creepy sociopaths enter the Carny sideshow tent of a flagrantly creepy "Dr.Diabolo", (one of the many names for "Satan"), and following his "regular performance" they're each given the opportunity to pay for a glance into their future, (* "Diabolo" burns the cash directly after collecting it!) But it's all just a "forewarning" of the inner evil that lurks within their hearts, and souls, and minds. The evil they've all managed to keep hidden from the rest of the world, (as all sociopaths do with a lifetime of acquired skills!) So, "Diabolo" is actually giving them an opportunity to escape their fate of "torture" in his "garden" at a later date by changing their vile and pernicious ways today! And that's a very very high-minded concept. Plus, you get the brilliant "badman" Burgess, as always, adding his signature verbal underlines to each line and every word delivered, causing one to listen up and listen closely, (unless a Nimrod with A.D.D. is the one allegedly doing the listening!) Take my word for it, while "Torture Garden" may indeed be on the lighter side of Robert Bloch's gothic horror writer's bag o' tricks, it is not "RUBBISH"!!!!!! BTW: "M.A.", the "cat" wasn't the evil one, (or even the point), of that story. Nor was it the "piano" doing the dirty deed. Nor were Cushing and Palance "fighting over the works of Poe". Nor, in fact, was anything you mentioned in your "review" actually going on in the film at all! I'd say you need to "review" your intelligence level, perception abilities, and audio/visual faculties, then "re-view" it with a new mindset. But please, pay attention this time... cause the Devil is in the details!