Torture Garden (1967) "The Man Who Collected Poe"

Torture Garden is a 1967 British horror film made by Amicus Productions. It was directed by Freddie Francis and scripted by Robert Bloch. It stars Burgess Meredith, Jack Palance, Michael Ripper, Beverly Adams, Peter Cushing, Maurice Denham, Ursula Howells, Michael Bryant and Barbara Ewing. The score was a collaboration between Hammer horror regulars James Bernard and Don Banks.

It is one of producer Milton Subotsky's trademark "portmanteau" films, an omnibus of short stories linked by a single narrative.

Plot

Five people visit a fairground sideshow run by the sinister Dr. Diabolo (Meredith). Having shown them a handful of haunted-house-style attractions, he promises them a genuinely scary experience if they will pay extra. Their curiosity gets the better of them, and the small crowd follows him behind a curtain, where they each view their fate through the shears of the female deity Atropos (Clytie Jessop).

In "Enoch", a greedy playboy (Bryant) takes advantage of his dying uncle (Denham), and falls under the spell of a man-eating cat. In "Terror Over Hollywood," a Hollywood starlet (Adams) discovers her co-stars are androids. In "Mr. Steinway," a possessed grand piano by the name of Euterpe becomes jealous of its owner's new lover (Ewing) and takes revenge. And in "The Man Who Collected Poe," a Poe collector (Palance) murders another collector (Cushing) over a collectable he refuses to show him, only to find his fate with Edgar Allan Poe himself.



Cast

Jack Palance as Ronald Wyatt
Burgess Meredith as Dr. Diabolo
Beverly Adams as Carla Hayes
Peter Cushing as Lancelot Canning
Michael Bryant as Colin Williams
Barbara Ewing as Dorothy Endicott
John Standing as Leo
John Phillips as Storm
Michael Ripper as Gordon Roberts
Bernard Kay as Dr. Heim
Maurice Denham as Uncle Roger
Ursula Howells as Miss Chambers
David Bauer as Charles

Niall MacGinnis as Doctor