House of 1,000 Dolls
Dir. Jeremy Summers
While vacationing in Tangiers, Stephen and Marie learn that their friend Fernando’s girlfriend has been reported missing. Before long, Marie is abducted when she attends a magic show hosted by the mysterious Felix Mandeville and his wife, mentalist Rebecca. It soon transpires that Marie is being held captive in a plush brothel along with a slew of other women who have been ‘collected’ from around the globe by the dastardly Mandeville and Rebecca in a covert sex-slave operation!
This little oddity, aside from being a lesser-seen Vincent Price vehicle, is a guiltily entertaining romp produced by Harry Alan Towers (Fu Manchu, Jess Franco’s Justine, Warrior Queen and Howling IV: The Original Nightmare amongst other schlocky delights). According to Mark McGee, author of Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures, it is “quite possibly the sleaziest movie AIP ever made.” I'm not sure that's altogether true, but anyway. It’s a tale of imperilled women forced to work as sex-slaves and the macho men who would be their saviours, but despite its claims to be an expose on the evils of the sex trafficking industry, House of 1000 Dolls quite simply unspools as a campy, dated, weirdly bland yarn. The moments of exploitation – scenes depicting the scantily-clad women mud-wrestling, cat-fighting or being whipped for trying to escape - provide much of the running time; and it definitely isn't the expose it purports to be.
That said, House does have a few surprises up its sleeve; not least an impressive opening boasting so much macabre promise. After a hearse pulls up outside an exotic mansion, the coffin is delivered inside and opened by a sneeringly suave Vincent Price, to reveal a woman inside who wakens with a fright. With this opening you’d be forgiven for expecting a morbid mystery thriller to unfold. From here though, the plot becomes quite bogged down with myriad characters and subplots and it takes a while to pull everything together. Meanwhile much camp amusement ensues. When it finally gets going, the gently simmering plot eventually boils into life with a lively denouement.
Director Jeremy Summers can’t quite muster the tension House needs to make it truly memorable. A couple of chase scenes are effectively handled and provide a little respite from the uneven pace, but even the scene in which the gymnast makes a break for it, shimmying down the wall of the house only to have her already scant clothes ripped off by the guards in hot pursuit, is more akin to Benny Hill than a suspenseful thriller. The saving grace is the main cast, who all deliver decent enough performances; particularly Price who is always watchable, and Martha Hyer as his wife Rebecca. Unfortunately, while they relish their sinister yet strangely tragic roles, they're not really given enough to do.
Despite the pedigree of its cast, and that irresistibly preposterous premise, it’s a pretty lacklustre film. However, even if it can’t live up to its schlocky promise, House is hardly ever dull, and it’s still a distracting thriller with enough twists and campy delight to hold your interest.
House of 1,000 Dolls is released, for the first time in the UK, on 28th January courtesy of Mediumrare Entertainment.
