City Of The Dead
City Of The Dead/Horror Hotel (1960) Rewatch: ✅
I don’t have too many regrets in life but not getting round to watching City Of The Dead until a couple of years back is certainly one of them. I fell deeply in love with it, I could have been watching this, repeatedly, for years had I not been such a big silly.
It’s a goth tour de force of spookiness, up there for me with Dracula’s Daughter only so much wilder. And the cast! What an incredible cast! Valentine Dyall’s sinister baritone hasn’t been put to better use (Night Comes Too Soon sadly wastes the opportunity by having him go a bit tally ho chaps posh otherwise it would have been a candidate), Norman MacOwan brings all the ham to his part as the blind preacher, Christopher Lee provides the catalyst for all the spooks and then, stealing absolutely every single scene they’re in, matching Dyall for full goth creepiness, is Patricia Jessel.
My sweet Molyneux, she is beyond perfect as the innkeeper and witch. She just does wicked and evil so well and especially in the scenes where she teams up with Dyall, it’s a dazzlingly theatrical (and borderline panto) performance. Perfectly wicked stuff. She’s just so exceptionally good in a film where everyone is so good.
I’ve rewatched the damn film so many times over the past few years and it really never misses the spot for an ageing goth like me. Oh man, the scene where MacOwan answers the door and goes off on one then steps back into the darkness too. And the finale. And and and.
Yeah, it’s fairly safe to say I bloody love this film with all my heartses. I don’t even keep it as a reserve for when I’m feeling a bit listless or short of things to watch, I genuinely look forward to watching it all whenever I can. It’s one of only a small handful of films that get me that way.
In short: fuck yes. What an incredible film.