Castle of Evil (1966)

Six people are invited to a cliff top castle in Nassau to hear a will. The will has been made by a dead man whom they hated but who will leave his money to those innocent if they discover the identity of the person who killed said dead man. The storm rages outside, the castle is full of strange passages and a housekeeper with a pet gecko watches them on closed circuit television. Also is the dead man dead? And who is the disfigured man in the well tailored suit? With those ingredients it is a shame the film is lacking in suspense, excitement and terror.The main cast, Scott Brady, Virginia Mayo, David Brian, Lisa Gaye and Hugh Marlowe have all been in better things and can't do much with the silly dialogue. Shelley Morrison as Lupe Tekal d'Esperanza is probably the best thing. A black cat also appears for two seconds. The sets are adequate however and Paul Dunlap provides a good music score.It is an underwhelming film overall.

I had originally seen this on creature features on channel 5 in new jersey and back then it was scary,recently re watched it on you tube,in a very well recreated creature features with commercials.just like i remembered it,a creepy old chiller.back in the day this was scary.old castle,secret doors,a ghoul,and yes a player piano.with some good actors in it led by the late great Scott Brady(destination inner space)Lisa Gaye(shake rattle and rock)Virginia Mayo(white heat)and Hugh Marlowe(day the earth stood still)i enjoyed this little horror flick even though its no masterpiece and not as good as the original house on haunted hill.but it does have its moments.they don't make them like this anymore and if they tried remaking it there would be lots of overdone cg effects,6 pout of 10.

It's a shame, movies like this are generally what I'm looking for, but `Castle of Evil' doesn't even manage the level of suspense of a `Dark Shadows' episode - and is about as talky and stagy as that series. On the whole, this movie is down there somewhere with the Philippino `Blood Island' series, and the more than competent cast gives some of the most wooden performances of their careers. It is easy to see that Hugh Marlowe was just about ready to begin his interminable run on `Another World' because this is about as close to the Soaps as horror ever comes.The plot is a tried-and-true midnight will reading preceding the six people locked in a house knowing one of them is a murderer routine. Fair enough, but the movie betrays what interest the audience might have in trying to resolve the mystery by showing us the murderer in the first few minutes, then even going so far as to demonstrate the means used for the slayings before the mystery is even fully underway. What could have been an interesting group of characters, each suspecting the others and forming alliances and theories degenerates into a group of non-entities being stalked by a Slasher-type disfigured killer (with minimal gore). The contrived ending seems far, far too long in coming.Natives of Nassau will be offended by the racism of the script and hispanics of all backgrounds will no doubt take issue with the pronunciation of the character Lupe's name (sounds like `Loopy'). Scott Brady seems to be dating one of his daughter's friends, and poor Hugh Marlowe just looks confused as Virginia Mayo's tramp character (`just call me Sable, dear') comes onto him. Overall, one gets the feeling everyone in the cast just wanted to get their check and forget about the whole ordeal. Perhaps we should do them a favor and do the same.

"Castle of Evil" is haunted castle movie much in the style of Roger Corman and England's Hammer productions. Although it doesn't quite measure up to those productions, it is a competent little horror flick. The story involves a group of people who are summoned to a mysterious castle for the reading of the will of the man who has virtually destroyed each of their lives individually. Their host unfortunately has just passed away, or has he? The film contains most of the usual horror cliches and settings. There are the secret passages, sliding doors, dark shadows, murders and the requisite mysterious housekeeper. The film is boosted by its veteran cast of actors who had all seen better days but were still able to deliver solid performances. Scott Brady is the hero of the piece and Virginia Mayo effectively plays a discarded mistress. Hugh Marlowe is along as a doctor, David Brian as a lawyer and the lovely Lisa Gaye as Brady's love interest. Shelley Morrison is quite good as the housekeeper. What now makes this film memorable is the resemblance of the character "Kovic" to a certain former U.S. president. See if you agree.