The Terror1963

One of the most notoriously slapdash projects in film history, THE TERROR exemplified Roger Corman and American International Pictures' ability to create something marketable out of practically nothing. Having purchased three days' work from horror superstar Boris Karloff on the cheap, Corman threw together THE TERROR in a heedless hurry, using sets and costumes left over from prior films. For instance, legend has it that THE TERROR may have been set during the early 19th century solely because the leading man's uniform was Marlon Brando's old Napoleon uniform from DESIREE. The results don't make much sense but it's doubtful many teenagers busy making out at the drive-in cared or even noticed. Karloff plays a Baron whose seaside castle hides a terrible secret, one discovered by a French soldier (Jack Nicholson) who is lost and becomes fascinated by a woman (Sandra Knight) who is the spitting image of the Baron's late wife. Witchcraft, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena figure in the ensuing murky mayhem. In addition to the primary material Corman completed in just four days, Nicholson, Jack Hill and future directorial luminaries Francis Ford Coppola and Monte Hellman all supervised some additional scenes. Nicholson was in the midst of his early B-movie career at the time; soon he would consider giving acting up entirely until, five years later, EASY RIDER would suddenly catapult him to fame. His beautiful leading lady here was also his off-screen wife at the time and was pregnant with their only child. For all its behind-the-scenes curiosity value, THE TERROR still works. If not as coherent storytelling then as an almost abstract, morbid piece of sheer atmospherics. – Dennis Harvey