mark.waltz To recent film audiences, Michael Gough is best known as Alfred, the Butler, in the first few of the "Batman" movie franchise. But to classic horror movie buffs, he's the forgotten master of terror, brushed aside to obscurity among names like Tod Slaughter and Lionel Atwill. But in rediscovering the series of British grand guignole near masterpieces, I have come to gain an appreciation for the artistic end of the horror movie game, where he, tall and lanky like Boris Karloff and Vincent Price, and not nearly as obvious in his horrific activities like Bela Lugosi or the forgotten Tod Slaughter. In this film, he's the proprietor of a private museum of terrors, and when a series of gruesome slaughters begin to plague London, Scotland Yard goes to see him, not as a suspect, but to aide them in their quest to find the maniacal killer, because of his knowledge of the type of tortures used to knock off the victims.The killings themselves are done very subtly, but indicate the gruesome ways in which people are killed. A jilting lover gets the guillotine; A nosy shopkeeper becomes a bloody mess thanks to a pair of ice tongs. The very first scene in the film has a woman looking through a dual kaleidoscope, and screams out in agony as blood drips quickly down her body. By doing all of this subtly, the filmmakers really make the viewer prepare for the unexpected, yet when these creepy murders do occur, the way they are presented will still have you either jump, go into a quick shock (then be convulsed with laughter over the ingenious way they are presented), or drop your jaw and want to re-wind to see it all over again. The number of Gough's victims also includes his young assistant (Graham Curnow) who has basically been blackmailed into silence, and then is later drugged into committing his own murder so Gough will be able to keep him in check. The finale, set at an amusement park, is a riveting conclusion to what deserves to be added to the list of "The best horror films you've never even heard of."

Jonathon Dabell After Hammer (and The Curse Of Frankenstein in particular) had opened the door for grislier and gorier horror films, it wasn't long before more films appeared which sought to capitalise on this new-found cinematic bloodlust. Horrors Of The Black Museum is, for its time, a notably unpleasant chiller in which a demented serial killer does away with a number of London women in various gruesomely imaginative ways. Good film it ain't – the stretches between the murder set pieces are extremely stodgy and dull – but it remains more-or-less watchable thanks to a few interesting touches, more of which will be said later.Superintendent Graham (Geoffrey Keen) of Scotland Yard is trying desperately to solve a series of bizarre and violent lady killings in London. His efforts are further undermined by the ridicule of the press, most significantly crime columnist Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough) whose scathing criticism of the police in the affair may not help the cause much, but sure sells a lot of newspapers. It soon becomes apparent to the viewer – though not to Superintendent Graham, unfortunately – that Bancroft himself is the killer. His home contains a strange dungeon-like room full of nasty historical torture devices and murder weapons, and he himself seems to have an unhealthy obsession with death. To aid him in his ghastly crimes Bancroft has employed hypnosis to control a young assistant, the weak-willed and unhappy Rick (Graham Curnow). Rick is secretly involved in a relationship with a pretty young woman named Angela (Shirley Anne Field)… when Bancroft learns of this he is furious, believing that Rick's romantic dalliance with the woman may be the one chink in his murderous plan. He sees their romance as something that must be dealt with as swiftly and ruthlessly as possible.As mentioned earlier, there are a couple of touches which raise the film above the gutter. One is Gough's extraordinary unrestrained performance as the madman Bancroft. This may well be Gough's finest hour within the exploitation genre - he enjoys himself something rotten as the fiendish villain of the piece. The other is the imaginative murders, which include such delights as spiked binoculars and a home-made guillotine. Although not especially shocking by modern standards, these killings were probably quite horrifying back in the fifties. It's such a shame that in most other areas the film is a considerable let-down. The characters are boring overall; the dialogue is hopelessly wooden; the plot doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. Worse still, the extended American print incorporates a deadly-dull 12 minute monologue about hypnotism, delivered in monotonous tones by a laughably uptight doctor prior to the "real" film getting underway. This lengthy and wholly pointless segment should be avoided – if you do end up viewing a version that includes it, just skip through to the main feature (you won't miss anything). Horrors Of The Black Museum is generally a misfire - albeit a misfire with occasional points of interests - and is just about worth a look for Gough's maniacal and energetic lead performance.

BaronBl00d Call me crazy(and many do!)...I have a thing if you will for Michael Gough - the Third-rate Horror King! Konga! Black Zoo! Horror Hospital! Berserk! Trog! Satan's Slave! He did these - and a few more - whilst being a proper, mainstream British actor. He really did have quite an amazing career. Here again, Gough overacts his way as a crippled author way too interested in some murders in Londoin involving weapons he knows are in the police's infamous arsenal of murder weapons - their Black Museum. Watching Gough oil his way through scenes, bark out orders or diatribes about some silly nonsense, accentuate his crippled affectation, or just leer or look condescendingly on some poor unfortunate person make this film work for me. Made in 1959 the film does have some grizzly murders: a pair of murderous binoculars. A bedroom mini-guillotine. Fantastically large ice tongs. The murders are, for the time, quite bloody. Producer Herman Cohen, who would work on many of the above films with Gough, always knew how to put a good show on for the audience. This film is no different. As always in these films, the acting far exceeds my expectations. Gough is Gough. He is the film's main attraction in my opinion. You just got to love that voice and that bi-colored hair! But the supporting players are all very decent with Geoffrey Keene doing a very serviceable job as a police inspector. He was in many of the Bond pictures post 1970. Gerald Anderson is good as a physician. Grahmn Curnow is interesting as Gough's murderous assistant. Not great mind you. Then there is June Cunningham as Gough's mistress. First, let us say that she is sexy. Very sexy. Blonde. Buxom. What more could you want? If you said nothing more, then good because that is exactly what you get. Cannot act at all. But the scene where she belittles Gough is a great scene just for the humor - mostly unintended and its sleazy aspects. What about the scene where she mugs for the camera shamelessly dancing by herself. It was very, very funny. Now, we come to what was the most painful aspect of the film. The 13 minute Hypnovision lecture by eminent hypnotist Emile Frachel. He is long-winded, boring, and repetitive. I was almost hypnotized to turn the film off. The only thing I saw at all in the subsequent film that dealt with Hypnovision was the ways some scenes would fade with red, because we were taught in that 13 minute opus that colors mean certain things. YAWN! Anyway, I enjoyed this film. It is better than some might have you think. It is fun and entertaining. It has Michael Gough. He may not have been one of the mainstream horror icons, but he has a place there in my heart and memory.

Coventry "Horror of the Black Museum" is incredibly dated, unimportant and overly silly but it remains great fun to watch and watch it again. The opening sequence is delicious and definitely the best part of the entire movie. It involves the supposedly third strange and random murder in the London region and shows a poor woman getting her eyes gouged out by a pair of ingeniously spiked binoculars. A better opening to a colorful horror movie is hard to imagine and you're automatically preparing yourself to see a blackly comical and sadist horror gem. The quality-level of this intro naturally can't be held up throughout the entire movie but the script remains involving and surprising enough to keep you amused for a good 80 minutes. Scotland Yard hasn't got a clue where to begin their investigation and – on top of that – they're constantly annoyed by the vain columnist and pulp-novelist Ed Bancroft. The mysterious killer's identity isn't kept secret for long (I even assume it wasn't meant to be a secret) but his/her insane persona is imaginatively deepened. The "Black Museum" is a technical term to describe the police archive of bizarre and unusual murder weapons that were used in murder cases. The killer here has such a private collection himself which provides the film with a couple of utterly cool gimmicks, like the previously mentioned binoculars, an acid-bath and even a mini-guillotine! Michael Gough is seemly having a great time portraying the cripple cynic Bancroft. His performance is more than decent yet I agree with another reviewer here who already claimed that this role would be even more fit for Vincent Price. This film was the first entry of a Sadian horror trilogy, the others being the 1960 "Circus of Horrors" and "Peeping Tom". "Horror of the Black Museum" is the weakest of the three but still a terrifically odd and sensational genre highlight.