hrkepler 'The Terror' is low budgeted Roger Corman's quickie. The film got made only because Corman had opportunity to use sets left over from previous AIP productions and Boris Karloff for two days. The film is often linked with Corman's Poe themed series, but 'The Terror' is not based on any Poe's stories.In a year 1806 a French Army officer Andre Duvalier (Jack Nicholson) gets separated from his troops and gets lost. After meeting a beautiful woman named Helene (Sandra Knight) on the beach, he starts to investigate who the mysterious woman is. Duvalier finds himself as a guest in the castle of Baron von Leppe (Boris Karloff) and learns that girl on the beach is like two drops of water with Baron's wife Ilsa who died twenty years ago. And all sorts of mysterious things start to happen.When reading about Karloff's memories about making the movie, I think that this much story was actually written when Corman showed the script to him. There are many interesting scenes and nice acting, but all together the film was quite a mess. After editing was done Corman had to go back and film a scene between Nicholson and Dick Miller with them explaining the plot.Not the best film, but curiously interesting enough to check it out. The film which production is much more interesting story than the actual film itself.And it stars Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson and Dick Miller. With these three, count me in.

Scott LeBrun Jack Nicholson plays Andre Duvalier, a young officer in Napoleons' army in the early 19th century. Separated from his regiment, he chances to encounter a very beautiful but mysterious young woman, Helene (Sandra Knight, a.k.a. the real-life Mrs. Nicholson at the time). He becomes determined to find out this womans' story, and journeys to the nearby castle of the elderly Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff). Andre persists in his inquiries, receiving exposition from the Baron, his devoted butler Stefan (Dick Miller), and local witch Katrina (Dorothy Neumann).Considering the history of "The Terror", it's more entertaining than it may have had any right to be. Corman firmly establishes a solid Gothic atmosphere. "The Terror" may *not* be on the level of his highly regarded Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, but it's not bad at all either. He completed principal photography in just a few days, in his usual economic style, using the sets from "The Raven" while they were being torn down! Cormans' young associates, including Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, and Francis Ford Coppola (even Nicholson directed a few scenes) spent the next several months doing the second unit work. Overall they achieve a pretty good unity of vision. The screenplay, credited to Hill and actor Leo Gordon, is a little convoluted but is generally amusing, with doses of romance and tragedy. The cinematography by John M. Nickolaus Jr. and an uncredited Floyd Crosby is excellent, as is the music by the ever reliable Ronald Stein. The actors are all quite enjoyable to watch, especially Karloff, and Nicholson holds his own quite well opposite his veteran co-star. Corman stock company player Jonathan Haze plays the supporting role of Gustaf.A drive-in favourite, late show perennial, and frequent inclusion on public domain movie collections, "The Terror" is decent entertainment for old school horror fans.Six out of 10.

utgard14 Jack Nicholson plays a French soldier who becomes lost and meets a mysterious woman but she disappears into the ocean. Then there's some stuff with a bird and an old woman. Then Jack finds the castle of Boris Karloff where he sees the girl again. Boris and his servant act like they don't know what he's talking about but Jack is persistent. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense and the plot is a mess but it's still very interesting and hard to stop watching. This is a rather famous Roger Corman movie that has several different urban legends surrounding its production, most of which boil down to this: Corman was cheap so he used leftover sets and/or leftover budget from The Raven to film this one quickly. Whatever the truth is, it's a fascinating movie with many obvious flaws that it manages to overcome and still be an entertaining film. Great opening credits, too.

Spikeopath In what amounts to a film made to kill time and use up the remaining days on Boris Karloff's contract, The Terror, crafted by Roger Corman and perhaps four other directors, is hardly good but still not as bad as it arguably should be? Plot simply follows a French soldier, Andre (Jack Nicholson), in 1806 who gets detached from his regiment and meets a mysterious young woman named Helene (Sandra Knight). Trying to unravel the mystery that surrounds her, Andre is led to the castle of Baron Victor Frederick Von Leppe (Karloff), from where it becomes apparent that Helene could be Ilsa, the Baron's wife who died twenty years earlier!In typically Corman style the film has decent atmosphere and the recycled sets from concurrent productions (The Haunted Palace/The Raven) form a good Gothic backdrop. With a number of hands involved in directing and the slim time frame for the production, the plotting is understandably skew-whiff, with some scenes actually serving no purpose, while dialogue is stilted and the delivery of such is sometimes laughable (Nicholson looks like he is reading from auto-cue at times). Yet it's pretty harmless as entertainment, if a touch boring, but Karloff is good value and the theme of past deeds haunting the present gives the film a doom laden edge. 5/10