Director: Robert Hartford Davies
Script: Donald and Derek Ford
Cast: Heather Sears, John Turner, Ann Lynn, Peter Arne, Norman Bird, Raymond Huntley, Patrick Troughton, Annette Whiteley, Edina Ronay
Running time: 86 mins
Year: 1964
Certificate: 12
Although Hammer Films were dominating the market in gothic horror during the mid-Sixties, occasionally other film companies would take a stab at the subgenre, often with somewhat mixed results. Step forward the Compton – Tekli Film Production company, which was a forerunner to Tony Tenser’s Tigon Films, which were latterly responsible for the likes of The Legend of the Werewolf and The Ghoul – both starring the late, great Peter Cushing. This was Tenser’s first foray into horror, although it has to be said that The Black Torment is only marginally a horror film and sits more comfortably in the gothic melodrama arena.
The story is set in Regency era England and sees Sir Richard Fordyke (Turner) returning to the family country estate, from London, with his new bride, Elizabeth (Sears). However, his return is greeted with considerably less warmth than when he left a few months before, since a local girl (Ronay) has been brutally raped and murdered, but before she died she’d repeatedly muttered Richard’s name, giving rise to suspicions that Fordyke had actually returned to the estate, in secret, and killed the poor girl. Clearly this isn’t possible, as Richard has been with his new wife all the time, but rumours still persist, especially seeing as a man on horseback, fitting Sir Richard’s description, has been spied several times riding through nearby woods, being pursued by a hooded woman who bears close resemblance to Sir Fordyke’s first wife, who had allegedly committed suicide a couple of years before.
Another murder occurs – again of a young serving maid from the estate – and Richard is implicated, even though it’s highly unlikely that he would have had the chance to kill the home-help. With his reputation in tatters and a likely lynch mob forming, Sir Fordyke must win back his wife’s trust and try and get to the bottom of who is trying to frame him for murders that he didn’t commit and ruin his generally good reputation.
I was pleasantly surprised by The Black Torment as reviews I’d read of it had been very mixed and mostly fairly negative, calling it ‘Hammer-lite’ and somewhat unoriginal. However, that misses the point; the film doesn’t try to be anything new, but just ride old, trusty tropes across the finishing line in trusty style. In fact, The Black Torment is a gothic comfort blanket, which is thoroughly reassuring throughout, mostly due to a great cast of British character actors all making a solid hash of the very familiar material. For example, we have Francis De Wolff playing a grumpy, suspicious blacksmith, Peter Arne playing Sir Richard’s solemn butler and Ann Lynn playing Dianne, the sister of Richard’s first – now dead – wife. And there are some very satisfactory cameos from the second Dr Who, Patrick Troughton, playing the head of the stables and the lovely Edina Ronay in the pre-credits stalking sequence.
The film is nicely shot by DoP Peter Newbrook and he and director Harford Davis have created some nicely creepy sequences involving howling winds and banging windows, and ghostly figures in the estate grounds. And the score, by Robert Richards (no relation), works well, for the most part. The production value is increased considerably by good use of locations near Shepperton Studios and some nice period details, including a horse and carriage which features quite prominently in the film’s early sequences. Plus, there’s also a decently choreographed swordfight towards the end of the film, which was surprisingly vicious, for its time.
Viewers going into this expecting a horror film might be a little disappointed as it’s more of a gothic drama with some horror tropes thrown into the mix for good measure. However, if you’re a little more broadminded then there’s much to enjoy.
88 Films have done a great job in bringing yet another obscure film out of the shadows and it looks great in its brand new HD restoration. There are plenty of special features including:
Audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth – Troy, who specialises in Euro cult cinema, provides an interesting track, covering the film’s place in gothic cinematic history, it’s actors and behind-the-camera talent. He describes the film as being a costume melodrama with a horror element to it, which is pretty accurate. He also points out that it runs along similar lines to Jane Ayre and the Vincent Price starrer, Dragonwyck.
Audio Commentary by Kim Newman and Stephen Jones – Yet another insightful audio commentary by two of the leading proponents of the niche art. After talking about how they first came across the film (on television in the 70s) they go into a lot of detail about the actors and the other roles they’ve played and also about some of the film’s more interesting technical elements such as its use of swaying camera work. They also point out that if you’re observing carefully you can see when Patrick Troughton gets ‘chinned’ by the horse he’s holding.
Annette Whiteley and Roger Croucher on The Black Torment (31.5 mins) – Annette (who played a maid in the film) and Roger (who played the blacksmith’s apprentice) chat amicably about their involvement in the film. They both enjoyed the experience, although found that, it being a low budget production, things moved fast and they normally only got one take to do a scene. Apparently Annette later worked with Edina Ronay on a play.
Peter Dansie Remembers The Black Torment (8 mins) – Peter was Alistair MacIntire’s editing assistant on the film, which was his first feature. He shares some personal stories as to what it was like in the editing room (the editor had a camp bed in there, for instance) and how being very young he was teased a lot by the girls on set.
Image Gallery – One, admittedly cool poster.
