The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)

• Directed by Warren Kiefer, Luciano Ricci 
• Written by Paul Maslansky, Warren Kiefer, Fede Arnaud 
• Stars Christopher Lee, Gaia Germani, Philippe Leroy, Mirko Valentin, Donald Sutherland 
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes 
• Watch it: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15qugo 

 
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was pretty good, with Donald Sutherland making his movie debut and Christopher Lee doing some polite gentlemanly villainy. The science is bad and it’s a little formulaic, but overall, it kept us interested.

Spoilery Synopsis

A man kills a pair of lovers in the woods. A highwayman kills a man on the road. We’re told that the war is over and Napoleon has been exiled. There was no war, but the killing has not stopped; criminals are everywhere. Public hangings are commonplace.

We cut to what appears to be the world’s stupidest hangman– no, it’s all just a comic skit for the crowd. The comic troupe gets a message from the count to come to his castle and perform for him. Bruno pays Gianni, Nick, and Dart, but only because Laura insists. Dart and Bruno fight over money, but Eric breaks up the fight. Since Dart has quit, they invite Eric to replace him. In the morning, the whole troupe heads up to the count’s castle.

On the way, they wonder about the forest’s silence, and then they find a taxidermy bird perched on a tree branch. As they stop, an old witch walks up and offers them a prophecy. “Some will live and some will die!”

Arriving at the castle, they go inside to find a huge number of taxidermied creatures inside. Laura calls it “The Castle of the Living Dead.” Count Drago comes in and introduces himself. He says he’s looking for the secrets of death; he means the taxidermy. The count’s creepy servant, Sandro, is suitably weird.

Eric and Laura talk about the castle and the count while Bruno has a drink with the count. There’s obviously something wrong with Bruno’s drink, and he staggers out to the stage to do his show with the others. When they do the hanging trick, it kills Bruno for real this time. Nick remembers the old woman’s prophecy. Eric thinks Dart was behind the accident.

Meanwhile, Dart rides up on his horse and climbs up the wall outside the castle. Drago talks to Eric about the actor, but Nick and Eric still think Dart was involved somehow. Laura spots Dart outside the window, looking in– thirty feet up.

Dart runs into the old woman in the graveyard later. She warns him to watch his back. Sandro runs into Dart on the grounds later and cuts him up with a scythe.

In the morning, the count shows Eric his laboratory. He’s been trying to make an “instant suspension of life.” He’s found a new embalming chemical that causes instant death and rigidity in perfect preservation. The police sergeant arrives, and Eric tells him about the accident with Bruno last night. They box up Bruno and carry him to the cemetery for burial.

As the funeral progresses, Gianni examines the noose from the accident as Sandro comes up behind him, loads a crossbow, and shoots him in the eye.

The count asks Laura where they’ll go when they leave, and she says the next town over. She’s always dreamed of living in one place, and he invites her to stay with him. “You should never grow old. You should stay like this, forever. Eternal life might be a dream, but eternal beauty can be achieved,” he says.

Sandro whacks Eric over the head. Laura watches as a cat drinks her wine and freezes solid. “The count meant that for me!” She finds Nick and tells him what’s been happening. They find a bedroom with a dead woman on the bed, frozen solid, with spiders and rats crawling all over her. Sandro follows them as they run through the castle; he throws Nick off the roof, but the little man lands in a pile of hay, where the old witch drags him away.

Laura makes her way into the count’s laboratory and sees Dart’s body posed in the corner. She talks to the count, and Eric wakes up. Outside, Nick and Sandro play hide and seek until Nick gets the other man’s gun and shoots him.

The count shows Gianni and Bruno’s bodies to his guests. He’s got a whole room full of preserved people. The three policemen come in, and Eric takes on all three of them. During the fight, one of the frozen birds is broken, and the count freaks out. The witch comes out of nowhere and attacks the count, and in the scuffle he gets frozen like the others. The sergeant looks in the next room and sees the count’s collection.

Paul orders that the three actors be released and are free to go. Eric, Laura, and Nick ride off.

Commentary

IMDB says the dwarf’s name is “Nick,” but in the film, they all call him “Meep.”

A group of people go to an old castle and mayhem ensues. We’ve seen this same story a hundred times. Although there’s nothing especially wrong with this film, the story is about as generic as you can get.

This was Donald Sutherland’s first film, appearing as both Sergeant Paul and the Witch. Christopher Lee is good as the count, and Mirko Valentin is awesome as the creepy Sandro.