... the film includes a wedding at night in a thunderstorm, and the fog never seems to lift around the estate of protagonist (???) Guy Carrell (Ray Milland). And then there is the fact that there are bats in the basement of the Carrell estate and yet there seems to be no opening for them to get in and out AND this morbid basement has a laboratory for medical research in it.
The film opens as three doctors are doing a bit of grave robbing in the interest of research. This being 19th century England, it is a socially two tiered affair. The doctors are all standing around,one even smoking a cigar, as the hired peasants do the actual digging. They hit the coffin, they lift the lid which has nail marks on the inside of it, and then a horrified scream by the hired peasants. There is a look of paralyzed terror on the dead man's face indicating he was buried alive only to "wake up" in his coffin.
Well, this reignites a fear in Guy, one of the doctors at the scene, who always believed his father was buried alive, that he will have an attack of catalepsy, which his father was prone to, and be buried alive too. He stops practicing medicine and retreats to his study, requiring drugs even to sleep. You can do that if you are wealthy, I guess. But never fear, his lady love, Emily, says she still wants to marry him and that this bizarre obsession of his is no impediment to their happiness.
This is a feature of Corman's early work. There is a leading character who was once normal, but suddenly has a turn to a bizarre mental or physical illness, and yet there is still a wildly attractive member of the opposite sex who is quite set on marrying them. Of course, Guy should have reservations too. After all, his father-in-law was one of his fellow grave robbers (Alan Napier).
After their marriage, Guy's obsession only deepens since several events just reinforce his belief that it would be so easy to be buried alive. He builds an elaborate tomb with all kinds of escape mechanisms in case he is "buried alive". Then he moves into the tomb and spends his time painting macabre images. Emily argues with him that he basically is already buried alive, living in his tomb, so what is he so afraid of?
How will this all work out? Watch and find out. With Heather Angel as Guy's older sister who spends all of her time hovering over Guy and spying disapprovingly on Emily. What is she up to? Richard Ney is Guy's old friend who is interested in the study of the mind and its influence on the body, a new science 150 years ago.
Notice that Ray Milland and Alan Napier played in-laws before. In "The Uninvited" it is insinuated that Napier's character will eventually marry Milland's sister. Don't watch this and be scared of being buried alive. After all, today, they'd embalm you and that would be that...oh, my.
Also with one of the funniest lines in cinema history when taken out of context: "Frog, please, Justin".
The film opens as three doctors are doing a bit of grave robbing in the interest of research. This being 19th century England, it is a socially two tiered affair. The doctors are all standing around,one even smoking a cigar, as the hired peasants do the actual digging. They hit the coffin, they lift the lid which has nail marks on the inside of it, and then a horrified scream by the hired peasants. There is a look of paralyzed terror on the dead man's face indicating he was buried alive only to "wake up" in his coffin.
Well, this reignites a fear in Guy, one of the doctors at the scene, who always believed his father was buried alive, that he will have an attack of catalepsy, which his father was prone to, and be buried alive too. He stops practicing medicine and retreats to his study, requiring drugs even to sleep. You can do that if you are wealthy, I guess. But never fear, his lady love, Emily, says she still wants to marry him and that this bizarre obsession of his is no impediment to their happiness.
This is a feature of Corman's early work. There is a leading character who was once normal, but suddenly has a turn to a bizarre mental or physical illness, and yet there is still a wildly attractive member of the opposite sex who is quite set on marrying them. Of course, Guy should have reservations too. After all, his father-in-law was one of his fellow grave robbers (Alan Napier).
After their marriage, Guy's obsession only deepens since several events just reinforce his belief that it would be so easy to be buried alive. He builds an elaborate tomb with all kinds of escape mechanisms in case he is "buried alive". Then he moves into the tomb and spends his time painting macabre images. Emily argues with him that he basically is already buried alive, living in his tomb, so what is he so afraid of?
How will this all work out? Watch and find out. With Heather Angel as Guy's older sister who spends all of her time hovering over Guy and spying disapprovingly on Emily. What is she up to? Richard Ney is Guy's old friend who is interested in the study of the mind and its influence on the body, a new science 150 years ago.
Notice that Ray Milland and Alan Napier played in-laws before. In "The Uninvited" it is insinuated that Napier's character will eventually marry Milland's sister. Don't watch this and be scared of being buried alive. After all, today, they'd embalm you and that would be that...oh, my.
Also with one of the funniest lines in cinema history when taken out of context: "Frog, please, Justin".