The City of the Dead (1960)

Director:

John Llewellyn Moxey

Writers:

George Baxt (screenplay)
Milton Subotsky (story)

Release Date:

12 September 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

300 years old! Human blood keeps them alive forever!

Plot:

A young coed (Nan Barlow) uses her winter vacation to research a paper on witchcraft in New England...

Plot Keywords:

Stabbed In The Back | Switchblade | Car Trouble | Burned Body | Person On Fire

Cast

Dennis Lotis	...	Richard Barlow
Christopher Lee	...	Prof. Alan Driscoll
Patricia Jessel	...	Elizabeth Selwyn / Mrs. Newless
Tom Naylor	...	Bill Maitland
Betta St. John	...	Patricia Russell
Venetia Stevenson	...	Nan Barlow (as Venetia Stephenson)
Valentine Dyall	...	Jethrow Keane
Ann Beach	...	Lottie
Norman Macowan	...	Reverend Russell
Fred Johnson	...	The Elder
James Dyrenforth	...	Garage attendant (as Jimmy Dyrenforth)
Maxine Holden	...	Sue
William Abney	...	Policeman

Also Known As:

Horror Hotel (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some violence.

Runtime:

USA:78 min (uncut version) | Norway:75 min | USA:76 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1990) | UK:15 | Finland:(Banned) (1961) | Norway:16 (1971) | Australia:M | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) | USA:Not Rated (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Vulcan

Trivia:

Released in the U.S. on a double bill with the West German film Nackte und der Satan, Die (1959) in June 1963.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When they are waiting in the cemetery for the clock to strike thirteen, the clock actually strikes 14 times.

Quotes:

Elizabeth Selwyn: I am Elizabeth Selwyn.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Creature Features: Horror Hotel/The Human Monster (#1.17)" (1971)

Devil Worship in New England, Past and Present

******SPOILERS****** After listening to a lecture by Prof.Alan Driscoll, Christopher Lee, on the town of Whitewood Massachussetts back in 1692 where a local witch, Elizabeth Slwyn, was burned at the stake one of Prof. Driscoll's students Nan Barlow, Venetia Stevenson, decided to do a term paper on the subject. Nan drives to Whitewood to get whatever information she could get on the subject from whats available in the towns records dating back to the 17th Century about witchcraft in general and the Slwyn case in particular.

Getting instructions from a reluctant local living in the area Nan drives into the town of Whitewood and checks into the Raven Inn where she meets the owner Mrs. Newlis, Patricia Jessel, and her mute helper Lottie, Ann Beach. Nan, unknowing to her at the time, was to meet a fate reserved only for someone like her, an innocent girl, that was needed for the Witches Holiday of February 1, Candlemass Eve the Satanic mocking of the Church.

Early Witchcraft and devil movie that predated "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist" but despite it's small budget is as good as either of those movies and the dozens of imitations that followed them. Eerie and spooky film about Witchcraft in New England that covers some 300 years from the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 to the beginning of the Disco Swinging era of the 1960's.

The town of Whitewood is both in the dark and fog at all times in the movie with not a single ray of sunlight ever descending on it. This gives the town a really creepy look as well as unnerving everyone in the theater audience watching the film. It makes one feel that the movie was made in Northern Alaska during the time when it has six months of darkness instead of the state of Massachussetts.

Gripping as well as interesting movie with a great ending sequence where good overcomes evil despite the overwhelming odds against it.