THE BLACK TORMENT - Robert Richards - "Murderer!" (1964)

I sat down and tried to watch "The Black Torment" one night, and I just couldn't face it! I had a long hard day at work, and it just wasn't something I felt like doing! The next night I tried it again when I was in a better mood, and I'm glad I did, because "The Black Torment" is not only a fairly cool title, it's actually really a pretty good flick for a 60's English horror film that's not a Hammer! The music for "The Black Torment" was composed by Robert Richards in one of his only five composing gigs! The other 4 titles were "Saturday Night Out," 13 episodes of the "Mogul" TV series, "The Smashing Bird I Used To Know," and "Bloodsuckers!" Robert was also one of the drummers in the flick "Gonks Go Beat!"

It's a coming home party for John Turner as Sir Richard Fordyke and his new bride Heather Sears as Lady Elizabeth Fordyke! John Turner was in "The Giant Behemoth" and "Captain Nemo And The Underwater City" and Heather was Christine Charles in the 1962 Herbert Lom version of "The Phantom Of The Opera!"

You might recognize Black John there on the left! It's the awesome Francis De Wolff who has been in too many cool films to mention, like "Corridors Of Blood," "The Man Who Could Cheat Death," "The Two Faces Of Dr. Jekyll," "Curse Of The Werewolf," and "From Russia With Love."

Peter Arne is Seymour, Sir Richard's best man friend! You've seen Peter in movies like "The Atomic Man," "You Know What Sailors Are," "Secret Of Mystery," and "Battle Beneath The Earth!

This joint looks like something out of freakin' "Alice In Wonderland" with that checkerboard floor!

Sir Richard is convinced his Father will love Lady Elizabeth as much as he does, but in the vernacular, she can't imagine how that would be physically possible!

Joseph Tomelty is Sir Giles Fordyke, Richard's Pop! Sir Giles had a stroke and lost his ability to talk so he signs, which is something you didn't used to see much in the movies, in fact, I don't think I've ever seen anybody use sign language in a film like this before! This was Joseph Tomelty's last movie, but he lived til 1995!

This is what a toast looks like from Sir Giles' perspective!

There have been a lot of murders committed while Sir Richard was gone, and many of the locals claim they have seen him at night even though he was many kilometers away, and just because he has returned with a new wife doesn't make the killings stop!

Sir Richard is almost constipated with grief and guilt, even though he knows he has had nothing to do with any of it!

There's also another factor, his dead ex-wife keeps appearing at night outside of the window that she accidentally fell out of!!

Ostler tees up on the very difficult par three 18th hole! From that distance, I think that's a mashie niblick he's using!

Now it's really starting to get ugly, first Sir Giles' wheel chair is found at the foot of the stairs, then Sir Giles himself is discovered hanging from the chandelier!!

Dying is kind of a national pastime in this neck of the woods!

Jeez, now the ex's ghost is even appearing inside the house, and Sir Richard is just about to go 100% screaming yellow bonkers!!

Okay, I'll tell you that Sir Richard has an identical twin brother that he's never met who Sir Giles kept penned up downstairs for years, and he is madder than the Mad Hatter and Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" combined!

It's a family reunion of the worst kind when the dead ex-wife and the crazy as a loon unknown brother all come out to meet Lady Elizabeth at the same time!

Oh my goodness, he's drooling, and she still thinks it's her husband, but she's going to shoot his ass anyway!

Sir Richard finally declares, "What the eff in Hell is going on around here?" Besides all that it seems that best pal Seymour and Diane, the gal who was Sir Giles' companion were both in cahoots too, and it was Diane who was the ghost all along!

Hey, if you like buxom beauties and krazy madmen, you'll dig "The Black Torment" no doubt! I found it on Netflix, and you can too!