City of the Dead

Make some popcorn and jump into the cinematic time machine, it's time to look at:

City of the Dead (1960)

I first saw this movie sometime back in 1990-91, and true to form I watched it a couple of times. What stuck with me besides a fairly young Christopher Lee playing something besides Dracula, was the general atmosphere. I wasn't a fan of black and white movies back then, and I really liked this film despite it's monochromatic nature.

So what's it about?

The movie sets the theme by starting with a witch burning in the 1600's, and then jumps to modern times, i.e. the 60's. Lee is a university professor teaching a class in folklore and history. One of his students, Nan Barlow, decides to go to a small village called Whitewood to absorb some authentic atmosphere for her research paper.

This is the setup, and as far as I'm willing to 'spoil' the film. The story really is quite good, if a bit unsubtle as you can pretty much see things coming from a mile away. I heard a quote from Hitchcock the other day, “In order to build suspense you must give the audience information”. I think that's what they were going for here, as the “mystery” is as mysterious as a brick to the face. You can see what is happening, but the characters can't. Slightly unusual to a modern audience, but it works.

The title, City of the dead is pretty lousy. Whitewood is pretty much a tiny ramshackle village not a even a town let alone a city, but it's better than the U.S. title Horror Hotel. In fact, if you find it under Horror Hotel, then it's probably a cut version. Not that there is all that much to cut. It's not a gory movie, it's barely a violent movie. The cut part is from the opening witch burning as the U.S. censors were offended by the witch's dying pledge to the devil.

What makes the film is the ambiance and the actors. There are a few silly parts that make zero sense if you dwell on them, but it really doesn't matter. The important parts are solid which leaves City of the Dead as an overlooked but enjoyable part of horror movie history. If you haven't seen it, do check it out.

So that's that, join me again next time and until then, have a great week!