PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961)
Get into the swing of things
Richard Matheson, who wrote the screenplay, apparently thought the same thing about that "rats coming to the rescue" bit as I did, and left it out. Phew!
This is a damn fine film, about a Spanish nobleman (John Kerr) in the 16th Century who goes to the castle of Don Medina (Vincent Price) to find out just what's happened to his sister. Turns out she's dead - dead of fright, no less. And it has something to do with the torture chamber in the castle dungeon, where Medina saw his mother walled up alive as a child.
Price gets quite a bit to do here, getting to give his acting legs a stretch. From cowering terror, to hammy villainy, to stark villainy, to deep depression - the guy's just all over the map, easily stealing the movie away from anybody who deigns to intrude upon his presence. I wouldn't quite say it's his best performance - I'd certainly prefer the more purely comic approach of Theater Of Blood, or the pure black villainy of The Conqueror Worm. But it's still great Price, and if it's great by Price standards, it's certainly good enough for us mere mortals.
The movie's tense, great-looking and well-constructed, never seeming anything less than topnotch but somehow not really seeming as memorable as I'd hoped. I dunno, no real reason why - maybe I'm just extra-hard to impress tonight after watching tCW. Still, highly recommended!