Horrors of the Black Museum

Michael Gough - Edmond Bancroft
June Cunningham - Joan Berkley
Graham Curnow - Rick
Shirley Anne Field - Angela Banks
Geoffrey Keen - Supt. Graham
Gerald Anderson - Dr. Ballan
John Warwick - Insp. Lodge
Beatrice Varley - Aggie

Onetime Gainsborough cameraman, director Arthur Crabtree’s final film was this gruesome exploitation horror classic with Michael Gough in fine form portraying a famed crime writer. The Horrors of the Black Museum was inspired by ex-AIP producer Herman Cohen’s visit to Scotland Yard’s infamous Black Museum and every murder was based on an actual murder that occurred in the UK. The US version opened with a "Hypno-Vision" introduction from hypnotist Dr. Emile Franchel who delivers a 13-minute lecture on hypnosis and then proceeds to hypnotise the audience.

Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough), an established crime writer takes extreme measures to insure that his next novel contains accurate descriptions of grisly murders. He decides to perpetrate ingenious murders using Scotland Yard’s "Black Museum" for inspiration, not wanting to bloody his own hands; he drugs his pliable young assistant Rick (Graham Curnow), turning him into a deformed Jekyll and Hyde monster and has him do the dirty work using a few devilishly clever gadgets.

The first female victim receives a package from an unknown admirer containing a pair of binoculars; upon using the binoculars a pair of spring-loaded skewers pierces the attractive blonde’s eye-balls and brain rendering her dead. After each sordid murder Bancroft’s health deteriorates but as he writes a crime column for a London newspaper this fails to prevent him goading the floundering investigating officers at Scotland Yard. The next female victim is Bancroft’s girlfriend Joan (June Cunningham), who ends their relationship with a stinging attack on his health and manliness. When she returns home after an evening’s merriment a guillotine poised above her bed is waiting to behead her.

By this stage Bancroft’s actions have raised the suspicions of those familiar. Both his doctor (Gerald Anderson) and elderly antique shop owner (Beatrice Varley) suspect he is the killer, but after confronting him Bancroft deals with both is a typically gory style. When Bancroft later returns home he discovers Rick and his girlfriend Angela (Shirley Ann Field) canoodling in his beloved personal black museum. Acknowledging that Angela could destroy his plans, Bancroft injects Rick with the character-altering serum and orders him to take his girlfriend to an amusement park and dispose of her.