In 1870 Aaron Fallon (Russ Harvey) is aboard his father’s ship when, in a storm, it is dashed against some rocks and sinks. Fallon and the ship’s captain (Lee Morgan) are washed ashore on, what appears to be, a deserted island. They assume they are the only survivors of the wreck. During the night, however, they hear a woman’s screams. With no weapons they are unable to do anything to assist. The next day they find the body of a woman who had been aboard ship. The woman, having been torn apart by some animal, is dead.
The island is inhabited by Count Lorente de Sade (William McNulty) and his servants, Cassandra (Helen Hogan), Mantis (Maurice Harris) and Ann (Michele Buquor). The Count resides in a rambling shambles of a castle. No one else lives on the island. Mantis finds Fallon and the Captain. They are both knocked unconscious and taken to the castle.
When Fallon awakens, he sees the captain on the floor injured. Cassandra, a former nurse, tells him that the captain was given a drug to help him sleep. Fallon puts the captain on his bed to rest and is then taken to see the Count. It doesn’t take long for Fallon to realize that the Count is quite mad. When he returns to his room the captain is gone. During the night he hears sounds of someone being whipped. Down in the dungeon the captain is being tortured on the rack.
Eventually Fallon comes to learn that the Count’s wife (Eunice Grey) had developed leprosy and they were exiled to the island. Eventually the Countess went insane and now the Count himself is criminally insane. The Count spends his time torturing Ann and accusing her of trying to poison him. He believes the captain is a pirate and continues his sadistic acts on him. When the Count turns his cruel accusations on him, Fallon knows that he must escape this castle of evil, but without a way off the island he can see no way of escaping the Count’s wrath.
“The Dungeon of Harrow” AKA “Dungeons of Horror” AKA “Dungeon of Horror” was released in 1962 and was directed by Pat Boyette. It is a low budget horror movie. Boyette also co-wrote the film. He would direct three films before he switched careers and became a well praised comic book illustrator. He also drew the film’s theatrical poster.
The movie has multiple people doing multiple things. Co-writer Henry Garcia also has a tiny part in the film as well as being a makeup artist and co-producer. Actor Russ Harvey was also a co-producer. In addition to his directing and co-writing credits Boyette also did some narrating as well as being the music director and editing the movie. Don Russell had a bit part and was art director, editor and co-producer.
The plot may be a little reminiscent of “The Most Dangerous Game” but the story incorporated in the movie is actually pretty decent. The cinematography is good, and the dialogue is interesting. The main drawback of the film is the bland acting and the monotonous narration. In addition, the music for the film is all canned public domain music. It has a tendency to drag a little bit, but the ending was better than I expected. There are a lot of pros and cons to the film. It’s one of those “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” type films. If you can overlook its bad points, you might enjoy it. If not, then it will be on your worst movie list.