Hey gang,
I recently watched a new dvd copy of a British 1960 supernatural thriller film, entitled "The City of the Dead." The star of the film is the truly great, Sir Christopher Lee.
Basically, the film deals with a coven of witches, who, since 1692, have gathered together to conduct a human sacrifice on every Candlemas Eve (February 1) to honor their "boss' and to renew their immortality for another year.
Sir Christopher portrays Prof. Alan Driscoll, an expert in the occult (and a not-so-nice version of Prof. T. Elliott Stokes), who urges one of his comely, young female students to travel to Whitewood in order to gain a better "insight" into the history and legends of witchcraft in New England. (I don't want to spoil the plot, but suffice it to say, that that impromptu academic field trip ends rather badly for the young coed.)
The village of Whitewood, Massachusetts reminded me very much of the beloved Collinsport, Maine; most of the the residents seem to be very creepy and there always seems to be an incredible amount of fog, rising up from the streets and sidewalks of the town (very much like the pea soup-like stuff Barnabas encountered when he first met the Leviathans on his way along the path to the Old House).
Of course, there is an especially nasty witch around, named Elizabeth Selwyn (shades of Angelique), who was previously burned at the stake in 1692, right around the same time that Judah Zachery had his head lopped off after his own witchcraft trial.
The film was directed by veteran director John Lllewllyn Moxey, who directed such memorable television series as "Mission Impossible," "Kung Fu," "Magnum P.I.," and the superb British spy series, "The Avengers," starring the wonderful Patrick MacNee and the remarkable Dame Diana Rigg.
Oh yeah, Mr. Moxey also directed the 1972 cult supernatural t.v. film, "The Night Stalker," starring Darrin McGavin and the beautiful Carol Lynley, and produced by one Mr. Dan Curtis, a prolific giant of both American film and television, and who once also produced a Gothic daytime soap opera, which we all may have seen, from time to time, over the years.
The dvd also features commentaries by both Sir Christopher Lee and Mr. Moxey, and also an in-depth interview with the United Kingdom's greatest film Dracula. I first saw this film on John Zacherle's Friday night horror show on Channel 11 in NYC way back during the 1960s, and I wholeheartedly recommend this genuinely spooky film to all of my Dark Shadows cousins today.
Bob