''House of the Black Death'' (also kmnown as ''Blood of the Man Devil'') is a 1965 American horror film directed by

Harold Daniels Harold Daniels was an actor and then a director of American films. He directed about 14 films. The 1958 '' Terror in the Haunted House'' he directed was one of the first to use the technique known as ''Psychorama''. Daniels was born Harold Goldst ...

Reginald LeBorg Reginald LeBorg (born Harry Gröbel; 11 December 1902 – 25 March 1989) was an Austrian-American film director. He directed 68 films between 1936 and 1974. Film career In 1934, he moved to Hollywood, California to seek employment as a scre ...

Ray, Fred Olen (1991). The New Poverty Row. McFarland and Co. Inc. p. 18. . and

Jerry Warren Jerry Warren (March 10, 1925 – August 21, 1988) was an American film director, Film producer, producer, editor, screenwriter, cinematographer, and actor. Warren grew up wanting to get into the film business in Los Angeles, California. He ...

, and starring

Lon Chaney Jr. Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dracula ...

and

John Carradine John Carradine ( ; born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema. He was a member of Cecil B. DeMille's stock company and later J ...

, although the two actors shared no scenes in the film. It was written by Richard Mahoney based on the novel ''

The Widderburn Horror ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'' by

Lora Crozetti LoRa (from "long range", sometimes abbreviated as "LR") is a physical proprietary radio communication technique. It is based on spread spectrum modulation techniques derived from chirp spread spectrum (CSS) technology. It was developed by Cycleo ...

.Jones, Stephen (1996). "The Illustrated Werewolf Movie Guide". Titan Books. . Page 63

Plot summary

Two elderly brothers who are

warlocks A warlock is a male practitioner of witchcraft. Etymology and terminology The most commonly accepted etymology derives ''warlock'' from the Old English '' wǣrloga'', which meant "breaker of oaths" or "deceiver". The term came to apply speciall ...

, Belial and Andre, have been feuding with each other for years over the family estate. Belial, who sports small goat's horns on his forehead and runs a coven of

witches Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

, has been using his

black magic Black magic (Middle English: ''nigromancy''), sometimes dark magic, traditionally refers to the use of Magic (paranormal), magic or supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes. The links and interaction between black magic and religi ...

to bewitch members of the family, while Andre spends the entire film bedridden. Andre keeps warning people that his brother Belial is evil and up to no good. Belial turns Andre's son into a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

by way of a magical spell and bewitches Andre's daughter (Serena) into dancing and gyrating sensuously. Much of the plot involves scenes of the sexy witches belly-dancing in front of their satanic altar.

Cast

as Belial Desard *

as Andre Desard *

Andrea King Andrea King (born Georgette André Barry; February 1, 1919 – April 22, 2003) was an American stage, film, and television actress, sometimes billed as Georgette McKee. Early life Andrea King was born Georgette André Barry on February 1, 1919, ...

as Dr. Katherine Mallory *

Tom Drake Tom Drake (born Alfred Sinclair Alderdice; August 5, 1918August 11, 1982) was an American actor. Drake made films starting in 1940 and continuing until the mid-1970s, and also made TV acting appearances.

as Paul Dessard * Dolores Faith as Valerie Dessard *

Sabrina Sabrina may refer to: People and fictional characters * Sabrina (given name), a feminine given name, including a list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Hafren, known in English as Sabrina, a British princess in Welsh mythology ...

as belly-dancer *

Jerome Thor Jerome Thor (January 5, 1915 — August 12, 1993) was an American actor of the stage and screen. He is best known for his work in Broadway plays from 1935 through 1946, and on American television during the 1950s. He starred as Robert Cannon in '' ...

as Dr. Eric Campion * Sherwood Keith * Catherine Petty *George Mitchell * Katherine Victor as Lila * Margaret Shinn

Production

The film was originally to be titled ''Night of the Beast'' or ''The Widderburn Horror'', but it was theatrically released as ''Blood of the Man Devil''. When it was later released to television, the title was again changed to ''House of the Black Death''. Although the film was made in 1965, when most new films were being made in color, it was shot in black-and-white for $70,000. Harold Daniels initially shot the film in 1965 with actors Chaney and Carradine, and

co-directed in an uncredited capacity. Reginald LeBorg claimed that he did very little actual directing. He said his work "consisted of little more than some shots of actors wandering around amongst the trees in the forest scenes." Afterwards, the producers felt the film needed something more, so

was hired to add some extra footage to pad out the running time and edit the film. Warren brought Katherine Victor into the project, casting her as the leader of a coven of witches.Ray, Fred Olen (1991). "The New Poverty Row". McFarland and Co. Inc. . Page 18 Interviewed by Tom Weaver, Warren said "They had a terrible mishmash of a movie. It wasn't a movie, it was a bunch of film. It came out bad but it came out playable, and it did pull out some money for the people who made it".

Critical reception

Fred Olen Ray Fred Olen Ray (born September 10, 1954) is an American film producer, director and screenwriter of more than 200 low- to medium-quality feature films in many genres, including Horror film, horror, science fiction, action film, action/adventure f ...

claims to have seen the film under the title ''Blood of the Man Devil'' in the drive-in in the early 1970s on a quintuple "Blood" bill with '' Blood Mania'' and three other films. The fact that the film was made in black and white might have had something to do with its distribution difficulties. James O'Neill wrote "Cardboard monstrosity culled from footage contributed by three different directors ... Most of the veteran cast look sick or drunk, or both". Stephen Jones called it "an incomprehensible mess ... with plenty of gratuitous belly-dancing". Film historian Wheeler W. Dixon remarked that on ''The House of the Black Death,'' "the less said the better."Dixon, 1992 p. 37

Notes

References

* Dixon, Wheeler Winston. 1992. ''The Films of Reginald LeBorg: Interviews, Essays, and Filmography.'' Filmmakers No. 31 ''

The Scarecrow Press Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an American independent academic publishing company founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns t ...

'', Metuchen, New Jersey.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:House of the Black Death 1965 films 1965 horror films American black-and-white films Films based on American novels Films directed by Jerry Warren Films about Satanism American werewolf films Films about witchcraft 1960s English-language films 1960s American films American religious horror films English-language horror films