House of 1000 Dolls (1967) | Undressing the Vincent Price Euro thriller

WHAT’S COOKIN’ IN THE DOLLHOUSE?
The dolls in this 1967 Euro thriller about modern-day white slavery are a bevy of lingerie-clad beauties – 12 or so, not 1000 – being held captive in a Tangiers mansion. Vincent Price and Martha Hyer use their magic act as cover for the abductions, which they do on behalf of the mysterious King of Hearts. George Nader (aka Rock Hudson’s former lover) plays a detective whose investigation into a friend’s murder leads him to the dollhouse.

THE LOWDOWN
One can only imagine how this Euro thriller – and guilty pleasure – would have turned out had Hammer’s Terence Fisher not fallen ill before shooting the original Victorian adventure script. Instead, producer Harry Alan Towers wrote a screenplay which puts his real-life wife (Maria Rohm) in as many scenes as possible and reduces Vincent Price to a supporting role. At least the iconic star gets a memorable death scene. The film premiered in the US on November 8 1967 before going on general release in March 1968. For a full review, check out The Sound of Vincent Price blog.

THE RELEASE
The UK DVD release from Mediumrare Entertainment features a lovely print and a gallery of on-set photos (mainly of Maria Rohm), and will be of interest to both Price fans and vintage exploitation cinema enthusiasts.

House of 1000 Dolls also screens on CBS Action (Sky 148, Virgin 192) today (29 December) at 10.55pm; and on The Horror Channel (Sky 319, Virgin 149) on Monday 6 January 2014 at 2.25am.

WATCH THE GERMAN TRAILER HERE
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCYjea1tqpU%5D

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