Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)

This movie opens with a particularly gruesome (for the late ‘50s anyway) and still effective murder using booby-trapped binoculars.  From there we are introduced to some detectives working for Scotland Yard as they try and solve a series of murders in London.  It seems that someone is killing off beautiful young women using items from the Black Museum.  This refers to a collection that Scotland Yard has of various implements of murder.  Later we are also introduced to a crime writer named Edmond Bancroft, played by Michael Gough, who taunts the police because of their inability to solve the crimes.  Of course there is something not quite on the level with Bancroft (no real spoilers, it is pretty obvious) and he has some sort of connection to what is going on.

This is why I love this hobby.  I’m a huge fan of all things ‘50s, especially the genre movies from that decade.  But I’ve never seen Horrors of the Black Museum before.  Boy was I missing out on a fun movie.  The story is sort of predictable to a point.  Early on it is obvious that the Bancroft character has something to do with the murders, but the movie then throws a few twists at you.  I won’t spoil them here, but I have to say that I found myself really interested in what I was watching from start to finish.  Personally that is all that I ask of a movie and this one delivers the goods.  Not much more that I can say about the story without dropping some spoilers. 

I do want to talk a bit about the special effects.  Now the look of the “monster” killer is a bit goofy and I wasn’t sure why they went there with the makeup.  That is until some of the other stuff was reveled at the end anyway.  But it does look a bit dated.  That said I couldn’t believe what I was watching with some of the other death scenes.  They are very well executed and you see a surprising amount on screen for a movie from the ‘50s.  Blood pouring down from eyeless sockets, a lopped off head sitting on the floor, and finally you get to see one victim stabbed on screen.  Sure these might seem tame now, but I have an appreciation for the time period and how risqué Horrors of the Black Museum was.  I also love how the blood looks, there is nothing quite like the look of these early color movies. 

It isn’t very often that I find a genre flick from the ‘50s that I haven’t seen yet, much less a pair of them.  But the recent double feature release from VCI Entertainment that has both Horrors of the Black Museum, as well as The Headless Ghost is one of those times.  I can’t recommend Horrors of the Black Museum enough to fans.  This movie alone is worth the purchase price of the DVD. 

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2010 John Shatzer