The Terror (USA, 1963) 81 min color DIR-PROD: Roger Corman. SCR: Leo Gordon, Jack Hill. MUSIC: Ronald Stein. DOP: John Mathew Nickolaus Jr., Floyd Crosby, Conrad Hall. CAST: Jack Nicholson, Boris Karloff, Sandra Knight, Dick Miller, Jonathan Haze. (American International Pictures)
Of all Roger Corman productions, The Terror probably has the wackiest history. An illegitimate cousin of the Poe series, it was first devised when The Raven finished photography ahead of schedule. Corman, who still had Boris Karloff under contract for two days, decided to keep Karloff around to shoot footage on the still-standing sets from The Raven for use in a second movie.
What he came up with didn’t make a lot of sense. It had something to do with a lost French officer (Jack Nicholson, laughably unconvincing) who stays at the castle of a hermetic Baron (Karloff), who has been mourning for years over the loss of his wife (Sandra Knight, then married to Jack Nicholson). The wife’s ghost, however, has been appearing frequently to Nicholson. There clearly wasn’t enough to merit a movie, so over the next few months, no less than four other young, inexperienced directors would film scenes without credit in a desperate attempt to make the movie coherent. They were (hold your applause until the end) Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, Jack Nicholson, and Francis Ford Coppola. Still, don’t go looking for any auteur touches – their scenes, most of them exterior shots concentrating on Nicholson wandering around a beach and forest near the Baron’s castle, are strictly amateur hour.
Yet despite its incoherence, The Terror is more enjoyable than it has any right to be, mostly because of strong performances by Karloff and the dependable Dick Miller (as the Baron’s servant). It also makes for an interesting companion piece to Corman’s official Poe movies. Surprisingly, The Terror was a box office hit, and to this day has a considerable cult following. In Corman’s autobiography, Nicholson looked back on the chaotic production fondly by saying, “I had a great time. Paid the rent. They don’t make movies like The Terror anymore.”
Originally published in The Roger Corman Scrapbook.
Will Sloan
Will Sloan first encountered ESR at Word on the Street circa 2004 (age: 15) and started contributing not long after. He is now a fully-grown writer and raconteur, and hosts two film-related podcasts: The Important Cinema Club and Michael & Us. You can follow him @WillSloanEsq on Twitter and at willsloanesq.wordpress.com.