CHAMBER OF HORRORS-1966- In Baltimore a nut named Jason Cravatte (Patrick O'Neal) murders a woman and then has a minister marry them at gunpoint. Police detective Albertson (Wayne Rogers) investigates. The cigar smoking Mrs. Perryman (Jeanette Nolan) calls in Wax Museum proprietors and "amateur" criminologists Anthony Draco (Cesare Danova) and Harold Blount (Wilfred Hyde-White) to catch her nephew, the murderer Cravatte. They are assisted by little person Pepe (Tun Tun). Draco figures out Cravatte is hiding out in a whorehouse run by Madame Corona (Marie Windsor). He's arrested, tried and sentenced to hang. On his way to the death house he manages to escape but has to chop off his own hand to do it. The chief inspector assumes he died but of course he didn't. In New Orleans he has a (fake) Chinese guy (Berry Kroeger) design a hook hand with several unusual extras. He uses Maria (Laura Devon), a hooker to set up his revenge on the judge (Vinton Haywood) who condemned him. Gravette uses a butcher knife attachment to kill him. He then sets his sights on Draco, once again using Marie. Meanwhile Draco takes time to romance old flame Barbara (Suzy Parker) while Gravatte does away with the doctor (Richard O'Brien) who said he was sane enough to stand trial. Later he kills Albertson, the arresting officer. They set a trap for Gravatte at the museum but he gets by it, terrorizing Maria and trying to kill Draco. They fight and Gravatte is killed. It ends with the duo stumbling upon a new murder right in their museum.
CHAMBER OF HORRORS was originally made for TV and based on HOUSE OF WAX but it was thought to violent for TV and it was turned into a feature film and added two "William Castle like" gimmicks: "The Fear Flasher" and "The Horror Horn" which would warn the viewer a murder was coming.
Tony Curtis has an unbilled cameo and for some reason Patrick O'Neal's name is omitted from the end credits! I'm sure the serial killers union had something to say about that!
Director Hy Averbach worked on many TV shows and TV movies but around this time made several other features with long titles: I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT and SUPPOSE THEY GAVE A WAR AND NOBODY CAME?
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