Seven Days in a Magician's House

 

Thanks to Turner Classics, movie night ends with Two on a Guillotine (1965)

After watching "Shark Night" I wanted to cleanse my palate. I was mulling over a horror film with a giant house and chiller trappings. I almost settled on a rewatch of the great 40s classic haunted house film with Ray Milland, "The Uninvited". I had watched a latter-career Milland film for Roger Corman not but a week ago, "X - The Man with X-Ray Eyes", so it would have been a cool return to when the actor was at the height of his status as a leading man and popular actor in Hollywood. I settled on Two on a Guillotine (1965). It looked beautiful on my 58 inch flatscreen (a much cheaper flatscreen, one I got for a steal because I'm far from affluent), the rich B&W photography and Connie Stevens is absolutely stunning as the daughter of a magician claiming to return from the grave, leaving her his home to stay in for seven days for a fat inheritance. Dean Jones is a reporter looking for a scoop, pretending to be a real estate guy, eventually courting her, with Stevens falling in love with him and vice versa. But, to me, that house is just phenomenal. I had read that it was a left over set from a big budget Hollywood film, and all involved sure got a lot of use out of it. I just LOVE when the camera follows Stevens and Jones throughout the house. It seems like there are rooms within rooms, and those banisters and stairs are a work of art. This house is an architectural eye candy that I found myself absorbed in. I imagined myself just taking that place all in, much like Stevens and Jones do when they arrive and enter for the first time. And the skeleton shooting out of the box upstairs is a hoot! And that sound system in the house! 3/5