Sci-Fi Horror double bill!

So, finding myself with fuck all to do, I thought it would be a groovy idea to watch some B-movie sci-fi shit...like you do.

These films ere originally shown as a double bill upon their release in 1967, and have been regarded as being no only the worst double bill ever made, but also the two worst films made by Amicus productions.

Here we go....

The Terrornauts (1967)

"Project Star Talk" is attempting to find evidence of extra terrestrial life by using an expensive radio telescope rented at night to listen for alien signals, and, despite four whole years of listening, they haven't heard diddly squat.
Facing having their funding pulled, the team is given 90 days to come up with results, and, miraculously, on the day they are told that this is the case, they pick up a signal just as they are coming to the end of their allotted time.
The next night, they find the signal again, and verify its origin as being from the asteroid belt. Dr. Burke, the project leader, decides to spend the remainder of his 90 day budget on a transmitter so they can send a signal back. They get a response, and the Star Talk team, as well as Mr. Yellowlees the accountant (Charles Hawtrey in his only sci-fi role that I am aware of) and the tea lady, find themselves being abducted.
From there on the film becomes an adventure involving ancient alien civilisations, a galactic war and the impending invasion of the Earth itself!.

Yeaaaahhhh, out of the two films in this double bill, this is definitely the better one. Starts off with an interesting plot line, but once we get to the alien abduction part the films shoestring special effects budget, coupled with a fairly run of the mill story line kind of ruin it.
The scene depicted on the theatrical poster is probably the films weakest point, and just seems to have been shoehorned in so as to act as both a patch for plot holes and to pad the film out a bit.
Other than that, the film itself is a bit of a throwaway to watch if you havent got anything else worth watching available.



They Came From Beyond Space! (1967)

Meteors fall on part of southern England and a scientific unit is dispatched to investigate, however, anyone who approaches the fallen meteors is taken over by alien consciousnesses!!!.
Only Dr. Temple, who was supposed to lead the team but had to stay in hospital, can save the world from alien takeover, thanks to the steel plate in his skull!.

Aww man this film sucks hard.
Although an interesting concept, its one that has been done before, and more competently, by other people.
This film is apparently an adaptation of the book "The Gods Hate Kansas", although I've never read it.
Again, low budgets spoil the film, including reuse of sets and props from both "Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD" and "The Terrornauts", caused due to Terrornauts using up the budget for both films in this double bill, but, more seriously, the film is just plain boring.

Yeah, don't dirty your eyes watching this.

Amicus "Dr. Who" Movies

Following their debut in the seven part serial "The Daleks", the BBC found that the neo-nazi pepperpots were a lot more popular than they had hoped.
Originally intended to be a simple one shot throw away villain for a sci-fi oriented episode intended to teach viewers about sciencey stuff, the prospect of having a lucrative licenced product on their hands took the BBC quite by surprise, as did it surprise their creator, Terry Nation.

As was to become quite common for popular TV series in later years, it was decided to transfer the TV series to a spin off film, which, if including "bankable" actors playing the characters, was hoped to cash in on "Dalekmania" and generate large amounts of box office sales and merchandising opportunities.

The films were produced by Amicus productions (who at the time were named "AARU Productions") who specialised in special effects heavy films, mainly horror films. One of the advantages of making a movie was the ability to make the entire feature in colour, as British TV was still largely broadcast in monochrome during the 60's, so, the colour aspect was heavily emphasised in the advertising, and taken advantage of as much as possible in the film.
The films themselves were never intended to replace the TV show, but were instead more there as a compliment to it, as such, numerous liberties are taken with the series' canon, as well as the original source material from the serials they remake.

Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)

Based on the 1963 serial "The Daleks", the film introduces "Dr. Who" (Peter Cushing) as a human scientist who lives in 1960s London with his granddaughters, the pre-teen Susan and Barbera, who in the film appears to be in her late teens/early 20s. At the beginning of the story, Ian Chesterton (Roy Castle) arrives at their house to take Barbera out on a date.
The film makers capitalised on Roy Castles "comedy acting" resume by having him act out numerous farcical scenes throughout the film, his first meeting with Dr. Who being the first such example, as instead of shaking hands, he gives the Doctor a box of chocolates meant for Barbera, then the Doctor establishes his role as a "absent minded professor" by getting his name wrong etc etc...pretty standard cliche stuff. 
The story gets moving along when the Doctor and Susan decide to show Ian their latest invention, a machine shaped like a mid 20th century police phone box called "TARDIS", which, following the obligatory scene in which a newcomer is astounded by the fact that it is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, is explained to be a machine that can travel to any point in space at any time in either the past or the future.In due course they are joined inside TARDIS by Barbera, and Ian accidentally pushes the lever which activates the machine, sending it off on a random course and getting the adventure moving.
In essence, this first bit is a highly simplified way of retelling the events from the first Doctor Who TV serial, so that cinema goers who hadn't seen the TV show wouldn't need anything explaining to them.
The TARDIS materialises in a petrified jungle on an unnamed planet (retroactively confirmed to be Skaro) , and the Doctor surmises that the planet must have had a nuclear war at some point. Eventually, the explorers find a city, but, after Susan is frightened by an encounter with something in the jungle, the others decide they want to go home, but the Doctor contrives to keep them there so he can explore the city by manufacturing a fault with one of TARDIS's components, thus requiring them to go to the city to seek replacement parts.
In the city they meet the Daleks, stuff happens, the Daleks evil plans are thwarted, there is a happy ending etc etc.

The ability for the film to be shot entirely in colour meant that for the first time, the Daleks themselves could appear on screen in shades other than white, black or grey, so for the film, we get a red Dalek, a black and gold Dalek and a plethora of silver and blue Daleks, which do look nice I must admit. Oddly though, some Daleks seem to have decided to replace their standard plunger arms with rather ineffective looking claw arms, and their standard Dalek gun now shoots some sort of gas (Originally, the plan was for the Daleks weapons to shoot fire, but this was nixed by the producers, firstly because many of the scenes would have easily ended up with people getting seriously burned, but also because it was thought that flames would be too scary for small children to watch, so instead, the flame guns were replaced with CO2 fire extinguishers)
Storywise though, its your average run of the mill "people out of their depth help thwart evil bad guys" type of affair, you could replace the Daleks with evil goblins and the Doctor with some sort of inept wizard and the story would still be identical, but other than that the film is pretty much a scene for scene remake of the original TV serial, just with some of the exposition cut out.

Although the film was released in cinemas throughout the English speaking world, it was only really successful in the British isles, simply because at the time, Doctor Who was pretty much totally unheard of in the United States, and was only marginally known throughout the British Empire due to some serials being purchased for transmission on TV in Australia and South Africa.

Although the film is OK for a bit of throwaway Sunday afternoon viewing, my main criticism of the film is the "comedy" scenes which were shoehorned into the story in order to accommodate Roy Castle, they really serve no purpose and are about as funny as a dose of the clap.

Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD (1966)

Less than a year after the lukewarm reception of the original Dr. Who movie, Amicus followed up with a sequel based on the "Daleks invasion of Earth" serial.

Again, liberties were taken with the source material for reasons of both brevity (the original serial was 3 hours long) and of continuity with the original film.

The film begins with PC  Tom Campbell (Bernard Cribbins) pursuing some thieves through the streets of London. When he loses them, he spots a police box, which he enters to call for back up. Unfortunately for him, the police box is the TARDIS, and as he passes out from a head wound shortly after entering, he ends up getting taken along when the TARDIS goes to the year 2150.
For this film, "Dr. Who", again played by Peter Cushing, is joined by his granddaughter Susan, and his niece "Louise" (Barbera and Ian seem to have jumped ship at some point, implying this doctor had other adventures in between the previous film and this one). Tom is initially unconvinced that they are in the year 2150, until he sees that London lies in ruins (despite them being nearly 200 years in the future, London still looks like it did in the mid 60s).
As the films title suggests, the Earth has been conquered by the Daleks, who seem to be spending all their time and energies concentrating on a massive mining operation in Bedfordshire, the reason for which horrifies the Doctor and makes him vow to stop them with assistance from the remaining human resistance fighters.
Stuff happens, the Daleks evil plans are thwarted, etc etc.

While being a much more interesting story than the original Dalek film, this one makes a lot of the same mistakes, namely pointless "comedy scenes", although this time round, Bernard Cribbins proves he is superior at comedy acting than Roy Castle as the scenes aren't as farcial or cringeworthy.
Visually though, the film is much better to look at than its original TV counterpart, although this is more down to the film having a bit of a bigger budget to work with that the BBC.

Although the film was released at the height of "Dalekmania", it ended up being a total flop due to limited release in cinemas, coupled with scathing reviews which largely regarded it as being unoriginal.


"The Chase" (Unfilmed)
Prior to the release of Daleks - Invasion Earth, plans had been made to make a third film, based off the third Dalek serial from the TV series known collectively as "The Chase" , to be released in the summer of 1967.
These plans were shelved due to the poor performance of "Invasion Earth", but would have seen the Doctor, Susan and two other new companions on the run through time and space from Daleks, who by now had built their own version of a TARDIS and were bent on getting revenge on the Doctor for foiling their evil plans.


To date, no other Doctor Who films have been planned, nor is there likely to be given the continued popularity of the ongoing revived TV series.

Dodgy Sci-Fi double bill - Island of Terror & Night of the Big Heat

Being as I have suddenly found myself with some time on my hands, I decided to roll out some more B-movie related action (yay!).

This time round, its the turn of a couple of British made films which were made by the same company, Planet productions, released one year apart, 1966 and 1967 respectively, use the same director, and tell basically the same story, that story being "a remote community comes under attack by some strange and horrible creatures".



Island of Terror (1966)

The remote Petrie Island is home to a small community of people of Irish/Scottish heritage, and also a secret biological testing laboratory.
In the pre credits sequence, two scientists discuss the critical stage of an experiment they are working on, which appears to involve using radioactive materials to create mutant creatures. One of the scientists speaks out about the possible moral implications of what they are doing, but the other scientist points out that they could wake up tomorrow to find they have discovered a cure for cancer...

An unspecified amount of time later, a man stops to investigate a strange sound emanating from a small cave in some rocks. As he enters the small cave, he screams as he is attacked by an off screen creature.
The following day, the local bobby is sent out to look for the missing man, and he finds his corpse in the cave, albeit whats left of it, as the corpse seems to have no bone structure and, as the bobby describes it "it was all like jelly".

The local doctor, baffled by what he finds when he performs an autopsy on the jellified corpse, contacts noted pathologist Dr. Stanley (Peter Cushing), enquiring whether he has ever heard of any disease that destroys only the bones of a body, but does no damage to any of the organs or other soft tissues. Dr. Stanley has not heard of any such ailment, and intrigued, he sets off for Petrie Island to see for himself.

Eventually, Stanley and his group come across the secret laboratory, but find everyone there has been killed in the same manner as the local man, He deduces that whatever has happened on the island must have originated from the laboratory, but can find nothing within its walls that gives a definitive answer, aside from the jellified corpses all appear to have small fang like punctures on the skin, which indicates that some chemical or venom was introduced into the bodies which broke down the calcium in the bodies.

As it turns out, the lab experiments got out of hand, resulting in the creation of a new species of silicon based creatures that feed on calcium. Because of their unique make up, the creatures are difficult to kill by conventional means (the locals try axes, petrol bombs and bullets on the creatures to no effect).
Eventually, it is discovered that the creatures can be killed by having them ingest Strontium-90, a highly dangerous and potent radioactive material. The locals get hold of some Strontium from the lab and contaminate some cows with it, which the creatures, now named "Silicates" eat and die.

In the films epilogue, it shows that after the island was evacuated, investigation teams moved in, and some unspecified time later, a Japanese laboratory is attempting to replicate the work done to create the creatures...with the same inevitable result...


This isn't a bad story, albeit a cliche filled one with a completely predictable "Deus-ex" type ending.
The special effects used for the creatures are laughably low budget, with the creatures themselves simply being inflated rubber blobs with tinned spaghetti poured over them. In the odd scene where one of the creatures uses its tentacle, its obvious its just a piece of rubber pipe being wiggled about on a piece of string.
Despite the el cheapo special effects and cliche ridden story, "Island of Terror" is an enjoyable enough bit of film which doesn't ask too much of its viewing audience.


Night of the Big Heat (1967)

(Also released as "Island of the burning damned" and "Island of the burning doomed")

The remote Scottish island community of Fara is experiencing a massive heatwave..in winter!. As temperatures soar, the locals begin to notice some odd things happening, strange lights are seen in the sky, radio, telephones and TVs stop working and windows, bottles and cars start exploding in the heat.
The local innkeeper, Jeff (Patrick Allen) and his wife moved to the island recently, supposedly because his work as a novellist was being crippled by writers block, however in reality it was due to Jeff having a sexual relationship with a young woman named Angela, who has followed them.

A local man is found apparently having been burned to death, which on top of the unexplained deaths by burning of some of the local farm animals, arouses the curiosity of Dr. Hanson (Christopher Lee) a scientist with a penchant for unexplained phenomena.

As it turns out, the island is being used as a beach head for an alien invasion (hence the strange lights in the sky). The aliens themselves being composed of a highly resistant magma like substance which radiates an immense heat, which means any living thing they approach is consumed by fire.
Dr. Stone (Peter Cushing) attempts to travel to Faras coastal radar station to warn the mainland about the invasion, but is killed after his car overheats and he is cornered by one of the creatures.
Dr. Hanson deduces that the aliens are attracted by heat and light, so they contrive a plan to lure all of the aliens to the gravel pit by setting fire to some hay bales, and then blowing the gravel pit up and burying the creatures alive. In the mean time, the immense heat is driving people insane, and a local man attempts to rape Angela, which causes Jeff to reveal the true reason for their being there (and provides one of the films most hilarious unintentionally funny lines in the form of "don't you understand woman?, I wanted her, I wanted her body!", which when said in Patrick Allens, gruff, authoratative voice sounds ridiculous) 
Eventually the trap is sprung, however after the explosives have detonated, it turns out that the creatures were completely unaffected by being buried, and burrow their way back out, however, just as all hope is lost, a heavy rainstorm blows in from the sea, and the aliens, who depend on heat for survival, are all killed as the heavy rainfall cools them down and dissolves them.

This is an extremely silly film on many levels. Firstly the aliens who we are told come from a planet which is much hotter than Earth, decide to invade one of the coldest parts of the British Isles.
Secondly, the effects used to show the aliens are proper bargain basement, with the aliens being little more than plastic bubbles with a light inside them, however being as this film stars both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, as well as Patrick Allen, you can see they had to save a few bob somewhere.
Most of the films actual "story" comes from the interactions between the locals, especially so with Jeffs pseudo love triangle thing going off.

Again, this is a film which doesn't expect much from its audience, but provides something to watch in lieu of there being nothing else.

Apocalypse How? - Battle beneath the Earth (1967)

My latest visit to the world of impending doom is this piece of classic cheese, courtesy of MGM.

"Battle beneath the Earth" was released in 1967 and, as the time it was released was during one of the most unstable periods of the Cold War, its chock full of bizarre paranoia about impending invasion by those DIRTY COMMUNISTS!111!1!1!one!1!!11111!!!, except this time round, instead of being of the Russian variety, instead it offers up a dose of Chinese commie related laughs.

Starring no one I've ever heard of, apart from Ed Bishop, this sci-fi film really takes the plot line to the edge of believability:-

The US Navy has been tinkering with some seismic devices in an effort to detect underground nuclear tests from within the communist bloc, however their experiments cant seem to make a device capable of accurately differentiating between the sound of a nuclear explosion and the sound of mining operations.
All this is rendered moot when a man is picked up by the police in Las Vegas  after raving in the street about sounds he can hear when he puts his ear to the ground, however his insane/drunken ravings are soon proved to be rather worrying when coal miners discover a series of tunnels by accident after a mineshaft collapse.
The marines go in and find that deep underground, some rogue Chinese agents have spent a lot of time digging tunnels which lead all the way from China to the US, and have begin planting nuclear bombs under most of Americas major cities.
The marines manage to safely defuse the first lot they find, however those slippery commies have more nasty tricks up their sleeves, tricks which, they hope, will lead to the complete downfall of the free world and the global domination of the Chinese empire.

Yeah, they don't make sci-fi silliness like this no more, which is a shame. Nontheless though, this film is a classic bit of cheese which will require you to leave your sense of logic at the door when watching, but trust me, if you do this, you will find this film a fairly entertaining way to kill 90 minutes.

Amicus Horror Anthologies - Torture Garden (1967)

During the 60s and 70s, British film makers Amicus productions made a series of films containing several short horror stories, linked by a framing story.
Starring many big names (for the time), these low/medium budget films told several stories mainly concerning ghosts and the supernatural in a typically British way, and usually featured some sort of twist ending.

The second of these films was "Torture Garden", released in 1967.

Framing story
Five people ( Michael Bryant , Beverley Adams ,Barbera Ewing , Jack Palance and another man)  are invited by "Dr. Diabolo" (Burgess Meredith ) to view the "Torture Garden". For the small price of half a crown, they will see the horrors that man gleefully inflicts upon his brother.
When the patrons pay up and enter, they find that the side show exhibit contains nothing but cheap and tacky waxworks, culminating in Dr. Diabolo pretending to kill a man using the electric chair. Angrily, they accuse him of swindling them, but as he removes his black robe and devil mask, revealing a smart suit underneath, he tells them that this show is only for the tourists, and that the real horrors are behind a curtain at the back of the room, which they can see, for a payment of five pounds each (a lot of money in 1967), and, if they aren't terrified by what they see, he will give them their money back. curiosity gets the better of everyone and they pay up. After he has collected the money(which oddly enough resembles a pile of $10 bills, even though the price was stated as £5), Diabolo then burns it while grinning evilly.
In the back room, the patrons find nothing there waiting for them, save for a section concealed behind a curtain, in which sits a waxwork figure of a woman holding a pair of shears and several threads. Once again Diabolo is accused of swindling them, but he explains that the woman is in fact the goddess of fate, Atropus, whose shears can cut short a human life in an instant if it is deemed unworthy. Those who are interested can be told their futures, simply by gazing at the shears, and by doing so can seeing their inner evil, hopefully learning from the experience and thus avoiding it...one by one, the patrons step up...


Story #1 - "Enoch"
Colin Williams (Bryant) is a greedy, spendthrift playboy who is up to his eyeballs in debt. He arrives at his uncles house after receiving a mysterious summons to visit. His uncle reveals that he is dying, and that he needs to give Colin an important message before he dies, which Colin assumes to mean that his uncle intends to leave him his considerable fortune. However the uncle reveals that he is penniless, but now is not the time to be discussing the sordid subject of money, as Colin's life depends on the warning he must give him. Colin angrily demands to know where his uncle keeps his money, but again the uncle pleads poverty, and begs Colin to listen before it is too late, but then begins coughing and asks Colin to pass him his medicine, which Colin does, but holds it back at the last minute, saying that he will give him his medicine only when he reveals to him where he has hidden his fortune. Silently, while struggling to reach his medicine, the uncle dies at Colins feet, to which Colin merely remarks "damn..".
After dealing with the local doctor (who remarks that it was odd that his uncle always paid for things using very old and valuable gold coins) undertakers, Colin begins tearing the house apart looking for hidden riches, eventually finding a hidden trap door in the bedroom floor, which leads to a cellar. In the cellar, he finds a coffin buried under a thin layer of dirt, so, using a shovel he finds down there as well, he digs it up, opens it and is horrified to see that it contains a headless skeleton and a lblack cat, which promptly runs off back upstairs.
That night, after a restless sleep, he finds himself awoken by the cat meowing. He stares at it, and the cat begins speaking to him telepathically, telling him its name is "Balthazar", and that it wishes to serve him, as it served his uncle, and he will be rewarded so long as he does things which the cat needs to be done. It goes on to explain that his uncle was ungrateful and buried it in the cellar, but now it is free and it is hungry.
He follows the cat as it leads him to the outhouse, where a tramp is asleep on top of some hay bales. The cat compels him to kill the tramp with a pitch fork, Colin resists at first, but the cat uses its magical powers to inflict pain and force him to kill.
Colin wakes up on the sofa, believing he had just had a nightmare, but then he notices the trap door still open. When he goes down into the cellar, he finds the cat sitting next to a freshly turned mound of earth, and the cat tells him he will be rewarded. Colin digs the earth up, and finds the buried underneath is a small chest containing a horde of gold coins. The cat then tells him he must kill again, Colin refuses, but once again he is tortured into agreeing to kill the housekeeper, which he does when she comes running into the house when she sees the tramps mangled corpse outside.
As Colin attempts to dispose of the two bodies by packing them in a large trunk, a policeman arrives and asks if he has seen the missing tramp, he says he hasn't and is simply trying to leave and go home. The policeman offers to help him move the trunk, but then spots blood running out from inside it.
Colin is arrested for murder, and pleads innocence, but his rantings to the local doctor about the cat being evil and living inside his head only serve to make him sound like he is insane. The doctor asks why the heads of the two corpses were missing, and Colin explains that that is what Balthazar eats.
That night, Colin screams that Balthazar has come for him, but the desk sergeant ignores him, until he hears a blood curdling cry of terror and then Colin falls silent. The sergeant rushes to the cell, and finds Colin's headless corpse laid on the bunk.
Later that night, as the sergeant is writing up his report, the cat enters and mesmerises him, just like it did with Colin....
Atropos's shears close and snip a thread. Colin wakes up after seemingly being in a trance, the others ask him if he is alright, and he says it felt like he had been gone for days. He claims that Diabolo had hypnotised him, but Diabolo remarks that he has never met him before in his life, so how could he know anything about him, much less make a story up about him in the few minutes he was mesmerised by the shears. Colin admits that he does indeed have an uncle who lives in the country, and that he was on his way to see him about something but Diabolo swiftly moves on, asking who will be next to learn their destiny...

Story #2 - "Terror over Hollywood"
Carla Hayes (Adams) is a struggling young actress. While helping her room mate Millie prepare for a date with the fading film star Mike Chambers. As Millie takes a shower, Carla allows her one and only "good" dress to get burned by the iron, and then says that she cant lend her any of her clothes because she doesnt have anything smart enough. Mike arrives and Millie hides in the bedroom, while Carla lies and tells him that she has the flu, then she proceeds to go with Mike to the restaurant that he was going to take Millie to.
While ther, Mike spots a famous actor called Bruce Benton, and a hot shot producer, Eddie Storm, sat conversing in a corner. He rudely butts in on their conversation and asks Eddie to come with him so he can buy him a drink and have a little chat while Carla gets to know Bruce a little better.
Mike pleads with Eddie to give him a job in his latest picture, but Eddie refuses and says that Mike is a has been and thus has been "black balled" out of the profession, Mike storms out in a huff and goes to drown his sorrows in a cheap dive bar across town.
Meanwhile, Carla has suitably impressed Bruce with her knowledge of his films, so much so that Eddie offers her the part of second lead in his new movie, alongside Bruce as the main star, she gleefully accepts, but also notes that neither of the men are eating any of the food they have ordered, to which both men make rather odd sounding excuses about wanting to keep their weight down.
Mike, now hopelessly drunk, tells the bartender of the dive bar that he knows things about Eddie Storm and his career, and plans to blackmail him, the bartender gives Mike a free drink and then telephones Eddie, who tells him to "take care of the matter". The bartender drives the inebriated Mike home, and then knocks him out and leaves him locked in his garage with the car engine running.
The next morning Millie reads in the newspaper that Mike died in a freak accident after getting drunk and gassing himself with car exhaust fumes, Carla says she doesnt care as she has been offered a role in a movie alongside Bruce Benton. She apologises half heartedly to Millie for screwing her over, but says that in this business you have to take the chances when you see them. Millie says she doesnt want to become a star that way, but Carla coldly remarks that she will become a star, any way possible.
After a week of filming, Carla attempts to seduce Bruce, someone she has idolised since her teenage years, but he will have none of it, and instead seems more preoccupied with two strange men who are hanging around the set. Carla give Bruce a gold watch as a present, he initially refuses it but she forces him to accept, he then says he has to leave for a meeting with the two men. Eddie arrives and gives Carla a friendly warning to stay away from Bruce, but she casually dismisses it. They go outside and see Bruce getting into a car with the two men and speeding away, Eddie identifies the two men as gangsters, and he and Carla give chase.
Bruce is shot in the head by the gangsters who then dump his body in the woods, when Carla and Eddie find him, Eddie assures her that he will be ok, and that they need to take him to Dr. Heim at Sunset Crest Sanatorium. Carla waits at the sanatoium and eventually Eddie and Dr.Heim enter and say that Bruce will be back at work on monday morning, Carla says that is impossible as Bruce was most definitely dead when they brought him in, but Eddie says that Dr. Heim is a brilliant and gifted surgeon and that Bruce will be fine.
Monday morning comes and Bruce is indeed back on set, without even so much as a trace of any scarring on his head from being shot. In her dressing room, Eddie tells Carla that the man she saw dead was Bruces body double, who owed a lot of money to the local gangsters for gambling debts, and that it was common practice for film stars ot have doubles to help them cope with the increasing workload as they get older. Carla says she doesnt believe him and reveals that she has been doing some investigating of her own, for example she found out that in 1944, Eddie was involved in an accident and had his head and chest crushed, but after being operated on at Dr. Heims private clinic, he now looks so good that he doesnt show a trace of any wounds or scarring, event though his injuries should have killed him. Eddie warns her not to pry any more and leaves, but she vows to get some answers from Bruce when she sees him.
When she confronts Bruce, she tells him that she loves him, but he tells her to leave him alone, she then spots the watch she gave him on his wrist, and realises that something strange is going on, she tries to embrace him but he pushes her away, scratching his face as she falls back. the scratches reveal a layer of metal underneath his skin, and Bruce finally admits the truth, that he, as well as the other actors in the "top ten" are in fact cyborgs, a human brain in a synthetic body, created by Dr. Heim who are all truly immortal, Carla is repulsed by the idea of people giving up their humanity simply to gain fame and fortune, and tries to leave, but then Eddie and Dr. Heim come in and say that because she now knows their secret, she, like Mike before her, must be killed so keep it a secret. Bruce says he has a better idea, instead of killing her, she should become one of them, Eddie and Dr. Heim like the idea, and Dr. Heim says he can operate immediately..Carla screams in terror.
Carla attends the premier of her and Bruce's film, and a reporter asks her if this means that she is to now be considered to be one of the "top ten", she stares emotionless at the camera, while in the background, two fans yell that Carla is "a living doll".... 

Atropos' shears close, this time not cutting a thread, Carla looks confused, but Dr. Diabolo explains that what she has just seen is a warning, made of the same stuff that dreams are made of, and that hopefully she has learned something from seeing one possible future. Her cousin Dorothy asks if she is alright, she says she is, and Diabolo asks who will be next, Dorothy says she is not afraid and steps forward....

Story #3 - "Mr. Steinway"
Dorothy Endicott (Ewing) is a music journalist who enters into a relationship with a young concert pianist called Leo. Leo spends most of his time playing his grand piano, which he calls Euterpe, after the muse of music. His manager Maxine chides him over putting Dorothy before his career, as all the late nights and very little practice time are causing his music playing abilities to suffer, Leo responds by telling Maxine she sounds exactly like his mother, and that he loves Dorothy and for the first time in years he actually feels happy for once. As he says this, the pianos lid mysteriously slams shut all by itself.
Dorothy comes round and lets herself into Leos flat, finding him slumped asleep on the pianos keyboard.
She wakes him and says they have been invited round to someones house for dinner, he begins to try and make an excuse to not go but instead agrees. Dorothy sits down and begins playing a few notes on the keys but the lid once again slams down on its own, she only just manages to move her hands out of the way.
Over drinks, Leo tells Dorothy that Euterpe talks to him, and is jealous of his relationship with her, Dorothy thinks he is making a joke but he insists he is serious.
Dorothy goes to see Maxine, and says that Leo will end up having a nervous breakdown unless she cancels his latest tour, but Maxine instead accuses Dorothy of being too possessive, and tells he that she doesn't really love him, she just wants the fame of being married to a famous musician. Dorothy responds by telling Maxine that its obvious that all she is intereste din is making money out of Leos music and working him into the ground, and that she probably encourages his belief in "Euterpe" in order to get him to devote more and more of his time to playing.
She goes round to se eLeo and finds that the piano is playing music at deafening levels, but Leo answers the door too quickly for him to have been playing it, Leo says that the piano was playing itself, but she explains that the piano is an inanimate object made out of wood, metal and ivory, and that it has no life of its own. She says that they need to get away from it all for a while and that he should cancel his concert tour, Leo just looks confused.
Later, she offers him an ultimatum, leave with her, or she will leave him, he says that he will go with her. While he is packing, Dorothy hears the piano playing a funeral dirge, she thinks that it is Leo playing it, but when she goes through into his music room, the piano is gone. She walks up to the stool that remains and the Euterpe pushes the door shut, and then rolls across the floor on its own, eventually pushing her out of a window where she falls to her death, Leo comes in and sits down to play the piano as though nothing has happened.

Atropos' shears snap shut, again not cutting the thread. Carla rushes to comfort her cousin who is clearly upset at what she has seen. Colin asks her what she has seen, but she tells him that all she saw was an illusion. Dr. Diabolo reappears, this time wearing a smart white suit, and says they should feel free to call what they see whatever they want, an illusion, a hallucination or a memory of the future. He then asks who will be next, and one of the remaining men steps forward, saying he is eager to sample Diabolo's wares....


Story #4 - "The man who collected Poe"
Ronald Wyatt (Palance) is an avid collector of works by Edgar Allan Poe. While attending a party held to honour fellow Poe enthusiast Lancelot Canning (Peter Cushing ), he stumbles upon a very rare book, one of only six to exist, and offers to buy it from Canning for a huge amount of money. Canning refuses, not wanting to break up his collection, but offers Wyatt the chance to see his full collection if he wants to visit his house in America.
Wyatt jumps at the opportunity, and is extremely jealous to see that not only does Canning own every edition of every book written by Poe, but also many personal items that belonged to or were used by the author.
Over drinks, Canning explains that his father started the collection many years ago, and that he would have been called a fanatic had he been alive today, he then offers a toast to Poe himself, calling him "the only man who has ever fully understood the mysteries from beyond the grave",which Wyatt happily joins in. Hours pass and Canning has drunk rather a lot and is feeling somewhat drunk, Wyatt tries to light his pipe, but finds he has no matches, so Canning offers him his lighter, which Wyatt steals. Canning says that he has a few more things to show him that he keeps locked in the cellar, and that he should feel priviliged as no one has been down there since his father died.
Canning directs Wyatts attention to a pile of handwritten manuscripts, all of which contain original unpublished stories written by Poe himself. Wyatt cant believe it and says he thought he knew about everything Poe had ever written, including the unpublished works, but the names on the manuscripts he had never heard of before. Wyatt immediately offers to buy some of the manuscripts, but again, Canning refuses to sell. Wyatt then enquires what part in Poes life did an ornate gold box on the table play, Canning says it didn't, but stops Wyatt from looking inside it anyway, before trying to escort Wyatt back upstairs. Wyatt says he wants to see more, and grabs a hand full of pages from another table, noting that the paper they're written on looks like new, with a quick inspection of the watermark showing that the paper was made in 1966. He puts two and two together and accuses Canning of creating almost perfect counterfeits of work supposedly done by Poe, but Canning worriedly insists that the work was not written by him, instead, he says that the works were created by the gold box Wyatt had looked at earlier.
Wyatt syas that when he asked Canning earlier about the box, he said it had nothing to do with Poes life, but Canning corrects him, it indeed had nothing to do with his LIFE, but it did have something to do with his DEATH. He explains that his grandfather was a grave robber, and one of the graves he opened was that of Edgar Allan Poe, where he collected the dust that the body had decomposed into and placed it in the gold box. Wyatt opens the box and finds it empty, calling Canning a liar, but Canning goes on to explain that his granfather was not only a grave robber, he was also a student of the occult, and managed to reanimate Poes remains, and thus, the unpublished manuscripts that Wyatt hold in his hand are in fact genuine articles, written by Poe himself, who is still alive.Wyatt dismisses Cannings words as drunken twaddle, but Canning insists that he put the manuscripts back and come back upstairs with him. Wyatt notices that on Cannings keyring is a thrid key which he has not yet used, and demands to know if it is the key to an as yet unopened door, Canning says it isnt but Wyatt seizes the keys and tries to unlock the door. During the struggle as Canning tries to stop him, Wyatt grabs a candlestick and Beats Canning to death with it, saying that Canning will not stop him from seeing "all the treasures".
He enters the room, and finds, hidden within behind a secret panel, the immobile and silent form of Edgar Allan Poe. Wyatt introduces himself, and states that he wishes to help Poe publish all of his new works, but Poe says he only wants to die, as his discovery of all the secrets of the unknown led to him making a pact with the devil for eternal life, and the only way he can escape satans grasp is for another soul to take his place in hell. Wyatt asks if there is any other way he can help, and Poe tells him that if he burns him, then that would do the trick. Wyatt agrees to help his idol to die, but only in return for knowing his secrets. Poe agrees, and Wyatt sets fire to the room with his candle. Poe gives a chilling warning, that the person who releases someone from the devils mastery becomes a slave of satan themselves, and that Wyatt is now trapped.
Wyatt walks through the burning house, clutching Poes unpublished manuscripts, as Poe can be heard laughing.

Atropos's shears snap shut, cutting a thread. Wyatt laughs as he looks at Diabolo and says "its you isnt it?". The other man in the group demands to know what is going on, and who Diabolo really is. Diabolo says he is well known for his excursions into the minds of man, but this answer angers him. Diabolo says that it is his turn to gaze into the shears of fate, but he refuses, instead grabbing the shears and stabbing Diabolo to death. Colin, Carla and Dorothy flee in terror, only Wyatt remains, calmly smoking his pipe whilst standing in the entrance way.
When he thinks everyone has gone, Diabolo starts laughing, and congratulates the other man on a well acted out show, before standing up. Wyatt says he enjoyed the performance, but wanted to hang around to make a deal with Diabolo. Diabolo asks Wyatt for a light, and he produces Cannings lighter from his pocket, Diabolo grunts in agreement, and the smiling Wyatt leaves.
Diabolo grins as he walks over to replace the shears in the hands of the figure of Atropos. He muses to himself that he does occasionally lose one or two doing it this way, but its only sporting to give people a chance to escape his domain, he then turns to the camera, having sported horns, a pointed beard and a moustache and says "but will you?" .......