cult film freak: MARY MAUDE WITH JUDY MATHESON IN 'CRUCIBLE OF TERROR'

Mary Maude in CRUCIBLE OF TERROR Year: 1971 Rates: ***1/2

Fair and sophisticated, lithe and docile, straight-long-haired classic British beauty Mary Maude was as perfect a vulnerable ingenue in CRUCIBLE OF TERROR (an obvious muse for MESSIAH OF EVIL) as she's the sublime target for who seems to be a serial killing sculptor in LUST OF THE VAMPIRE antagonist Mike Raven, looking fitfully wicked enough to provide Mary's character Millie an inevitably nightmarish 11th hour chase...

Which does occur, kind of... but with a twist... beforehand spending most of the screen-time in an artistically Gothic beachside house where various beauties are either posing or being murdered, ranging from scream queen Judy Matheson as the artist's more faithful yet seductive, devilish (and possibly bisexual) moll to Raven's daughter-in-law Beth Morris, as sexy a blonde as Matheson's a deeply gorgeous brunette...

Mary Maude in CRUCIBLE OF TERROR with Judy Matheson

Starting and concluding with dependable British male actors spouting plenty of exposition, from James Bolam as an art-show curator, whose sidekick Ronald Lacey's the formidable sculptor's nervously jealous son, to veteran actor John Arnatt, providing the kind of 11th hour "explaining everything" monologue that ends all whodunnits...

Because despite the horror-sounding title, CRUCIBLE OF TERROR is more a slow-burn mystery/thriller that deliberately hides the true menace, which is fairly predictable since Raven's somewhat lackluster in the villain department and, overall, everything really comes down to Mary Maude's uniquely unmatchable beauty (sharing more chemistry with polar opposite Judy Matheson than anyone else) that's downright hypnotizing from beginning to end.