HEATHER SEARS WITH ANNETTE WHITELEY IN 'THE BLACK TORMENT'

Heather Sears and John Turner in THE BLACK TORMENT Year: 1964 Rating: ***1/2

Since THE ROOM WITH A VIEW, when social-climbing rascal Laurence Harvey stares at Heather Sears, he mentions out loud how incredibly perfect a young woman she is...

Which became her niche: the upturned nosed, round-faced, always-smiling cutie that turns the heads of both men and monsters in Hammer's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and once again epitomizes girl-next-door allure as the new wife of a returning English lord in THE BLACK TORMENT...

Kathy McDonald in THE BLACK TORMENT

Aesthetically and atmospherically liken to Hammer but more of an 80-minute gothic potboiler, John Turner's the ultimate wrong-man as young women keep dying, providing an early body-count slasher flick involving an enigmatic killer looking exactly like the poor lord himself: along with the possible return of his dead ex-wife...

So it's equally a mystery, sadly ending on a rather predictable anti-climax... the best sequences involving victims from first-girl Edina Ronay to frisky-girl Annette Whiteley, while the prettiest in one-time-starlet Kathy McDonald comes to nothing — a shame since the stalking violence far exceeds the theatrical exposition.  

Heather Sears and John Turner in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears and John Turner in THE BLACK TORMENT

Annette Whiteley in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears and Ann Lynn in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears and Ann Lynn in THE BLACK TORMENT

Peter Arne in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears in THE BLACK TORMENT

John Turner in THE BLACK TORMENT

Heather Sears in THE BLACK TORMENT

Edina Ronay in THE BLACK TORMENT

Annette Whiteley in THE BLACK TORMENT

From THE BLACK TORMENT