Also Known As:
Dr. Tarr's Pit Of Horrors
Tagline:
"This is the Edgar Allan Poe film that is so shocking that it will never appear on television!"
Plot:
In a story inspired by Poe's "The System Of Dr. Tarr And Professor Fether," French journalist Arthur Hansel travels to a remote sanitarium to investigate some experimental techniques for curing the mentally ill. What he finds shocks him. Presiding doctor Claudio Brook oversees a madhouse that's nuts even by madhouse standards. Plagiarizing Aleister Crowley decades in advance, Brook sums up his approach as "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." For most, doing as thou wilt involves behaving like heavily caffeinated kindergarteners, although some have fallen into a specific kind of madness. The patient known as "Mr. Chicken," for instance, behaves like a chicken. Brook's daughter (Ellen Sherman), on the other hand, launches into lascivious impromptu dances. Hansel thinks Brook is taking a totally crazy approach to curing mental illness until Sherman informs him...
Key scenes:
...he's just totally crazy. Turns out Brook isn't her father at all. He's a depraved lunatic who's taken over the asylum. That explains the naked woman on horseback. It also explains the appearance of a "doctor" dressed in a flowing wizard robe. And it explains why, after taking a stand against Brook, Hansel is harassed by bizarrely made-up patients doing an intricately choreographed dance of menace. But the frequent cutaways to a bound monk hopping around to jokey xylophone music? Nothing explains that.
Can easily be distinguished by:
Name another film with a character named "Mr. Chicken."
Sign that it was made in 1972: The film is set in the 19th century, but all the patients look like they could have been bussed in from the nearest commune.
Timeless message:
When visiting an asylum in the middle of nowhere, a quick credentials check may be a short-term hassle, but it can save a lot of trouble in the long run.
Memorable quotes:
"Even the folly of love should be encouraged," Brook informs the journalist. But love has its limits: Warning him away from Sherman, he says, "When she's enraged, her fury is greater than a wild boar."
Available on DVD from Mondo Macabro.
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