Jack Nicholson wanders around a wood and a castle, meeting the same five people over and over and asking "Where is the woman?!"
Nicholson plays a French soldier who, having become separated from his troop, runs into a woman who then disappears on him. He seeks answers from a baron (played by Boris Karloff!) in the local castle. (The very obvious matte painting of the castle makes it look vast, but the budget didn't stretch to building more than 2 rooms and a corridor.) The plot is ridiculous, and an attempt to give some psychological depth through a last minute reveal about one of the characters is laughable.
A lot of the joy in watching a Corman produced/directed movie is admiring how they did so much with so little. It's the sheer brio, brass neck, and inventiveness that Corman brings to his movies that you can't help but admire.
The story goes that as Corman was finishing up "The Raven" (one of his movies based on work by Edgar Allen Poe), he realised he could keep the sets up for a further two days and film something else. He asked a screenwriter to come up something fast, and asked one of the stars of "The Raven", Boris Karloff, to be in it. They shot all of Karloff's scenes over two days, and filmed the rest of it over the following year. Though the later footage had different people filling in as director - including Francis Ford Coppola and Monte Hellman.
You couldn't make it up.
Considering all that, it's amazing the film is as coherent as it is.
Like the matter painting of the castle, once you scratch below the surface, there isn't much going on in "The Terror" but Nicholson looks good in a uniform, Sandra Knight is gorgeous as the mysterious woman, Karloff is campy fun as the baron.
A curiosity then, and one whose behind the scenes story is far more interesting than the one on screen.
Nicholson plays a French soldier who, having become separated from his troop, runs into a woman who then disappears on him. He seeks answers from a baron (played by Boris Karloff!) in the local castle. (The very obvious matte painting of the castle makes it look vast, but the budget didn't stretch to building more than 2 rooms and a corridor.) The plot is ridiculous, and an attempt to give some psychological depth through a last minute reveal about one of the characters is laughable.
A lot of the joy in watching a Corman produced/directed movie is admiring how they did so much with so little. It's the sheer brio, brass neck, and inventiveness that Corman brings to his movies that you can't help but admire.
The story goes that as Corman was finishing up "The Raven" (one of his movies based on work by Edgar Allen Poe), he realised he could keep the sets up for a further two days and film something else. He asked a screenwriter to come up something fast, and asked one of the stars of "The Raven", Boris Karloff, to be in it. They shot all of Karloff's scenes over two days, and filmed the rest of it over the following year. Though the later footage had different people filling in as director - including Francis Ford Coppola and Monte Hellman.
You couldn't make it up.
Considering all that, it's amazing the film is as coherent as it is.
Like the matter painting of the castle, once you scratch below the surface, there isn't much going on in "The Terror" but Nicholson looks good in a uniform, Sandra Knight is gorgeous as the mysterious woman, Karloff is campy fun as the baron.
A curiosity then, and one whose behind the scenes story is far more interesting than the one on screen.