Madhouse

Madhouse is a 1974 British-American horror film directed by Jim Clark for Amicus Productions in association with American International Pictures. It stars Vincent Price, Natasha Pyne, Peter Cushing, Robert Quarry, Adrienne Corri, and Linda Hayden. The film was based on the 1969 novel Devilday by Angus Hall. The film's alternate title is The Revenge of Dr. Death. Plot Paul Toombes is a successful horror actor whose trademark role is Dr. Death, a skull-faced killer. During a party in Hollywood showing off his fifth Dr. Death film, he announces his engagement to Ellen Mason, who gives him an engraved watch as an engagement gift. Later that evening, however, adult film producer Oliver Quayle reveals Ellen had worked for him previously, in adult films, and had also slept with him. Distraught at Toombes' angry reaction, Ellen returns to her room, where a masked man in dark garb, similar to Dr. Death's attire, approaches her with a knife. An apologetic Toombes comes in shortly after, only for her severed head to fall from her shoulders when he touches her. Though he is acquitted of the crime, Toombes' career is destroyed as he spends several years in a mental hospital, where even he is not sure whether he killed Ellen or not. Twelve years later, Toombes is called to London by his friend, screenwriter Herbert Flay, who has partnered with Quayle to produce a Dr. Death television series for the BBC. While on the cruise ship en route to England, Toombes encounters a persistent young actress, who steals his watch and follows him through London and eventually to Flay's house. In the spider-infested basement, Toombes discovers Faye Carstairs, the former female lead in one of the Dr. Death movies and now Flay's wife, driven mad after being disfigured in a car accident. She treats the spiders as pets. Outside Flay's house, the young actress discovers the masked, caped figure walking the grounds; believing it to be Toombes, she approaches him, and is killed with a pitchfork. When her body is discovered, Scotland Yard suspects Toombes, as the killing resembles a scene from one of his films. Unimpressed to find that Quayle has given Dr. Death an "assistant" for the TV series, which he never had in the films, Toombes berates his female co-star on set for her performance; she is soon found hanged by her hair, another scene from a Dr. Death film. Scotland Yard questions him but finds no conclusive evidence.