With a poll being held on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best titles from 1965,I started looking round for films to view from that year,and I spotted on Ebay a fun sounding Horror starring Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine,which led to me getting ready to enter the house of death.The plot:Fighting over the family fortune,warlocks Andre & Belial Desard battle over who controls the fortune.Falling in love for Valerie Desard, Eric Campion and his friend Dr. Kate Mallory decide to go and try to help end the feud between Andre and Belial.Arriving at the Desard's,Campion and Mallory soon discover that they have entered the house of black death.View on the film:Getting passed along between 3 directors, Harold Daniels, Jerry Warren & Reginald Le Borg contributions are each cut in with a hacksaw,as the jarring pause of dialogue and abrupt change in scenes are spread across the movie.Whilst this pulled apart approach does lead to Richard Mahoney's adaptation of Lora Crozetti's novel to feel rather hazy,it also gives the title a peculiar dream-logic atmosphere,thanks to satanic chants being joined by monks and beautiful dancing girls,

Some second string actors of the 1930's and 40's get to chew the scenery in this supernatural thriller about Satanists gathering together for an annual celebration of the dark moon and the rivalry of two witch brothers (John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr.) of who will take over the coven. Andrea King ("The Beast With Five Fingers") plays a doctor (it is never mentioned if she is Christian, but she obviously isn't a Satanist) who comes to take care of Chaney's son (Tom Drake, "Meet Me in St. Louis") who is suffering from the same disorder Chaney Jr. suffered from in "The Wolf Man". The ironically named Dolores Faith is the ingénue here who has Satanic leanings but is fighting with herself to escape the dark side of her existence. A spooky set with practically everybody wearing monk robes and some scary moments make for an interesting, if often disturbing supernatural drama. Of course, every time the horrible Chaney speaks, it just becomes laughable. Everybody else seems to be speaking with some sincerity or wisdom, but Chaney is totally one-note. Nobody delivered bad dialog more badly than Chaney. Carradine at least gets to show some vulnerability in his performance, and even if he is on the side of the prince of darkness, you do find yourself rooting for him in his quest to squelch Chaney. But one thing is for sure. This film will never be a threat to the memory of the big budgeted witches coven picture, "Rosemary's Baby".

House of the Black Death (1965)* (out of 4) Two warlocks, one good (John Carradine) and one evil (Lon Chaney, Jr.) battle over human souls. I really don't have the faintest idea what this film is about because there are three story lines going on and none of them make any sense on their own so mixing them together is even more confusing. One of the stories deals with the warlock's other brother who's a werewolf but we never actually see the wolf. Again, here's a film that you hang onto because you're expecting something to happen but nothing ever does happen so in the end you've just wasted your time. To make matters even worse Chaney and Carradine don't share any scenes together.

"House of the Black Death", an obscure B & W horror pic from the mid-60's, marked Lon Chaney's entrance into the world of Grade Z schlock, a domain already inhabited by his co-star, John Carradine. Unfortunately, both stars would continue a downward career spiral from this point on, making numerous low-grade bombs along the way.The story here involves dueling warlocks, battling for control of the Desard family in the village of Wydeburne, wherever that is. Chaney's Belial is on the outside, looking in, lusting for his brother Andre's (Carradine)fortune. Belial employs his coven of witches to bedevil the opposing members of the Desard family in his quest for power. Spells are cast, demons and Werewolves are invoked (although mostly off-screen) but the end result is viewer boredom, thanks to an incoherently talky script and stilted performances.As originally filmed, this picture was obviously an unreleasable mess. Hence, the producers invited noted hack Jerry Warren ("Face of the Screaming Werewolf", "Teenage Zombies", "Incredible Petrified World", plus many more truly awful movies) to try to piece things together. Warren dragged in his longtime "star" Katherine Victor, for a few insert shots and dropped in some dancing girl segments, all to little avail. The movie remained unreleasable and received few, if any, playdates under an assortment of titles.Don't look for it on TV: your only chance to view this disaster is probably by ordering a copy from a PD video dealer. Take my advice, save your money!