The Black Castle (1952) (2025)

The Black Castle (1952) (1)

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1952

Directed by Nathan Juran

Synopsis

Terror Stalks Its Turreted Battlements... and Horror Crawls the Catacombs Beneath!

A Man investigates the disappearance of two of his friends who were the guests of a sinister Austrian count.

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  • Cast
  • Crew
  • Details
  • Genres
  • Releases

Cast

Richard Greene Boris Karloff Stephen McNally Rita Corday Lon Chaney Jr. John Hoyt Michael Pate Nancy Valentine Tudor Owen Henry Corden Otto Waldis Roy Engel Leslie Denison Bernard Szold Jack Perrin Forrest Burns Chuck Hamilton John Roy Victor Romito

DirectorDirector

Nathan Juran

ProducerProducer

William Alland

WriterWriter

Jerry Sackheim

StoryStory

Jerry Sackheim

EditorEditor

Russell F. Schoengarth

CinematographyCinematography

Irving Glassberg

Assistant DirectorAsst. Director

William Holland

Art DirectionArt Direction

Bernard Herzbrun Alfred Sweeney

Set DecorationSet Decoration

Oliver Emert Russell A. Gausman

Visual EffectsVisual Effects

David S. Horsley

ComposersComposers

William Lava Hans J. Salter Paul Sawtell Frank Skinner Paul Dessau Charles Previn Milton Rosen

SoundSound

Leslie I. Carey Joe Lapis

MakeupMakeup

Bud Westmore Ray Romero

HairstylingHairstyling

Joan St. Oegger

Studios

Universal International Pictures Universal Pictures

Country

USA

Language

English

Alternative Titles

Le mystère du château noir, Il mistero del castello nero, Fasornas slott, 黑城堡, O Castelo do Pavor, El castillo del ogro

Genres

Horror Mystery

Themes

Thrillers and murder mysteries Creepy, chilling, and terrifying horror Chilling experiments and classic monster horror Intriguing and suspenseful murder mysteries Gothic and eerie haunting horror Terrifying, haunted, and supernatural horror Show All…

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Theatrical

20 Nov 1952
  • The Black Castle (1952) (3)USANR

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The Black Castle (1952) (4)USA
20 Nov 1952
  • TheatricalNR

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  • Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★½ 5

    106th Review for The Collab Weekly Movie Watch

    So in preparation for Spooktober, let’s just say I’ve watched a few gothic horror movies, which has led me to have a greater appreciation for the subgenre. But at the same time, it has raised the bar a little. A bar this movie couldn’t reach, unfortunately.

    Don’t get me wrong, it does a great job nailing the vibe, the aesthetic, and having one or two icons of the genre does help a lot. It’s also one of those miracles where we get a solid film despite the troubled production, where the art director becomes the actual director after the original leaves due to what he saw as a poor script. And in…

  • Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★ 10

    1st Nathan Juran

    A curious hybrid of historical thriller, noir and Gothic horror that never quite gels even if it has some small pleasures of its own. Indeed, if you had transposed this to then-contemporary USA, you’d have the makings of a decent B-Noir. You’ve got a man of the law investigating the disappearance of two of his compatriots, leading him to a den of vice and inequity lead by a deformed mobster and his motley crew of lackeys. That the mobster type has a beautiful but neglected bride that our hero romances and the film takes place as an extended flashback only adds to this general air of the hardboiled.

    Perhaps the closest analogue to this in Hollywood, however,…

  • Review by Ziglet_mir ★½ 4

    Viewed with the Collab.

    The Black Castle is like if AI existed during the 1950s and someone asked it to vomit out a horror film in a castle. This is everything but the kitchen sink; colonial settlers, an alligator pit, a black panther, vampiric coffins, stale melodramatic romance, Lon Chaney with a terrible hair-cut (or wig), voodoo, eyepatches, sadism, fencing, deep necklines, and Boris Karloff. The unfortunate thing is even with all of the WTFness (which is the biggest trait of last week's anthology horror pick, After Midnight) it manages to be dull and uninspired. Normally when there's a piñata of prizes, everyone has fun, instead the viewer is the one beaten over the head with a stick.

    My recommendation for something horror-adjacent with a black panther, Red Hill (2010).

  • Review by sakana1 ★★★ 5

    What with Mad Loveyesterday, The Old Dark House this morning, and The Black Castlenow, I appear to have entered a personal 36 Hours of Campy Horror. And, though I typically avoid horror like the plague (I’m easily frightened, what can I say), it’s actually been a lot of fun.

    Not having a background in either horror in general or Universal horror more specifically, I suspect I’m a pretty bad audience for this movie, and an even worse person to offer comment upon it. I can, however, say with confidence that the climax was masterful, and that “Ever since I was a small boy, cupboards have fascinated me,” is either the best bullshit excuse I’ve ever heard or the worst one. Finally, I came for Stephen McNally, and his eyepatch, sadism, and evil laughter did not disappoint.

  • Review by 🩸⚰️ 𝔰𝔞𝔳𝔞𝔤𝔢 (㇏(•̀ᵥᵥ•́)ノ) 11

    "They kill without emotion. I kill with my heart."

    To quote our lord and savior Buffy: "Alright, I get it, you're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"

    Lest the eyepatch not give away that Count Karl von Bruno is an evil bitch, he torments his minions by subjecting them to Boris Karloff's "medicinal care," torments his wife by making her participate in things she hates, starves/beats/hunts to death abused captive wild animals, publicly and scandalously carouses with women other than his wife in front of her, belittles his wife in public, and probably a bunch of other nonsense that I missed because I was bored out of my mind and mentally checked out very early on.…

  • Review by Dennis Vehlen ★★★★ 2

    I went into this without knowing much about it other than the cast and without high expectations, but ended up having a really good time.
    This may be considered a later Universal horror film but it's fairly light on the horror, and as other reviews have called it maybe qualifies more as a Gothic thriller. The mood and sets are pure Gothic horror, though, and having Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. around definitely helps that feeling.

    Karloff is great in this as always, but he's not the main character - he merely plays the ambivalent doctor of the real villain played by Stephen McNally who is excellent as an evil count. What's great is that Karloff absolutely sells his…

  • Review by Stephen M ★★ 1

    COLLAB FILM CLUB

    The heyday of Universal Horror had long past when this was released. They tried nonetheless to capture the old magic here. But it's an unimaginative retread and kinda boring. Not necessarily a horror film (even with small parts for Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr), it's more of a Gothic thriller with some touches of Poe, as well as The Most Dangerous Game. But not good.

    Set in 18th century Vienna, it has some of the elements you'd expect: a foreboding castle, an evil sadistic nobleman with a hulking mute servant, a damsel in distress, a pit filled with alligators and the horror of being buried alive. But there's little that's genuinely scary or thrilling. The high point…

  • Review by MushiMinion ★★

    The Black Castle sets itself up with everything a Gothic horror could possibly need to succeed: a gloomy hillside castle that belongs to a cruel and malevolent host with a crocodile pit. Sadly, it fumbles where it counts most. Our young leads are the very definition of "bland", including the foppish Count with an eye-patch and murderous intent. Oh sure, it says Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. are in the film, but Chaney is relegated to only a few scenes with no dialogue and Karloff doesn't fare much better. Where's Vincent Price and Roger Corman when you need them? The director, Nathan H. Juran, has some classic B-material listed on his résumé, but here - his first time in the director's seat - he failed to illicit much of interest out of a slipshod script and was lacking a cast who could elevate the material without him.

    ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏʟʟᴀʙ

  • Review by mosquitodragon ★★★½ 6

    This is a pretty obscure little gothic horror from Universal, beyond the confines of its "monsters". Although marketed as a horror, it's more of a gothic romance cum swashbuckler* with little effort made to spook or horrify.

    Despite that, you can feel the faint framework of Bram Stoker in its structure - English nobleman travels to Europe to infiltrate the household of a forbidding and probably dodgy lord**. In this case, he believes this man to have murdered two of his friends, who disappeared in the vicinity. I have no idea why he should assume this guy is responsible, but he is of course entirely correct - we can tell that as soon as we meet Count von Bruno's thuggish…

  • Review by julianblair ★★★

    boxd.it/dgzEq

    Hooptober Ocho continued....

    This is a film that has sometimes been maligned by horror fans and Karloff fans as well. So, I was surprised at how entertaining it was upon finally seeing it. I think that perhaps people have expected The Black Castle to, well, have more HORROR in it. Yet, this film is really a period piece/thriller, with some gothic touches....however Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney are in the cast, so I get why some were disappointed. Ten years earlier those two in a film meant a monster or two was on the menu.

    The production values are decent, plenty of shadowy, expressionistic shots and, at interludes, the comforting strains of musical passages from past Universal horror classics.…

  • Review by 𝔸ℕℕ𝔸 ★★ 3

    Watched with the Collab

    Look, I've seen Richard Greene in four other films prior to this and in none of them was I thankful for his presence (okay, so half of them were Fu Manchu flicks, but still--). He is the definition of a wet blanket.

    Kudos to the castle interior design, but this really should have been The Most Dangerous Game or release all the castle's animals and see what happens next.

    Snooze. fest.

  • Review by Nick Langdon 13

    It says everything that the original director of The Black Castle quit the production over dissatisfaction with the script. However Universal, instead of taking this very obvious cue that their script was bad and needed serious re-working, instead simply promoted the art director to the big chair and carried on regardless. This explains why the movie is such a tedious bore, and why artists should be listened to over studio executives when it comes to such matters. Thus one ends up with a "mystery" that doesn't get going until exactly half way through the movie, and despite being only 80 minutes in duration, still feels about 20 minutes longer than it needed to be. The Black Castle is also, ostensibly,…

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