Carol
Lynley fans rejoice! Warner Bros. is finally
releasing to DVD the long overdue The
Shuttered Room (1967) starring Carol, Gig Young, and Oliver Reed. In this H.P. Lovecraft inspired spine tingler,
Lynley is convincingly scared throughout as the terrorized heroine who returns
to her place of birth with her older citified hubby (Young) to claim an old
millhouse complete with a hideous thing in the attic and a lascivious punk
cousin (Reed) with an eye for blondes who wants to keep it in the family so to
speak. Creepy music, excellent
cinematography including POV shots from the mysterious house guest, and Carol
never lovelier or vulnerable make for a suspenseful time.
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The Shuttered Room will have an anamorphic widescreen
transfer and as an added bonus it is being paired as a double feature on DVD
with It! (1966) starring Jill Haworth
as an innocent young girl lusted after by disturbed museum curator Roddy
McDowall who (a la Norman Bates) keeps his mummified mommy around the
house. If that’s not bad enough, he
brings to life a Hebrew statue called the Golem and uses it to do away with his
enemies. Â
Carol Lynley and Gig Young in The Shuttered Room
When
asked about It! for my book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, saucy Jill
quipped, “I only did this film because I needed the money. I hated everything
about this movie—particularly what they did to my hair. They gave me an atrocious hairstyle for
it. But I did like Roddy McDowall. He
was very nice to work with. And with
Roddy, what you see is what you got. He even brought me the poster for It! on the opening night of Cabaret [the original Broadway musical
where Jill played Sally Bowles]. I
couldn’t believe they were going to release it.Â
He signed it and put an S-h before the It! This film really was a
piece of shit.â€
The double
feature DVD will retail for $19.98 and will be available at Best Buy only.