Tower of Terror

John Chard

Loony, Light and Love? Tower of Terror is directed by Lawrence Huntington and written by John Argyle and John Reinhardt. It stars Wilfrid Lawson, Michael Rennie and Movita. Music is by Eddie Benson and cinematography by Walter Harvey and Ronald Anscombe. A lighthouse keeper gets bent out of shape when a woman who looks like his dead wife seeks refuge. 3 miles off the German coast - Westerrode Lighthouse - lonely outpost of the North Sea. Keep Your Chin Up! Hee. OK, we are in a movie that has British actors playing pesky Germans, so get past that and there's a most intriguing picture to be enjoyed here. Core of the story is two-fold, one part is a macabre thread where Wolfe Kristan (Lawson) is clearly unhinged and unhealthily thinks Concentration Camp escapee Marie Durand (Movita) is his dead wife. The other thread involves spies, fronted by a straight backed Rennie, and the search by the Germans to locate something important in his grasp. Naturally the play unfolds at the titular lighthouse of the title. And so we have shoot-outs, awesome mano-mano fight (Kristan has a hook for his right hand), some nifty model work destruction, period flavours (large square kettle - hooray) and lots of shadowy photography. There's even an absolute peach of a left hook thrown that looks real! While the finale excites and has a touch of horror about it. This be no earth mover in thriller terms, but it's gloriously old fashioned and entertaining while it's on. 6/10