Some of your universe's critics are perversely negative about House of the Black Death. Reviewer a_baron writes, “‘House Of The Black Death’ is slightly confusing, very boring, and frankly, embarrassing to watch.” Reviewer planktonrules writes, “In addition to being an extremely dull and talky film, 'sexy' dancing girls are rather randomly inserted throughout the film to try to keep you awake.” And reviewer JohnSeal writes, “It's ALMOST completely worthless, being badly shot, appallingly lit, and poorly written.”
Read on for the truth about House of the Black Death...
As do most classic films, House of the Black Death opens with a sinister, unseen narrator. “Hear ye, mankind, the voice of Satan. Hear ye the word of thy master of evil and stand to the altar, receiving command. Appear, Belial Desard!”
Belial Gesard is, in fact, a character. Furthermore, Belial is played by Lon Chaney, Jr., whose face appears against a black background. He wears a Satanist robe and his head shakes as he hears the unseen narrator, Satan, tell him that throughout his entire life he has served the “dark coven.” (Of course, Satan pronounces “coven” with a long o sound, as is only correct.) In part, Satan speaks in rhyme a la Dr. Seuss:
“I thrust you in birth to a family well damned.
You fumbled! You stumbled!
Now list my command!
The fate that awaits you is here in my hand.”
Satan then calls on Paul Desard, who also appears against a black background.
“A kingdom for you, Paul, so much the same
You’re born to this world of evil mien.
To be born a Desard is to be born under a curse
And you’ll pay the price unto Satan’s purse.”
Satan next calls Valerie Desard, Paul’s sister.
“I call thee, Valerie, to the Kingdom of Hell,
And to be chained to the ground upon which you fell.
Your mother of witchcraft, your father of sin,
You fought your temptations but never could win.
The desire to live, you needed to love,
But the ground you were born on you’ll not rise above!”
Finally, Satan calls Andre Desard, played by John Carradine.
“I call thee, Andre, to the Kingdom of Hell,
The causes by number we both know too well.
Your deeds and your actions fill me with gloom,
That once evil power, I now steal your doom.
You tried to resetter the book of my house.
You should have known better, you lived in that house!”
After the opening titles, the film shows a woman belly-dancing in a bikini at night, clearly a Satanic ceremony. The woman is being inducted into the coven by Lila, who helpfully explains that they are trying to get Valerie Desard into the coven, which is run by Mr. Chaney, though his brother Mr. Carradine is her father and objects. Soon, the coven expects both Valerie and Paul to be in their power. Furthermore, two doctors have been summoned to Mr. Carradine’s house to protect Valerie and Paul, and Lila knows that one of the doctors, Dr. Campion, is in love with Valerie and wants to marry her.
After this highly useful exposition, we watch Dr. Campion and Dr. Mallory, a woman introduced as both a psychiatrist and a parapsychologist (the difference between the two, of course, being marginal), walk into an ancient village. (The location is never mentioned, but the nearby hills are clearly in Southern California.) Perhaps oddly, the two doctors are traveling with Dr. Campion’s dog, who is named, also perhaps oddly, Charlemagne. In the village courtyard, they see a structure with Satanist symbols.
Dr. Campion says, “It’s a pentagram with a devil’s seat in the center for the demon.”
“I don’t understand,” Dr. Mallory says, instead of running away. “What is it used for?”
“Well, a pentagram is used by the black magician or the leader of a coven when he evokes a demon, or when he calls upon his master, Satan. Now the seat, or the devil’s saddle, is the place where the thing sits while it hears the petition.” He explains that “the old gods never die, Kate. Neither does witchcraft. There are people in this town, you can bet your bottom dollar they’re devil worshippers.”
Suddenly, Mr. Chaney is at the front door. “One does not often find believers. But to have a belief is better than to have no belief at all.” He is wearing his customary outfit of Satanist robes. He introduces himself as Belial, adding, “I am more than proud to bear one of the many names of Satan, my lord and master.”
Unfazed, Dr. Campion simply says, “There’s a tree blocking the road about a mile back. Would you be good enough to have it removed so I can get my car up?”
“It will be taken care of in the morning,” Mr. Chaney says cheerfully.
Suddenly, a group of black-clad Satanists arrive in the courtyard, carrying the body of a dog — Charlemagne! Dr. Mallory is shocked and Dr. Campion is angry. Nevertheless, Mr. Chaney asks a local named Stokes to guide them to Mr. Carradine’s house; they will need protection to avoid the wolf that is prowling the area and killing sheep.
When they arrive at Mr. Carradine’s house, they meet with Paul and Valerie in a big parlor. They are interrupted by Mr. Carradine screaming from his bedroom upstairs, so Valerie and Dr. Mallory attend to him while Paul tells Dr. Campion that his arm was injured when he was hunting a wolf. “I was on the ground, and the wolf standing over me. And I swear it knew me. Then slowly, deliberately, it took hold of my arm. I felt no pain, only an awareness of what was happening. I could feel the fangs slide into the flesh, and the blood flow, and the bone crack.”
The film then quickly cuts to a woman attacked in the woods at night, possibly by a werewolf, and then just as quickly it cuts to another dance routine, this time by a blonde woman wearing a bikini top and skirt. After she gyrates in front of an altar where Mr. Chaney presides over an unconscious woman, the film cuts back to the Carradine house. Dr. Campion tells the Desard siblings, “This is the twentieth century. I feel as though I’ve stepped into the Dark Ages. Have you all gone mad?”
“That was uncalled for, Eric,” Valerie says. “That was in very bad taste.”
The doctor tries to light a cigarette with his lighter, causing Valerie to scream because, she says, she thought the lighter was a weapon. This misconception is never remarked upon and the conversation continues.
Meanwhile, the villagers find the body of the woman attacked in the woods and rush to the house to confront Paul, whom they believe is a werewolf. Paul realizes that Mr. Chaney is trying to turn the people, who are already Satan worshippers, against him, his sister, and Mr. Carradine. Mr. Chaney reminds Paul, however, that tonight is the night of the full moon, and Paul is not strong enough to face him on such a night.
The doctors visit Mr. Carradine and discuss Mr. Chaney, who, it is revealed, has a cloven foot. Mr. Carradine admits, “There has been a cloven hoof in every generation as far back as the records go.”
“But they do wonderful things with orthopedic surgery,” pleads Dr. Campion. “Why wasn’t he operated on when he was a child?”
“Why correct a twisted body when the mind is warped?” Mr. Carradine says wisely. “No doctor or surgeon can change our minds, Eric. For years, the strong ones in the Desard family have kept control — the ones who are clean without any outward mark. Now there are three of us left: myself, Paul, and Valerie.” Then he tells Dr. Campion that he sent for him because Belial, who has found a magic book, now has the power to destroy the world. Dr. Campion, for unspecified reasons, is able to fight against Belial’s power.
At night, Mr. Chaney reveals he has more than a cloven hoof — he has horns sprouting from his forehead!
Mr. Chaney plays a pan flute, calling a dog that might or might not be Charlemagne, the dead dog.
Back at the Carradine house, Paul shows Dr. Campion a basement room where the family has traditionally locked its insane relatives so they won’t hurt anyone. Paul says, “My uncle was a werewolf. As a child, I remember him howling in this very room, locked up where he could do no damage.”
Suddenly, they hear a wolf howling loudly outside, which might seem to be difficult from a windowless basement room. They run outside with a hunting rifle and shoot at what they believe to be a wolf but which is actually the dog Mr. Chaney called with his pan flute. After they meet the women in the woods, the two doctors decide to follow a trail of dog tracks, but suddenly Dr. Mallory is grabbed by Mr. Chaney as Dr. Campion obliviously walks on. Mr. Chaney tells her they don’t like prying strangers in the village. Also, in order to prove to Dr. Mallory that he is the head of the coven, he reveals the horns on his head, crossing his arms in satisfaction.
Back at the house, Valerie and Paul discuss their predicament and the family curse. “I don’t want to die, I want to live,” says Valerie. “I want to have a husband and a family. I want to be like everyone else.”
“Don’t you think I want the same things?” asks Paul.
Later, Dr. Campion and Mr. Carradine speak in his bedroom, and the reason for Dr. Campion’s presence is revealed at last. He takes a crucifix out of his pocket, and Mr. Carradine, who can barely look at the object, says there is a sliver of the Holy Grail embedded inside the cross, representing powerful white magic.
In the forest, several coven members call on Satan to turn Paul into a wolf. Of course, the ceremony ends with a woman dancing in a bikini.
At the house, Mr. Carradine locks Paul in the emergency werewolf room in the basement. (This occurs after an elderly woman passes them on the stairs and asks the doctors to leave the house with her; this is the first time we have seen this woman, and she never appears again, though she appears to know Doctors Campion and Mallory.)
Locked in the room, Paul transforms into a werewolf. In a bold piece of filmmaking, the actor playing Paul, Tom Drake, conveys his transformation with no makeup, only facial tics, until the transformation is eventually complete.
Dr. Mallory opens the door to the werewolf room, even though she has been warned not to do so. However, surprisingly and inexplicably, Paul is dead and in the next shot he has reverted to his human form. Mr. Carradine and Dr. Campion run down to the basement. Mr. Carradine shakes his head. “Poor Paul. He was so afraid to die. It was worse for him to live.”
Outside, Valerie attempts to leave the village but when she touches the gate leading outside her hands are burned. Mr. Chaney finds her lying against the devil’s saddle in the town square. He leads her through the same gate, taking her to his coven. She drinks from a chalice and falls unconscious. Then Mr. Chaney carries her to the altar. Before another ceremony, however, another woman dances in her bikini. When she is finished, Mr. Chaney holds up a knife to sacrifice Valerie.
In the thrilling finale, Mr. Carradine stands in the town square casting a spell to stop Mr. Chaney, who begins the elaborate process of sacrificing Valerie. Suddenly, Mr. Chaney disappears in a puff of smoke and Dr. Campion holds up his magic cross to rescue Valerie, carrying her back to the square. In less than the time required for a woman to dance in a bikini, the conflict is over.
In the end, Mr. Carradine casts a final spell in front of a Satanic statue. He disappears in a puff of smoke, returning to Hell.
The End
Any film featuring both Lon Chaney, Jr. and John Carradine is a treasure, of course, and House of the Black Death is no exception, even though they never appear together (and moreover there is no black death in the film). Who could resist watching Mr. Chaney, Jr. wearing devil horns and speaking of werewolves, or Mr. Carradine wearing the occult robes of a warlock? The film essentially has everything anyone could want from a late-1960s film. When one learns that the original theatrical title was the wonderful Blood of the Man-Devil, and that some scenes of people wandering through the woods were directed by prolific B-movie director Reginald LeBorg, one's appreciation can only grow.
I must now look for the novel this film was based on, The Widderburn Horror by R. Crozetti-Warner, somehow published in 1971 after the film itself was produced. With House of the Black Death, magic and wonder never cease.