The Pit and the Pendulum

Original title: Pit and the Pendulum

1961
Approved
1h 20m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

17K

YOUR RATING

Vincent Price, John Kerr, and Barbara Steele in The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.

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Drama Horror Mystery

In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor.

Director
- Roger Corman
Writers
- Richard Matheson
- Edgar Allan Poe
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

17K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Roger Corman
Writers
- Richard Matheson
- Edgar Allan Poe
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
To increase the pendulum's sense of deadly menace, director Roger Corman took out every other frame during the editing stage making the blade appear to move twice as fast.

Goofs
None of the torture instruments that appear were used by the Inquisition, and many of them didn't exist during the time the story is set. One of the most clear examples is the iron maiden, which was invented during the 18th century.

Quotes
Don Nicholas Medina: I will tell you where you are. You are about to enter hell, Bartholomew. Hell! The Netherworld. The infernal region. The abode of the damned. The place of torment. Pandemonium. "Abbadon, "Tophet", "Gehenna". "Naraka", the pit! And the pendulum.

Alternate versions
Two shots of a corpse's face in a coffin were cut by the BBFC from the original UK cinema version. All later versions were uncut.

Connections
Edited into Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)

User reviews150

Review

Featured review

8/10

One of the Best Roger Corman's Movies

After the mysterious death of Elizabeth Barnard Medina (Barbara Steele), her brother Francis Barnard (John Kerr) travels from London to Spain and without previous notice he arrives at the castle of her husband Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price). He is received by Nicholas' sister Catherine Medina (Luana Anders) that invites Francis to have dinner with her brother and her.

Francis learns that their father Sebastian Medina was a cruel torturer of the Spanish Inquisition and Nicholas is a traumatized man that has witnessed the murder of his uncle Bartolome (Charles Victor) and his adulterer mother Isabella (Mary Menzies) being tortured and killed by his father when he was a kid. During the dinner, the family's friend Doctor Charles Leon (Antony Carbone) unexpectedly arrives and Francis discovers that his sister died of heart attack after visiting the torture chamber in the dungeons. Soon the place is haunted by strange events and Nicholas suspects of his servants Maximillian (Patrick Westwood) and Maria (Lynette Bernay) but Francis is convinced that Nicholas is the responsible for the death of his sister.

"Pit and the Pendulum" is one of the best Roger Corman's movies despite the poor scenario that shakes in many scenes. The last time that I saw this movie was on 16 November 1999 on cable television and today I have just watched it again on DVD. The creepy story of Edgar Allan Poe is still engaging even when the viewer watches more than two times. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Mansão do Terror" ("The Manor of Horror")