Catacombs (Woman Who Wouldn't Die, The) (1964)

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General		Extras
Category	Mystery	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1964
Running Time	86:14
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gordon Hessler
Studio Distributor	British Lion Films Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Gary Merrill Jane Merrow
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	Carlo Martelli

    Raymond Garth and his wife Jill seem like a happy couple on the surface. But all is not as it seems, otherwise we would not be seeing their story on film. Raymond has married her for her wealth; she has married him for sex. Jill also has a bone problem that causes her extreme pain, from which she gains relief by putting herself into a trance using a mirror held up to her eyes.

    Jill's niece Alice returns from studying art in Paris, and she and Garth are attracted to each other. Meanwhile, an ex-criminal employee of Jill's suggests to Garth that they do away with her, and he has devised a foolproof method. They try to put the plan into action, but is Jill really dead?

    Catacombs is a low-budget British horror-suspense film with more red herrings than the Atlantic. It is competently directed by Gordon Hessler, a German-born film-maker educated in Britain but trained in US television, notably for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. This film plays much like a teleplay extended out to an hour and a half in length, but the material is stretched very thin. The plot twists are predictable and while Hessler manages to extract a little suspense and a couple of shocks towards the end of the film, he is defeated by the silly resolution, which just isn't believable.

    The star is an American: Gary Merrill. Merrill was notable for, umm, being married to Bette Davis. He was also a leading actor in films through the 1950s, but the quality of his roles dried up as he approached 50 and his eyebrows acquired forest status, hence his participation in this film. Jane Merrow, a stage actress who made a few films, plays Alice without much insight or characterisation. The rest of the cast, apart from Frederick Piper in the tiny role of the Inspector, were unknown to me.

    All in all, this is a pretty dull and tiresome affair. This film was released in the UK in 1964 and in the US the following year under the title The Woman Who Would Not Die, which prompted one critic to suggest that this was "the film that would not live".

Video

    The film is presented in aspect ratio of 1.33:1. I am unable to determine the original aspect ratio, but from the way the opening credits are cropped, it may have been 1.37:1. Nothing much appears to have been lost, as all of the action is centred in the frame anyway.

    The film was produced in black and white. The transfer here is competent without being exceptional, which reflects the content of the film. The transfer is reasonably sharp. The image is a little flat, with the contrast being slightly less than it should. This means that blacks are not very black, and whites are slightly grey in tone. Shadow detail is therefore fairly average, which is a minor problem during a couple of scenes.

    There is some mild aliasing at times, but not of a level to cause concern. The transfer does have some film artefacts, mostly dirt and small white flecks, with a couple of white scratches thrown in. These artefacts are not particularly bad and those of us used to watching films through snowstorms will not mind this at all.

    There are no subtitles provided, as in all of these British films that Universal are releasing, and the film is easily squeezed onto a single-layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack in monaural sound.

    Dialogue is always easy to understand and while the audio track is not high fidelity, it is adequate. No problems were detected with the audio transfer.

    The music score is by Carlo Martelli, and suits the film nicely, in the sense that it is dull and at times inappropriate. It is a typical 1960s low budget horror film score, in fact.

    There is no surround or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras are provided.

    As far as I can tell, Region 4 is the only region to have been blessed with this film on DVD.

    A low budget below average shocker, this really is not worth your time.

    The video quality is average.

    The audio quality is satisfactory.

    We have the usual absence of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall