La casa de las mil muñecas

This Spanish/British/German co-production was on AIP's back-burner for quite a while. Eventually, Vincent Price did the film as part of his contractual obligations to the company. Producer/Director Harry Allan Towers specialized in sleazy European thrillers and this one is no exception. When a vacationing couple (George Nader and Anne Smyrner) in Tangiers run into an old friend there, they discover that he is searching for his missing girlfriend (Maria Rohm, Tower's real-life wife) who has been kidnapped by an international gang of white slavers. Nader investigates but before he can come up with anything, his friend is murdered. Meanwhile, nightclub magician Price and his mentalist partner (Martha Hyer), continue their nefarious activities--they hypnotize and kidnap young women for the 'White Slavers', and spirit them to the "House of 1000 Dolls." Yep, that's the plot outline folks, at least in the American cut of the film. Price and Ms. Hyer (who had just married producer Hal Wallis) shared a great interest in art, and in their spare time, they visited local museums together. Years later, when asked about this film, Price had this to say: "What she (Ms. Hyer) and I didn't know was, at the same time, they were making a 'dirty' version of the film. Every day we had off, they'd make a 'dirty version'. We went visiting on the set one day, and there was everyone naked! and they weren't even the same girls!" This explains why the American print of the film runs 78 minutes and the one seen in Europe is various lengths, from 90 to 98 minutes. Thanks to some atmospheric photography,an attractive musical score by Charles Camilleri and good performances from Price, Hyer and Nader, the film is watchable, and the girls are beautiful. This movie played most places with another Towers/Nader potboiler, "The Million Eyes Of Su- Muru" which isn't even as entertaining as this one.