The Dunwich Horror (film)
Encyclopedia
The Dunwich Horror is a 1970 B-movie
from American International Pictures
directed by Daniel Haller
and produced by Roger Corman
. The film was based on the short story of the same name
by H.P. Lovecraft with a script co-written by future Academy Award winning director Curtis Hanson
. This was the last film of actor Ed Begley
. The leading role was offered to Peter Fonda
, but he turned it down. Instead, Dean Stockwell played the role of Wilbur Whateley. The film was shot in Mendocino, California
.
in Arkham
, Massachusetts
, where Dr. Henry Armitage (Begley) has just finished a lecture on the local history and the very rare and priceless Necronomicon
. He gives the book to his student Nancy Wagner (Dee) to return to the library. She is followed by a stranger, who later introduces himself as Wilbur Whateley (Stockwell). Whateley asks to see the book, and though it is closing time and the book is reputedly the only copy in existence, Nancy allows it under the influence of Whateley's hypnotic gaze.
Whateley's perusal of the book is cut short by Armitage, who has researched Wilbur's family's sordid past. His warnings about the Whateleys go unheeded by Nancy, who decides to give Wilbur a ride back to Dunwich
after he misses his train, perhaps purposely. At a gas station on the outskirts of town, Nancy first encounters the ill-esteem in which the locals hold Wilbur.
Once back at the Whateley house, she meets Old Whateley (Jaffe), Wilbur's grandfather. Her car is then disabled and she is drugged by the younger Whateley. She decides under the influence of hypnosis
and drugs to spend the weekend, and does not change her mind when Armitage and her classmate arrive from Arkham the next morning. The duo does not abandon Nancy, however. They investigate further and discover that Wilbur's mother, Lavinia (Joanna Moore Jordan) is still alive and in an asylum
. The town doctor, Cory (Bochner) informs Armitage that Lavinia delivered twins when Wilbur was born, but one was stillborn
, though he was not there for the delivery and never saw the body. The childbirth was very traumatic and Lavina "lost her mind" during it, and nearly died.
In the meantime, on the advice of the locals, Nancy's classmate enters the Whateley house looking for Nancy. She opens a locked door, and releases a creature (which we are led to believe is Wilbur's monstrous twin) that kills her and escapes. Upon Wilbur and Nancy's return, Old Whateley confronts them about the presence of the missing girl's car, and in the ensuing argument, falls down the stairs and dies. Wilbur takes him to the local cemetery for a decidedly non-Christian burial, but the local townsfolk vociferously stop him.
As the story draws to a close, a rapid unfolding of events occurs. Wilbur's twin runs amok in Dunwich, killing several people. Lavinia dies in the asylum, looking much older than her 45 years. The Whateley estate burns down in a conflagration that may have to do with a pagan
ritual. At the top of a coastal cliff, Wilbur prepares Nancy for sacrifice to bring back what he calls "The Old Ones." He is struck by lightning in the ritual and falls in a ball of fire into the sea.
In the closing scene, the physically unharmed Nancy is escorted off the sacrificial altar by Armitage and Cory, who calm her by stating that the Whateley line has ended. Just before the credits, it is revealed that Nancy is pregnant, presumably with Wilbur's ill-conceived child.
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
from American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
directed by Daniel Haller
Daniel Haller
Daniel Haller is an American film and television director, production designer, and art director. Haller studied at the renowned Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles....
and produced by Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
. The film was based on the short story of the same name
The Dunwich Horror
"The Dunwich Horror" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales . It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts...
by H.P. Lovecraft with a script co-written by future Academy Award winning director Curtis Hanson
Curtis Hanson
Curtis Lee Hanson is an American film director, film producer and screenwriter. His directing work includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , L.A...
. This was the last film of actor Ed Begley
Ed Begley
Edward James Begley, Sr. was an Academy Award-winning American actor.-Biography:Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Begley began his career as a Broadway and radio actor while in his teens. He appeared in the hit musical Going Up on Broadway in 1917 and in London the next year. He later acted in...
. The leading role was offered to Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...
, but he turned it down. Instead, Dean Stockwell played the role of Wilbur Whateley. The film was shot in Mendocino, California
Mendocino, California
Mendocino is a census-designated place in Mendocino County, California, United States. Mendocino is located south of Fort Bragg, at an elevation of 154 feet...
.
Plot
The film opens at the fictional Miskatonic UniversityMiskatonic University
Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham; a fictitious town which is said to exist in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River . After first appearing in the H. P...
in Arkham
Arkham
Arkham is a fictional city in Massachusetts, part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft and is featured in many of his stories, as well as those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, where Dr. Henry Armitage (Begley) has just finished a lecture on the local history and the very rare and priceless Necronomicon
Necronomicon
The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...
. He gives the book to his student Nancy Wagner (Dee) to return to the library. She is followed by a stranger, who later introduces himself as Wilbur Whateley (Stockwell). Whateley asks to see the book, and though it is closing time and the book is reputedly the only copy in existence, Nancy allows it under the influence of Whateley's hypnotic gaze.
Whateley's perusal of the book is cut short by Armitage, who has researched Wilbur's family's sordid past. His warnings about the Whateleys go unheeded by Nancy, who decides to give Wilbur a ride back to Dunwich
Dunwich (Lovecraft)
Dunwich is a fictional town that appeared in the H. P. Lovecraft short story "The Dunwich Horror" . Dunwich is found in the fictional Miskatonic River Valley of Massachusetts, part of the imaginary region sometimes called Lovecraft Country...
after he misses his train, perhaps purposely. At a gas station on the outskirts of town, Nancy first encounters the ill-esteem in which the locals hold Wilbur.
Once back at the Whateley house, she meets Old Whateley (Jaffe), Wilbur's grandfather. Her car is then disabled and she is drugged by the younger Whateley. She decides under the influence of hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
and drugs to spend the weekend, and does not change her mind when Armitage and her classmate arrive from Arkham the next morning. The duo does not abandon Nancy, however. They investigate further and discover that Wilbur's mother, Lavinia (Joanna Moore Jordan) is still alive and in an asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
. The town doctor, Cory (Bochner) informs Armitage that Lavinia delivered twins when Wilbur was born, but one was stillborn
Stillbirth
A stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. The Australian definition specifies that fetal death is termed a stillbirth after 20 weeks gestation or the fetus weighs more than . Once the fetus has died the mother still has contractions and remains undelivered. The term is often used in...
, though he was not there for the delivery and never saw the body. The childbirth was very traumatic and Lavina "lost her mind" during it, and nearly died.
In the meantime, on the advice of the locals, Nancy's classmate enters the Whateley house looking for Nancy. She opens a locked door, and releases a creature (which we are led to believe is Wilbur's monstrous twin) that kills her and escapes. Upon Wilbur and Nancy's return, Old Whateley confronts them about the presence of the missing girl's car, and in the ensuing argument, falls down the stairs and dies. Wilbur takes him to the local cemetery for a decidedly non-Christian burial, but the local townsfolk vociferously stop him.
As the story draws to a close, a rapid unfolding of events occurs. Wilbur's twin runs amok in Dunwich, killing several people. Lavinia dies in the asylum, looking much older than her 45 years. The Whateley estate burns down in a conflagration that may have to do with a pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
ritual. At the top of a coastal cliff, Wilbur prepares Nancy for sacrifice to bring back what he calls "The Old Ones." He is struck by lightning in the ritual and falls in a ball of fire into the sea.
In the closing scene, the physically unharmed Nancy is escorted off the sacrificial altar by Armitage and Cory, who calm her by stating that the Whateley line has ended. Just before the credits, it is revealed that Nancy is pregnant, presumably with Wilbur's ill-conceived child.
Main cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Dean Stockwell Dean Stockwell Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and... |
Wilbur Whateley |
| Sandra Dee Sandra Dee Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular... |
Nancy Wagner |
| Ed Begley Ed Begley Edward James Begley, Sr. was an Academy Award-winning American actor.-Biography:Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Begley began his career as a Broadway and radio actor while in his teens. He appeared in the hit musical Going Up on Broadway in 1917 and in London the next year. He later acted in... |
Dr. Henry Armitage |
| Talia Shire Talia Shire Talia Shire is an American actress most known for her roles as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films and Adrian Balboa in the Rocky series.-Personal life:... |
Nurse Cora |
| Sam Jaffe Sam Jaffe (actor) Sam Jaffe was an American actor, teacher, musician and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle and appeared in other classic films such as Ben-Hur and The Day the Earth Stood Still... |
Old Whateley |
| Lloyd Bochner Lloyd Bochner Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was a Canadian actor, usually playing the role of suave, rich leading men.- Career :... |
Dr. Cory |