 | | | | Dementia 13 |  | Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Actors: William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton, Mary Mitchel, Patrick Magee
Studio: 303 Recordings
Category: DVD
List Price: $7.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (31 reviews)
Sales Rank: 221196
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD
Running Time: 75 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
UPC: 617917580596
EAN: 6179175805964
ASIN: B0001DMWMA
Release Date: February 24, 2004
Theatrical Release Date: 1963
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The kicker on this Corman production--Coppola directs!!! February 28, 2005
4 out of 9 found this review helpful
We put this mystery thriller on the DVD player, and I noticed it was a Roger Corman film. Well, for B or even C flicks, Corman never disappoints. You can count on lots of cheese, bad acting, dropped story threads, and plenty of girls in see-through negligees, bikinis or even their skivvies if the storyline begins to slacken. But ho! What's this! Written..and directed by Francis Coppola? I LAUGHED MYSELF SILLY for at least a minute and a half. I'm not making this up; Coppola directed and wrote this turkey.
The story centers about a family of Irish noblemen, who unaccountably are educated in the US, have American accents and are engaged or married to a set of exchangable blondes. Mummy, back at Castle Halloran, looks Italian but is not. She is, however, mourning the death of her daughter Kathleen, who drowned in pond. Three guesses who did it. This is the mystery.
John, the fat son married to the bitchy blonde, comes home for the "ceremony"--a sad little mummery commemorating the death of Kathleen. His wife is angling to change Mummy's will (which leaves everything to the Cartholic Church in the name of the dear departed Karthleen) and somehow, John ends not doing too well in wifey's schemes. Don't worry I am giving anything away, as this thread of the story peters out completely midway through the film and is never heard from again.
The other brothers mope at home. Richard, the mad sculptor in metal, only metal, wants to marry the blonde Kane. His other brother is quiet and a homebody. Somehow, despite this being an average quiet castle with only the usual hauntings, a lot of people end up rather dead. Heads roll, and not just at the studio office for making this bomb.
How the film ends and how Coppola rescues his career from this disaster I will leave to you to find out. As I said, it's a mystery.
 gory thriller January 30, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
An all star cast reinforce a beutiful script and of course one of the best directors in the world....A gory but clever grotesque horror/thriller. Not the best movie Ive ever seen but by FAR not the worst.
 Cutting Edge... January 26, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) accompanies her husband John (Peter Read) on a moonlight rowboat ride around the lake. Well, John's heart gives out and he drops dead in the middle of the lake! Devoted wife Louise dumps his carcass overboard and begins scheming immediately how she can worm her way into her mother-in-law's will. Louise pretends that John has gone away on a trip, and shows up at the family castle in Ireland to put her plot into operation. Upon arrival, Louise finds a family in the throes of insanity, as the matriarch, Lady Haloran (Ethne Dunn) has never fully recovered from the drowning death of her young daughter Kathleen. Every year since, the family gathers at Kathleen's grave, and tosses flowers by the tombstone until Lady Haloran collapses to the ground. Louise arrives just in time for the seventh annual observance of this macabre ritual! She realizes that mum is extremely vulnerable, and sets out to gain her confidence. She convinces her that she has heard Kathleen's voice in the castle. Louise places some of Kathleen's dolls at the bottom of the pond (where the drowning occured), weighted down by a wrench. She sees a most terrifying sight down there and re-surfaces, only to be hacked to death by a shadowy figure with an axe! The dolls pop up the next afternoon, sending mother completely over the edge. Her doctor, Dr. Caleb (Patrick Magee) tries to solve the mystery of the dolls, as well as Louise's sudden disappearance. A trespassing rabbit hunter is also dispatched by the axe maniac in grizzly, head-rolling fashion. William Campbell plays Richard Haloran. Bart Patton is his younger brother, Billy. Mary Mitchell is Kane, Richard's bride-to-be, who is the only ray of sunshine in this otherwise dark, gloomy place. Coppola offers some fine direction, and his story is full of nice creepy touches. This film was made for about the cost of the catering service in most modern day productions! It shows again, like in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, CARNIVAL OF SOULS, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, ETC., that money isn't everything in movie-making! Highly recommended...
mildly suspensful, beginning movie for Coppola and Corman July 20, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and produced by Roger Corman, features a family who's greedy to get at the fortune of a deranged old woman; who's memories of her dead little girl result in some strange rituals. There's a blonde, one of two, who kills her husband; then, lies to the family, as she angles to get in on the fortune [she doesn't make it]; there's a couple about to get married, one disturbed brother (who turns out is an "ax" murderer). A weird doctor (who may be familiar to anyone who has seen "A Clockwork Orange" [he was the writer who was attacked in his home-Patrick Magee (not Macnee, of the Avengers, no)]. It was a weird, but short movie, 81 mins (which was why it was recorded, on the Alpha Video version I have, at SLP). For 1963, it wasn't bad. And it was a great place to start for Coppola and Corman. The first blond, who gets killed, was Luann Anders; who wasn't bad looking, and I wonder if she ever made any other movies [perhaps, someone reading this could help me out, thanks.] Note: It's Luana, not Luann. It won't let me add a review, so the correction is here.
Coppola's first--a mixed bag July 15, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is not the best horror movies I've ever seen, but one of the best films in terms of *atmosphere*. The frightening parts about it are less in the film itself than what the film suggests--the really psychotic point to which codependency can build, obsession, and a host of other disturbances, none of which involve the supernatural but suggest it. Along with the Vincent Price films he did, this is the best film you'll see that Roger Corman was involved in. Luana Anders is, ironically, the strongest presence in this film. Thing is, she doesn't last very long, and the viewer isn't all that devastated when she does disappear. A scheming, money hungry witch, she preys on the co-morbidity of an elderly woman to the point of sadism. A young girl dies tragically at a young age. An Irish family living in Nowheresville idealizes her mysterious death to the point of madness. Someone is responsible, and we eventutally find out who. There are a few 'jump out of your seat scenes', one of them being the untimely (and grisly) death of Anders. It's been awhile since I've seen this film, but much of the imagery (dolls, truly 'demented' childhood memories, and the last exclamation by the ultimate culprit: "DON'T TOUCH THAT!") have remained with me. This is an odd blend, Corman and Coppola. A worthwhile old cinematic antique of misery.
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