Torture Garden

6/6/2023

This time it's Burgess Meredith's turn to compere a compendium of four horror stories set around his fairground attraction. He charges each of four people £5 for entry to a secret part of his exhibit where he promises them something portentous that they will never forget. Behind the curtain lies what appears to be a life-size doll - the Fate Atropos - and each learns of a tale that tears down their façade of respectability that these two men and two women have hitherto presented. The segments themselves are short, sweet and though maybe all just a bit predicable (usually the way when there's some moralising afoot) there are still some decent performances from the likes of Peter Cushing, Jack Palance and John Standing to keep these character assessments - and just desserts - interesting. My