Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Spikeopath Tower of Terror is directed by Lawrence Huntington and written by John Argyle and John Reinhardt. It stars Wilfrid Lawson, Michael Rennie and Movita. Music is by Eddie Benson and cinematography by Walter Harvey and Ronald Anscombe.A lighthouse keeper gets bent out of shape when a woman who looks like his dead wife seeks refuge.3 miles off the German coast - Westerrode Lighthouse - lonely outpost of the North Sea.Keep Your Chin Up!Hee. OK, we are in a movie that has British actors playing pesky Germans, so get past that and there's a most intriguing picture to be enjoyed here. Core of the story is two-fold, one part is a macabre thread where Wolfe Kristan (Lawson) is clearly unhinged and unhealthily thinks Concentration Camp escapee Marie Durand (Movita) is his dead wife. The other thread involves spies, fronted by a straight backed Rennie, and the search by the Germans to locate something important in his grasp. Naturally the play unfolds at the titular lighthouse of the title.And so we have shoot-outs, awesome mano-mano fight (Kristan has a hook for his right hand), some nifty model work destruction, period flavours (large square kettle - hooray) and lots of shadowy photography. There's even an absolute peach of a left hook thrown that looks real! While the finale excites and has a touch of horror about it. This be no earth mover in thriller terms, but it's gloriously old fashioned and entertaining while it's on. 6/10

Leofwine_draca This excellent wartime thriller is a film that benefits from a low budget for once. The setting for the film is a lighthouse in Germany, and most of the running time takes place within the claustrophobic confines of the building. It's an essential three-hander about a maladjusted old lighthouse keeper who has been spending too many years by himself, and two other characters who join him and both have their own hidden motivations: single-named actress Movita, recently escaped from a concentration camp and desperate to evade the authorities, and undercover spy Michael Rennie.It's a great setup and thankfully TOWER OF TERROR is a film that doesn't disappoint. The short running time flies past with plenty of different sub-plots, each of which turns out to bear relevance to the main storyline. I love spy and resistance films set in occupied Europe during WW2 because they're inherently tense and suspenseful and this film is no exception. However, it's also a towering portrait of psychological angst and disturbance, similar in ways to the classic Bluebeard story.The quality acting really enhances the story. Movita makes the most of her role and is far more than your usual damsel in distress. Rennie is young, agile, and likable as the spy you don't want to see get caught. Best of all is Wilfrid Lawson as the lighthouse keeper; initially he's presented as an underdog hero character before his true personality comes to the fore, and it's an excellent reveal. Even George Woodbridge appears, playing an Nazi and looking much more youthful than in his later Hammer roles. TOWER OF TERROR is an excellent little film that thriller fans are sure to love.

malcolmgsw In the days when this was made there were no thoughts of the days when this film would be shown on TV.As a result some of the scenes ,shot in almost pitch darkness cannot be viewed.Even when i turned the room lights off i couldn't see what was happening.Lawson plays an insane lighthouse keeper!Nothing like typecasting is there.He has a hook instead of a right hand.As the film progresses as he becomes as mad as a march hare.Michael Rennie opposite him gives a good impression of an oak tree.Rennie is a British agent trying to escape from Germany.Lawson believes that Movita is the reincarnation of his late wife who is buried at the bottom of the lighthouse/The plot is silly but watching Lawson go mad is always an enjoyable experience.watch out for the lorry being driven on the left hand side of the road in wartime Germany.

mail-671 Two great popular British eccentrics of the '30s of stage & screen were Ernest Thesiger & Wilfrid Lawson who was also a passable baritone. In this British wartime second feature, a suspenseful espionage thriller set in a remote lighthouse off the Dutch coast commanded by Lawson with a fearsome hook for a right hand, a young saboteur(Movita) is rescued from the sea having thrown herself in following a pursuit by some Gestapo officers. Rescued by Michael Rennie an undercover British agent taken on as Lawson's assistant she soon falls prey to the latter's growing obsession because of her close resemblance to his dead wife buried at the bottom of the tower. There ensues a gripping cat-and-mouse situation with Rennie desperately plotting their escape before Lawson, his suspicions growing with his madness to recreate his wife in Movita virtually a prisoner, kills him following one lucky escape. After a hand to hand struggle,Rennie becomes trapped in one of the rooms while the now totally nutty Lawson drags his prisoner down to where his wife's remains are buried and frantically unearths her skeleton. Meanwhile a warship alerted by a signal from Rennie has successfully found the tower and opens fire.... A few years earlier, in his first Hollywood film noir, Peter Lorre had a similar problem with Frances Drake and a pair of someone else's hands.Satwalker99 Kent UK