Tales That Witness Madness (1973)

Fans of "THE TWILIGHT ZONE", "TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE", and other horror anthologies will relish this ghoulishly entertaining four part horror film. The movie opens at an asylum in England run by Donald Pleasance who has just recently solved four fascinating cases. This leads to the four patients relating in flashbacks the shocking stories that led them to be brought to the asylum. The first tale, "Mr. Tiger", is about a boy who introduces his bickering parents to his IMAGINARY pet tiger. In "Penny Farthing", an old-fashioned bicycle sends its owner back in time to unveil a horrible crime. The third and best segment, "Mel", stars the beautiful and sexy Joan Collins as a housewife who finds herself competing with her husband's beloved pet tree! And the fourth and final segment, "Luau", is a riveting tale of voodoo and cannibalism featuring Kim Novak as a mother who is better off not knowing what's for dinner. A crazy compilation, but each tale is well-presented and strangely entertaining. A must for fans of way-out horror films. Directed by Freddie Francis reponsible for another equally creepy '70's mystery/horror anthology movie, the original TALES FROM THE CRYPT.

TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS brings us four tales of terror, helmed by reputable horror director Freddie Francis and released in 1973. HALLOWEEN's Donald Pleasance and the venerable British legend JACK HAWKINS frame the four tales with some kind of gibberish about Pleasance finding out the horrible "secrets" of four mental patients. The first is a little boy whose invisible tiger takes an intense dislike to his bickering parents (including Broadway's Georgia Brown in a surprisingly banal performance); Peter McEnery and Suzy Kendall fare a little better in the muddled, but spooky, tale of a bicycle that takes McEnery into the past, for what purpose, I never figured out; sultry Joan Collins and the bland Michael Jayston (NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA) play out a two-character drama about a wife jealous of her husband's new found "tree"; and the ever lovely Kim Novak overemotes her way through a lurid tale about human sacrifice and a particularly disturbing luau. More imaginative direction and some recasting might have made this a classic; however, as it is, it's fun to recapture the style of these horror movies of the 70s. Note that the score was done by Bernard Ebbinghouse, who helmed the Living Strings for several years in the 70s.

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Until some months ago , when i streamed this fun little anthology , i had forgotten it even existed . I LOVE all the horror anthology pictures made by both Amicus and Hammer studios . Agreed , some are better than others and several titles have quite modest charms to recommend them . With this release , the United States has only the wonderful DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS yet to be released on dvd/bd in our region 1 format . These various films are seldom actually very scary by today's standards . They have history , assorted constaints , casts , writers , directors and so forth distilled into each delightful time capsule though . If retro horror fun IS your cup of tea ?

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Old fashioned and badly titled! Would never have gotten it had I know what it actually was about! Old stories that were quite predictable

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I didn't particularly enjoy this one. Maybe even an another night, but it did nothing for me. I still think it's the type of movie you should give a chance, it might be you.

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