Two on a Guillotine

Two on a Guillotine

is based on a story by Slesar.

Plot synopsis

A prologue introduces the audience to John Harley Duquesne, a psychotic magician who accidentally beheads his wife Melinda with a guillotine during a performance. Twenty years later he dies, and his will requires his daughter Cassie (the mirror image of her mother) to spend seven nights in his apparently haunted mansion in order to inherit his estate. Reporter Val Henderson offers to stay with her when he learns Duquesne promised to return in spirit form during Cassie's week-long vigil. As the days pass, the two encounter a number of spooky happenings, leading to a climax in which the not-really-dead Duquesne attempts a recreation of his guillotine trick, this time with his daughter as an unwilling assistant who hopefully won't lose her head.

Principal cast

*Connie Stevens ..... Cassie/Melinda Duquesne
*Dean Jones ..... Val Henderson
*Cesar Romero ..... John Harley Duquesne
*Parley Baer ..... Buzzy Sheridan
*Virginia Gregg ..... Dolly Bast
*John Hoyt ..... Carl Vickers

Principal production credits

*Original Music ..... Max Steiner
*Cinematography ..... Sam Leavitt
*Art Direction ..... Art Loel

Critical reception

In his review in the "New York Times", Howard Thompson called the film "a dull, silly, tedious clinker" and "an old-fashioned, haunted-house spooker." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A07E4D91F3FE03ABC4C52DFB766838E679EDE "New York Times" review] ]

"TV Guide" rates it two out of a possible four stars, calling it "a standard haunted house thriller." [ [http://www.tvguide.com/movies/guillotine/review/121524 "TV Guide" review] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059837/ "Two on a Guillotine" at the Internet Movie Database]


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Look at other dictionaries:

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  • guillotine — noun /ˈgɪlətin / (say giluhteen) 1. a machine for beheading persons by means of a heavy blade falling in two grooved posts. 2. a surgical instrument for cutting the tonsils. 3. a device incorporating a long blade for trimming paper. 4.… …  

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  • guillotine — A bench tool for cutting sheet metal. The sheet is pulled in by two adjustable rollers (one above and the other below) as the tool cuts the metal in either a straight line or a curve as desired …   Dictionary of automotive terms

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