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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A "Dirty Version"., 23 July 2006
5/10
Author: phillindholm from Rohnert Park, CA

This Spanish/British/German co-production was on AIP's back-burner for quite a while. Vincent Price did the film as part of his contractual obligations to the company. Producer/Director Harry Allan Towers specialized in sleazy European thrillers and this one is no exception. When a vacationing couple (George Nader and Anne Smyrner) in Tangiers run into an old friend there, they discover that he is searching for his missing girlfriend (Maria Rohm, Tower's real-life wife) who has been kidnapped by an international gang of white slavers. Nader investigates but before he can come up with anything, his friend is murdered. Meanwhile, nightclub magician Price and his mentalist partner (Martha Hyer), continue their nefarious activities--they hypnotize and kidnap young women for the 'White Slavers', and spirit them to the "House of 1000 Dolls." Yep, that's the plot outline folks, at least in the American cut of the film. Price and Miss Hyer (who had just married producer Hal Wallis) shared a great interest in art, and in their spare time, they visited local museums together. Years later, when asked about this film, Price had this to say: "What she (Miss Hyer) and I didn't know was, at the same time, they were making a 'dirty' version of the film. Every day we had off, they'd make a 'dirty version'. We went visiting on the set one day, and there was everyone naked!" Later, he added "and they weren't even the same girls!" This explains why the American print of the film runs 78 minutes and the one seen in Europe is various lengths, from 90 to 98 minutes. Thanks to some atmospheric photography, a nice musical score by Charles Camilleri and good performances from Price, Hyer and Nader, the film is watchable, and the girls are beautiful. This movie played most places with another Towers/Nader potboiler, "The Million Eyes Of Su Muru" which isn't even as entertaining as this one.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A movie that will leave you constantly waiting for things to finally start off., 23 November 2007
3/10
Author: Boba_Fett1138 from Groningen, The Netherlands

What an incredible lackluster movie!

You're constantly waiting for the movie to finally start off. When is the suspense and mystery going to kick in? The movie feels like one big constant introduction to events that just never occur.

This movie would had had absolutely no watch-ability value if Vincent Price wasn't in this. He played in lots of movies like this and he often didn't even played the lead role. In some cases he was on the screen for no more than 10 minutes but still was always being presented as THE evil main villain of the movie. This movie is one of those examples. But as always his presence uplifts the movie and gives it more class and sense of professionalism. It's always amazing to see how he absolutely has no difficulties delivering the most awful lines in an almost Shakespearean way. But still, a movie like this makes you wonder what Vincent Price is doing in it. The only reason I could think of was that this movie was based on an Edgar Allen Poe story but this wasn't even the case.

I wish I could call the movie sleazy. In that case the movie would still had some camp value but the movie just never goes in that direction.

The story is very silly and simple. At times it seems it's heading in the horror direction, at times it seems it's heading in the thriller direction, but it's just never fully heading anywhere in any direction in the end. I also wouldn't know under which genre to qualify this movie.

There is a good reason this movie gets very rarely shown anywhere.

3/10

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
I really liked this film, it is so campy!, 5 May 2005
7/10
Author: dogismygod from United States

If you like Price, this is an offbeat roll for him as this is not straight classic horror, but a mystery thriller with some sexed up 60's kittens and a brothel.. The film takes place in Tangiers and it is basically a clever and tame way to present a plot involving the white slavery trade. The films promo makes one think this is a very prevalent and serious issue, and perhaps it ws then? who knows? Price is a magician of sorts who gets beautiful women to get into his live stage act and then they disappear to the house of 1000 dolls. No one close to them ever sees them again, until a couple gets curious about this phenomena. The ending is a twist that you would not expect.. Perhaps the most memorable thing about this film is the theme song which gets cut off in the VHS version but exemplifies 60's groove with some cheesy pop rifts.. I mean when my ex husband an I saw this in like 1990, we laughed and sang this song for years! Then we recently turned on a few friends to it who were equally amused! don't take it so seriously, get a Pizza on a rainy weekend night and cuddle up for some excitement and intrigue with House Of 1000 DollS!

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
White slavery? Aren't there other kinds?, 23 August 2006
5/10
Author: Lee Eisenberg (eisenberg.lee@gmail.com) from Portland, Oregon, USA

At the beginning of "La casa de las mil munecas" (called "The House of 1,000 Dolls" in English), we get told that this is a tale of white slavery. I must ask: aren't people concerned when non-whites get enslaved? It just seems to me that they should have concentrated on black slavery, or shown white people and other races getting enslaved. And although I really like Vincent Price, it's sort of distracting to have him as the man running the brothel; you keep expecting to quote Edgar Allan Poe or something.

So, this movie isn't awful, it just takes a weird approach to everything. There are much better movies out there, and if they wanted to show a bunch of hot young women, they could have done it differently.

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Let this my verdict be, baby..., 19 June 2005
Author: Cwmfm from L.A.

For bargain-basement Bond and a not-unpleasant 90 minutes, you could do a lot worse than "Dolls." It was made right on the cusp between naughty and not-so-naughty exploitation. Nobody drops a bra, but, junior, you can tell the industry is just a step away from barin' the babes and bustin' loose those free-love vibes.

Plot is pretty standard: We've got a married couple getting ensnared by a white-slavery racket in Tangiers (location filming, by the way). It's got old pros Vincent Price and Martha Hyer in on the intrigue, and George Nader shaking off Rock Hudson long enough to fly over the pond and put this one away.

Mostly, it's all about beautiful babes swingin' their way through the swingin' '60s - and some of the most sluggish, haphazard and least- exciting fistfights you'll see in a long time. Maybe this is the key: It's a Spanish-German co-production. So... in Europe, the women are gorgeous but the stuntmen move like they're encased in slowly hardening lucite. Lotta hollering, too.

It's one of those odd movies that may leave you thinking: They need a dab more violence here. And less hollering.

And that closing song: EEEeeeee-Yowwww!!!

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
House of 1000 Yawns, 11 November 2005
3/10
Author: John Seal from Oakland CA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This drab thriller would be far worse without star Vincent Price, who admittedly still seems to have phoned in his performance as Manderville the Magician. (He also seems to have brushed off the top hat and cape he wore in 1954's The Mad Magician.) Shot on location in Tangiers, the film accomplishes the near impossible and makes this exotic location seem about as exciting as Bakersfield. Blame ultra cheap producer Harry Alan Towers, who wrote the screenplay using his Peter Welbeck nom de plume, and director Jeremy Summers, whose previous suspenser--the shot in Hong Kong Five Golden Dragons--is even worse. Perhaps the film would improve if seen in widescreen, but the only way you can see this baby is via an out of print HBO tape, which at least letterboxes the opening credits. Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers provide the groovy song that briefly plays out over the closing credits. A year later, their career in tatters, the Rebel Rousers split up.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
i'm a huge price fan, but this one was awful, 6 November 2001
Author: John (reasonbran234@aol.com) from ny

i think vincent price was one of the greatest actors to ever live, but i have to admit that i don't understand why he degraded himself by starring in this boring, dull, and ultimately pointless bore. the only reason i can think of that they made it at all is that the idea of a whorehouse or female slaves must have been hot stuff on the screen in 1967. was it supposed to be scandalous or something? because otherwise this one is about as exciting and involving as reading a periodical on the cause of varicose veins. it doesn't even work as a goofy camp movie, because it's too solemn and dull. as always price gives an above average performance, but it does nothing for this clunker because the movie as a whole is so fundamentally bad and uninteresting. even if you're a price completist like myself, don't bother watching it, just buy it to fill the whole in your collection.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Very odd film, 8 September 2000
6/10
Author: Jerry-93 from Milwaukee, WI

White slavery is not a topic that gets much play nowadays, but it gets a full writeup in this film. And I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing.

The film has a very strange setup. Garcia plays a man looking for his wife, who has been abducted in Tangiers. He finds that she has been forced to work in a brothel, The House of Dolls. He's discovered and killed. His friend Nader then takes it upon himself to figure out what happened to Garcia. What he uncovers is a white slavery ring run by magician Price, who uses the female volunteers from his magic act to stock The House.

The odd thing about this movie is that everything is presented rather matter-of-factly. There's no surprise to anything. We find out in the first five minutes what Price is doing. We already know what happened to Garcia and his wife. It's a suspense movie with no suspense. They throw in a twist at the end, but who cares? It has so little to do with the movie that it's completely irrelevant. There's other problems. Price is billed first, but has only about 20 mins of screen time (in the second half mostly), and he doesn't appear to be having any fun. All of the actors in the movie appear to be speaking English, yet it sounds as though the whole soundtrack (which is in English) has been looped. It's never boring, but there's no action, no excitement, no nothing. Price fans may not even enjoy this one.

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