The Face at the Window (DVD)

In the year 1880, Paris is reeling from a series of fiendish murders... the work of a deranged maniac known as "The Wolf." Meanwhile, Lucien Cartier, a bank clerk who hopes to marry the owner's daughter, finds himself the lone suspect when the bank is robbed. The evil and lascivious millionaire, Chevalier Lucio del Gardo, frames the innocent Lucien and accuses him of being the mad killer terrorizing Paris. Forced into hiding, Lucien begins to draw a connection between del Gardo and the unsolved murders and enlists the help of a so-called mad doctor. The doctor's experiments with raising the dead may be the only hope young Lucien has to escape the gallows and rescue Cecile from the clutches of del Gardo.

Barnstorming British stage actor Tod Slaughter never gained the notoriety of horror greats Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, but the actor's magnificently enthusiastic performances have developed a large cult following over the years. The Face At The Window is typical of Slaughter's usual lurid melodramas, but is rife with more horrific elements than most. Still, the presence of a werewolf, a mad doctor and experiments to raise the dead take a backseat to Slaughter's delightfully sinister performance. Genre fans may recognize co-star John Warwick, who twenty years later played Inspector Lodge in Horrors Of The Black Museum.

• horror