Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) UK Quad Poster

Writer David Duncan's run in the 50s and 60s left us with The Black Scorpion (1957), Monster on the Campus (1958), The Leech Woman and Geroge Pal's The Time Machine (both 1960). In The Thing That Couldn't Die, a young psychic finds a long-buried casket on her aunt's ranch. Against her advice it is opened, and the head of Gideon Drew, executed for sorcery 400 years previously, is discovered. Able to control minds at will, the head seeks its body to complete it's diabolical strength.

An inspiration for Paul Naschy's Horror Rises From the Tomb (1972) it was first released on a double bill with Hammer's Horror of Dracula (1958). As Universal was in a slump at the time, any costs savings were utilised. Shot in just two weeks, it borrowed music cues from This Island Earth (1955) and The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). Will Cowan was a house producer / director of inumerable shorts and features for Universal - amongst them The Frozen Ghost (1945), The Cat Creeps (1946), and short films of leading jazz musicians such as Gene Krupa, Spade Cooley, Herman's Herd and Lionel Hampton. This however, was his last film.

Condition: VERY GOOD / FINE - occasional edge dinks, small paper loss top right corner - tiny holes running bottom centre through text, looking like paper manufacture error.

Cast: Carolyn Kearney, William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Jeffrey Stone, Robin Hughes