Tales That Witness Madness (1973) - Region 2 PAL, plays in original English audio without subtitles

A four act portmanteau horror offering from 1973 but not a patch on such classics as 'Tales from the Crypt' or 'From Beyond the Grave'. The linking story here is a visit by psychiatrist Jack Hawkins (in his last film role before his death from cancer of the larynx, his voice dubbed by Charles Grey) to an institution run by his junior colleague, the reliably creepy Donald Pleasance. Pleasance presents four case studies of people apparently incarcerated for their delusions: they can see their "truth" and Pleasance can see it too, much to the incredulity of his superior who can see nothing. The first story 'Mr Tiger' is a good opener. A young, lonely lad has an imaginary friend, a tiger, which makes up for the fact that his parents fight like cat and dog all the time. A tiger, though, which requires him stealing joints of meat from the fridge and hiding them under the bed for his imaginary chum to feast on. Personally, I thought Donald Houston and Georgia Brown made a good job of it as the warring couple. I would then suggest heading straight to the fourth and longest story, which features Kim Novak as a film producer or scriptwriter (I wasn't too clear what she did) entertaining an Indian author and his sinister colleague at her country home. The two have come to England to conduct a ritual that will give the author's recently deceased mother the peace in the hereafter that she craves. Unfortunately, they require a virgin for the ritual and Novak's daughter (played by Mary Tamm, who some might remember from Dr Who) fits the bill. Tamm is excellent: not overly coquettish, a little spoilt but not in a cliched way: her part could have come across as a whiney brat in the wrong hands. The way the whole piece plays out - with some innovative camera work and, as throughout this video, great colour - is truly horrific. Sadly, the middle two segments look very cheesy these days. 'Penny Farthing' is a bit dreary and falls into the usual cliches of a haunted object taking over someone's personality: its not up there with the one in 'Beyond the Grave' (I think) where a ghost in a mirror turns David Warner into a murderer, let alone the Googie Withers haunted mirror story in the Ealing classic 'Dead of Night'. As for the third story ... well, this film is famous for the Joan Collins story where hubbie Michael Jayston falls in love with a tree stump and brings it into their home, with dire consequences for our Joan. It's a sign of the state that British film found itself in in the mid 70s that the production lurches into exploitation territory at this point, with Ms Collins required to flash her boobs whilst being molested in her dreams by thrashing tree branches. (Poor Joanie would go on to star in sex romps 'The Stud' and 'The Bitch', of course, before being reborn in the USA as Alexis Carrington Colby in 'Dynasty' and becoming a national treasure). I thought this segment of the film was risible in the 70s when I first saw it: time has not altered my opinion, though I do at least have more appreciation for the lush 70s interior decoration. But as I said at the start, the concluding story makes up for what has gone before, and the horror it contains is the best sort because much of it is implied. You'll never look at being served rare meat the same way again, put it this way.

There was a market for horror anthologies in the 70's as other reviewers have noted. Most of them nowadays are rather weak but those which took their stories from the 'classics' in the anthologies, with stories from Gogol and Tolstoy amongst others, I found were more successful. What Freddie Francis , a great and noted cinematographer did here was to use his Roegian skills, especially in the tracking shots, to bring the audience right into the action. Unfortunately, the stories were not really up to the standard of the filming.The real horror is that,what appears to be delusional behaviour wasn't delusional at all. Can a man fall in love with a lady-like tree? Can a boy have a real imaginary friend called 'Mr.Tiger'? The one which involved an antiques dealer, a penny-farthing and a portrait of his Uncle Albert was black comedy was quite good as was the enjoyable spectacle of a virgin sacrifice to a Polynesian deity at a posh house in the countryside. The psychologist (Donald Pleasense) tells his superior in madness (Jack Hawkins) that he can prove that the 'delusions' were realities. However, because the viewers knew how these films worked, the climax was rather predictable. It was undemanding hokum but enjoyable.

Tales That Witness Madness is, as you might expect from its title, not merely one story but several. It's a film in the popular horror anthology style with a theme which links it all together. This theme an asylum and each story is that of one of the inmates. I don't want to spoil it by giving much away as to the precise events in each story but suffice to say that the man running the asylum relates the stories in turn to a colleague who doubts what he is being told yet in the end events transpire which tend to prove the truth of each, and one in particular. What I will say is that I enjoyed it all a great deal and strongly recommend you see it for yourself. I don't think you'll be disappointed, I certainly wasn't. I felt that the whole film was very well crafted and I was surprised it isn't much better known.

This is a horror film in the Amicus mode of short stories. The effects are typical early seventies and are poor by modern standards, but for lovers of vintage Hammer/Amicus horror they are on par. Tame by today’s gore, but, again great for those who want a gentler horror.

I saw this movie many years ago s when i noticed it was available on blue ray it was a must buy, 4 short horror storys with a great cast donald pleasence ,jack hawkins and of course the lovley joan collins and kim novak to name a few the quality of the image is first class and the colours deep and bright on the blue ray release, yes 5 stars and a must buy from me.

Tales That Witness Madness, is a series of short stories, all end in a sting in the tale.Jack Hawkins in his last movie leads the cast,they don't make movies like this any more.looks great in 1080p 1.78.1 16.9 on this blu ray From Olive Films. will play on region B players as well.

Enjoyed watching this again. Slightly spoilt due to the fact that 10 or so minutes into the film lip sync went out of time and had to turn of film and then back on to reset. Lip sync issue reoccurred around the beginning of the fourth story. Same solution applied.

Quite dated now and maybe not up to par with the other compendium films around at the same time.