I can do something for your career. I can kill it.
If there is such a thing as a British giallo, then 1974's AIP/Amicus co-production Madhouse would certainly qualify as one. Vincent Price stars as Paul Toombes, the Vincent Price-like star of a series of horror films about the character Dr. Death. The film opens at a New Year's Eve party at Paul's swanky Hollywood home where he runs the fifth Dr. Death film for the appreciative crowd and announces his engagement to his next co-star, Ellen (Julie Crosthwaite), although he's ready to call both off when he finds out about her sordid past from adult film producer Oliver Quayle (Robert Quarry). Then Ellen is viciously murdered by someone who dons Dr. Death's leather gloves (a very giallo-esque shot that gets replayed before each subsequent murder), cloak, and hat, with the addition of a hideous skull mask to keep his identity a secret.
Fast-forwarding several years, we pick things back up in London, where Paul is coming out of retirement to play Dr. Death for Oliver, now a reputable television producer. This, we find out, is largely at the behest of writer Herbert Flay (Peter Cushing), who created the character for Paul and is playing host to him at his estate for the duration of the filming. History repeats itself, though, when a pushy actress (Linda Hayden) who was angling for a role on the series is killed in the manner of one of the victims in one of his films, as is the starlet (Jenny Lee Wright) ineptly playing his assistant. That's enough for Scotland Yard (represented by inspector John Garrie and his assistant Ian Thompson) to bring Paul in, but there isn't enough evidence to hold him. And besides, the very next day the director of the Dr. Death TV series is killed in a death trap meant for Paul, which is a sure sign that something sinister that is not of his making is afoot.
Apart from the opening film-within-the-film, in which we get a taste of Dr. Death's iconic makeup, Madhouse acts as a kind of Vincent Price highlight reel since clips from AIP's Poe films (namely, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, Pit and the Pendulum, and House of Usher) are used to represent Paul's back catalog. As for the present-day mayhem, director Jim Clark stages it rather well, although the business with Herbert's reclusive wife Faye (Adrienne Corri), a former actress who lost her hair and her sanity in a car wreck, doesn't really fit with the rest of it. Much better are the scenes where intrepid PR flack Julia (Natasha Pyne) does her best to get to the bottom of what's going on (and, it must be said, does a much better job of it than Scotland Yard). Too bad she also has a date with Dr. Death, who is not the sort of fellow one wants to get cornered by.
