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Horror Playhouse: House of Terror

The Carol Burnett Show
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.

The setup

A chirpy Cockney bride moves into her new husband's crumbling castle, never suspecting the doctor wants her body to make his ancient mother young again.

Community rating

– / 10

The premise

Here’s the bit.

A ghoulish host welcomes viewers to Horror Playhouse and presents the evening's feature, "House of Terror." Vincent Price's Reggie carries his brash Cockney bride Ducky over the threshold of his family castle, where she meets his cackling hunchbacked assistant Igor and his wizened, cantankerous mother, who has been promised the newcomer's parts so she can be young again. Ducky cheerfully ignores every warning sign, from a suspicious cocktail she only finds lacking a garnish to a sinister organ serenade, while Reggie keeps kicking Igor out of the way. When she tends Igor's bruise and hands him a flower, the smitten servant warns her that his master means to kill her, but she refuses to believe it until the lab is ready. The two then turn the tables, strapping Reggie to his own operating table, and the experiment transforms him into a bare-chested young hunk.

The funny people

Meet the cast. 6

Say it with us

Highly quotable.

Just a couple more payments and it'll all be yours.

Master only wants you for your body.

Behind the scenes

The people who made it.

A little extra

Notes from the archive.

On-screen title cards read "Horror Playhouse" and "House of Terror." The official clip description gives season 5, episode 19, but TVDB and IMDb place the sketch in episode 18 (February 9, 1972), with guests Eydie Gormé and Vincent Price.

The rabbit hole continues

One more couldn’t hurt.

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