The City of the Dead (U.S. title: Horror Hotel) is a 1960 supernatural horror film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Christopher Lee, Venetia Stevenson, Betta St. John, Patricia Jessel and Valentine Dyall.<br /><br />Plot:<br />In 1692 in fictional Whitewood, Massachusetts, a witch named Elizabeth Selwyn is burned at the stake. Before her death, Selwyn and her accomplice, Jethrow Keane, sold their souls to Lucifer for eternal life and revenge on Whitewood in return for providing the Devil with two yearly virgin human sacrifices on the Hour of Thirteen during Candlemas Eve and the Witches' Sabbath.<br /><br />Present day a young college student Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson) arrives in the sleepy Massachusetts town of Whitewood to research witchcraft. Nan's stay at the eerie Raven's Inn takes a portentous turn when she learns its proprietor Mrs. Newless (Patricia Jessel) is the reincarnation of a witch burned at the stake in 1692. The discovery unravels the startling truth about the town: that it is really a coven of witches who have a sinister plan to sacrifice humans so that they can become immortal.<br />Credits<br />Christopher Lee as Alan Driscoll<br />Dennis Lotis as Richard 'Dick' Barlow<br />Patricia Jessel as Elizabeth Selwyn / Mrs. Newless<br />Tom Naylor as Bill Maitland<br />Betta St. John as Patricia Russell<br />Venetia Stevenson as Nan Barlow<br />Valentine Dyall as Jethrow Keane<br />Ann Beach as Lottie<br />Norman MacOwan as Reverend Russell<br />Fred Johnson as The Elder<br />James Dyrenforth as Garage Attendant<br />Maxine Holden as Sue<br />William Abney as Policeman<br /><br />Screenplay by George Baxt<br />Story by Milton Subotsky<br />Produced by Seymour S. Dorner, Milton Subotsky, Donald Taylor, Max Rosenberg (uncredited)<br />Cinematography Desmond Dickinson<br />Edited by John Pomeroy<br />Music by Douglas Gamley & Ken Jones (jazz)
