Gary Merrill had once been married to Bette Davis, after they fell in love on the set of All About Eve.  He had been separated from her for five years when he starred in 1965’s Catacombs (later retitled to The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die), a movie where he conspires to kill his financially successful but domineering wife.  One wonders if he thought of his ex-wife while making this.

One thing that was refreshing about this film is that wife, played by Georgina Cookson, obtained her money through her business acumen, when most films of that era would have had her simply inheriting a fortune.  Nor does the script make her into some shrill harpy.  Instead of simply henpecking Merrill, she treats him as more of a boy-toy, and it is obvious she enjoys being serviced by him. 

She doesn’t seem to have any romantic interest in the younger man who is her secretary, played by Neil McCallum.  Still, she controls him, holding over his head the checks she keeps in her safe, the ones where he tried to forge her signature.  McCallum chafes under her thumb, and this former prison inmate dreams of offing her.

While she may not have a wandering eye, Merrill does, and his settles upon her niece (Jane Merrow) who has just returned from an art education in Paris.  It is obvious Merrow also feels constrained by her aunt, though she only appears to be mildly frustrated.  And it isn’t like we see Cookson treating her monstrously.  There are just little things like her observation of a study of a nude woman Merrow has painted: “Haven’t the French ever heard of landscapes?”  Well, we don’t see the lowest portions of the work, so there could be bush there.

I was surprised Merrill’s lust for Merrow is reciprocated, given the age differences and, well, he’s not an attractive man.  Merrow even says at one point, “I think the word to describe you is virile”, which I guess is supported by the appallingly dense carpet of chest hair we see when he’s lounging with his shirt open.  I will concede he may have a certain animal magnetism, but only because he is rather simian in appearance, especially when we see him in profile as she sculpts a bust of him.

Anywho, there’s at least three people who might want Cookson dead, though her behavior seemed fairly reasonable to me.  She’s unpleasant enough that I wouldn’t want to be around her, but I very much doubt I would suddenly drown her in a sink, as her husband does.

And here is where the wheels on the movie start wobbling some, even if they don’t completely fall off.  You see, he takes her body to the shed, where he digs a hole in the earth floor.  I’m not sure if it is bad acting, but Cookson is breathing, and heavily.  I think simply reframing the shots would have made that less obvious.  What is more curious is Merrill decides to use a locker as her casket, instead of simply burying the body.  There’s no real reason for him to do that.  Somebody might later notice the locker is missing.  Also, it will displace more dirt than just a body.  It just doesn’t make any sense.

Really, the only reason this is in the film is to make it appear possible she is not dead once mysterious things start happening.  Further evidence for the possibility he did not kill her was a very odd element of the plot introduced earlier, where she regularly hypnotizes herself in a mirror as a way of dealing with pains she experiences.  In a moment that straddles the line between creepy and funny, we see her staring bug-eyed into a mirror that reflects a strong light into those eyes.  I could not help but recall Prince of Darkness, and was waiting for her to stick her fingers into the mirror while going “Faaaatherrrrrr…”

Merrill had the poor timing to spontaneously off her a week before she was going to Italy for a spa trip alone.  McCallum had already arranged with Merrill to have Cookson die on that trip.  But the secretary happens to know a woman who can transform herself into a stunning impersonation of Cookson—and that’s because she is played by the same actress.  Admittedly, Cookson does a very good job speaking in a different accent when not “on the job”.  Alas, she does not realize the fate in store for her before McCallum hits her over the head with a rock, pours gasoline all over their car, and sends it over a cliff with her in it, to her fiery demise.

The rest of the film is full of mysterious happenings where it appears either Merrill failed to successfully kill his wife, or that she has some returned from the grave.  There’s also the likelihood somebody is causing shenanigans to torment the others.  That said, with a cast of only seven, there’s only so many possibilities.

But then I was surprised I was unable to outguess Catacombs.  In retrospect, there may have been one or two cheats that make it difficult for viewers to come to the same solution.  Still, I accepted this, as well as some quirks that stretch credulity, and not just the ones I mentioned earlier.  Crisp black-and-white photography, solid performances and an above-average script made this a more fulfilling experience than what I assumed it would be, as I had expected yet another remake/rip-off of Diabolique. 

Dir: Gordon Hessler

Starring Gary Merrill, Jane Merrow, Georgina Cookson

Watched on Imprint (Australia) blu-ray (region free)