House That Vanished, The (1973) – Nostalgia Central

A beautiful but vapid young London fashion model named Valerie (Andrea Allan) and her petty thief boyfriend, Terry (Alex Leppard), drive through the English fog one night to a deserted country manor that he wants to rob.

Instead of finding anything of value inside the crumbling, isolated property, they accidentally witness the brutal murder of a naked woman.

Valerie manages to escape (without Terry), but when she later tries to return to the house to investigate, it is gone. No body, no sign of a crime, no Terry . . . and nobody seems to believe her.

She returns to London and tries to return to her everyday life, but is surprised to see Terry’s car parked outside – and a cloaked, black gloved stalker is following her.

Valerie becomes involved with a quiet young mask-maker named Paul (Karl Lanchbury), who lives and sleeps with his domineering aunt, Susanna (Maggie Walker) – which we know because there’s a graphic and ugly scene in which aunt and nephew have sex without a trace of intimacy or sensuality.

When Valerie spends an evening with friends, her roommate Lorna (Judy Matheson) – who sleeps in the nude with her pet monkey – is raped and strangled in their flat.

To get away from the killer, Valerie goes with Paul for a few days in the country . . . in what turns out to be a familiar house.

She finds her former boyfriend Terry’s mutilated body in the bedroom closet, along with several others in various states of decay.

There are moments of such sheer idiocy in Derek Ford’s obscenely ludicrous screenplay that they are almost funny.

One lady, about to be murdered, asks the killer, “Aren’t you even going to take your gloves off?”

It is equally incredible when, in an English country house, Valerie makes love by a fireplace, falls asleep without any clothes on, and awakens without feeling cold.

It’s a sadistic, sexually violent film which was originally released in the UK as Scream . . . and Die.

Valerie Jennings
Andrea Allan
Paul
Karl Lanchbury
Susanna
Maggie Walker
Mr Hornby
Peter Forbes-Robertson
Lorna
Judy Matheson
Stella
Annabella Wood
Terry
Alex Leppard
Mike
Lawrence Keane
Kent
Edmund Pegge
Mrs Dabney
Daphne Lea
Inspector Matheson
Richard Aylen
1st Victim
Barbara Meale
Peter
Joshua Leppard
Car Driver
Raymond Young

Director
José Ramón Larraz (as Joseph Larraz)

Video