The Terror? Didn't He Punch Roosevelt Once?

Caught part of a movie I'd never seen before on Turner Classic last night. The Terror, starring a very old Boris Karloff, and a very young Jack Nicholson. Like I said, I only saw part of it, but Nicholson was a French soldier from the 18th Century who found himself separated from his regiment. He was supposed to be trying to meet up with them, but wound up at the castle of an old baron (Karloff), and couldn't help but try and untangle the mysteries surrounding the Baron.

I thought Nicholson held back too much, as his delivery seemed flat much of the time. Maybe the audio quality didn't help, because his voice sounded unusually distant sometimes, but it's probably more attributable to inexperience. Especially compared to Karloff, who was letting the melodrama fly, loudly expressing his sorrow at the drop of a hat. Most of the other actors seem suitably animated, though the delivery by Karloff's wife (Sandra Knight) felt similarly stilted. Maybe it was the dialogue's fault. Very stylized, but in a heavily expository way (at least for the part I saw). Considering Nicholson's character seems heavily invested in learning the truth, it doesn't fit that his emotions don't really leap off the screen, especially when compared to the rest of the cast. I mean, he's playing a young soldier, who followed an attractive woman to this castle, and now he can't find her again, and everyone's giving him the runaround, you'd think there'd be more passion.

The film has madness, secret passages, characters shadowing each other through a dark castle, revenge gone awry, most of the cast dying in a short period of time near the end, and a man getting his eyes clawed out by a hawk. I'm certainly game to try and watch it the whole way through if the opportunity presents itself.