Starring Vincent Price and Academy Award nominee Martha Hyer (SOME CAME RUNNING), the film was advertised as an expose of the white slavery racket (circa 1967) though this was merely an excuse to conceal the producer's true purpose — another of his potboilers featuring name performers in sexploitation vehicles. Price, by now an AIP regular, and Ms. Hyer, who had made BIKINI BEACH and PYRO for the company, play nightclub illusionists who use their act to hypnotize and kidnap young and attractive audience members who are then transported to a Tangiers Brothel known as the ''House Of 1000 Dolls''. This establishment is the base of operations for a gang of International White Slavers (led by the mysterious ''King of Hearts'') who then ship the indoctrinated girls to fleshpots all over the world. When ''The Great Manderville'' (Price) and partner Rebecca (Hyer) grab their latest victim (none other than Towers real-life wife, Maria Rohm, a regular performer in his productions), American tourists George Nader (who was once groomed for stardom in the U.S.) and his wife Anne Smyrner (REPTILICUS) are drawn into the plot. Nader's old friend Fernando (who is also Rohm's Fiancée) enlists their help in his search for her, little knowing that by doing so, all three have placed their lives in great danger.

Directed by Jeremy Summers (THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU) with a screenplay written by Towers himself (under his usual ''Peter Welbeck'' pseudonym), HOUSE OF 1000 DOLLS is a strange concoction — on the surface, it seems at first to be a mystery thriller with occasional action scenes tossed in for variety. But, according to Price, the filmmakers had other ideas: “What she (Ms. Hyer) and I didn't know was, they were making a ‘dirty’' version of the film at the same time. Every day we had off, they'd make a dirty version. We went visiting on the set one day, and there was everyone naked! And they weren't even the same girls!” This probably explains why the movie heads in at least three different directions without really succeeding at any of them. Thanks to the persuasive performances of veterans Price and Hyer, it's not without entertainment value, but those hoping for some risque fun won't find it here.

Though it does boast a collection of International Beauties (most of them, like the majority of the supporting cast, rather crudely dubbed in English) there are only 20 or so, not the titular thousand. The photography is well above average for this sort of project (as is the score by Charles Camellari) and the story does move, if at a rather deliberate pace. So deliberate in fact that the frantic climax and hasty conclusion is almost at odds with the rest of the picture. Still, for those who hang in there until the end, the wrap-up is at least logical, if hardly a surprise. Herbert Fux (from MARK OF THE DEVIL and LADY FRANKENSTEIN) also appears as a pesty street photographer.

When it was first released back in 1967 (on the top half of a double bill with THE MILLION EYES OF SU-MURU, another Towers production also featuring Nader) AIP cut 17 minutes of the original 96 minute running time and added a brief prologue, presenting it as ''A depiction of white slavery as it exists today''. The Studio also reshuffled a few of the scenes which didn't really hurt the plot, though some of the deletions did. After its brief theatrical showings, it quickly disappeared and was soon forgotten. Eventually it made its television debut on the ''CBS Late Movie'' in the late 1970s. In the 1990s, the HBO home video label distributed a full-screen videotape of the theatrical cut, but it wasn't until last year that it made its DVD debut (in a full-screen PAL version) courtesy of a European company called ''Umbrella Entertainment''.

MGM now presents the film in its original 2.35:1 Techniscope format with anamorphic enhancement. They have added the usual disclaimer that no remastering was done, and the best existing materials were used. That is all too obvious here. MGM deserves credit for continuing to release these long-missing titles from the AIP library, but, compared to some of their previous Limited Edition Collection releases (RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, THE GLORY STOMPERS) this one falls short. The print source used is the longer cut of the film (95:34 minutes) and aside from a bit of debris here and there, it's in fairly good shape. Alas, the color is less than perfect, obviously having faded over the years. It tends to bathe scenes in a brownish glow which undercuts the location photography. The mono English audio is strong in most places, but muffled in others. Still, it's more than watchable after years of nothing but a cramped pan & scan version. The title song recorded by ''Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers'' is mentioned in the opening credits, but is nowhere to be found on this print.