This is a rather unique spin on the classic fairy tale. In fact, it seems less like a retelling of the fairy tale than a gothic-type story along the lines of the Vincent Price/Roger Corman Poe movies. (Indeed, its lead actor, Mark Damon, was in Corman's House of Usher along with Vincent Price.)

In Renaissance Italy, Lady Althea, betrothed to handsome Duke Eduardo and already in love with him, travels to his castle with her father for the wedding. But there's a reason that Eduardo sends all his servants except his faithful chancellor away from the castle at sundown. Since he saw Althea last and succeeded to his father's throne, he has fallen under a curse that his late father brought on his line--he turns into a beast at sundown. Althea must find a way to break the curse--not an easy task when the duke's devious uncle is scheming for a way to seize the throne.

(If the Beast looks like Lon Chaney's Wolf Man, it's no coincidence--this was the last movie of makeup artist Jack Pierce, who worked on The Wolf Man and other classic Universal horror movies. His transformation, with multiple dissolves, is almost beat-for-beat the same as The Wolf Man's, too.)

This is rather cheesy--the script is overblown in the way that many of those 1960s B-movies were (Jack the Giant Killer, anyone?) The acting's a little below par even for the likes of the Corman movies. And except for a line or two, it glosses over the main conflict of the fairy tale--since Althea loves Eduardo anyway, and since he's human part of the time anyway, there's no struggle within herself to learn to see past the surface and love a Beast. But it has its charms--that sort of quaint, cheesy charm that many of these mid-century fantasy and costume dramas have. The sets and costumes are quite lovely even if the Beast's makeup looks rather hokey. And Althea's stronger and braver than many B-movie heroines of this age, even if that's a lower bar than we're used to with our modern heroines.

In short, like Jack the Giant Killer, this is hokey enough to provide plenty of hilarious riffs...and charming enough to be enjoyable in spite of its faults.