The Many Faces of Vincent Price, Vol. 2

The Many Faces of Vincent Price, Vol. 1

Vincent Price Day: SWEET DREAMS....

Seventeen years ago today, horror lost its greatest legend and ambassador. Fortunately, we still have the films which will sustain his memory for all time... Take a moment now to commemorate and celebrate the one and only Mr. Vincent Price. There will never be another. Sweet dreams, dark prince...

The Vincent Price/Christopher Lee Birthday Throwdown!

Breaking with the somber remembrance of the birthday of Peter Cushing yesterday, tonight in the Vault, let's have a little fun celebrating the shared birthday of two other horror immortals, one still with us, one no longer. One was an effete American with a penchant for cooking who once rapped with Michael Jackson; the other, a swarthy Englishman who played Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and a gay biker. Tonight, it's all about Vincent Price vs. Christopher Lee.



Vamping It Up!

Yeah, I know. This one's not even fair. Chris Lee has played the Transylvanian Count more times than any actor alive or undead, a total of ten occasions from 1958's Horror of Dracula to 1976's Dracula and Son.


Price very famously turned down the role of Dracula a number of times, believing he could add nothing to it. He did, however, play Dracula's cousin once on an episode of F-Troop.


Special Effects Extravaganzas!

Christopher Lee, in more recent years, has taken part in some big-budget blockbusters--like Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, in which he fought Yoda.



Price's earliest horror effort was 1940's The Invisible Man Returns, in which he pulled off a vanishing act quite impressive for its day (and pretty damn cool today.)



Crappy Musicals!

If you ever want to experience Christopher Lee's rich baritone, look no further than The Return of Captain Invincible, in which he played the evil Nazi Mr. Midnight...



Anyone remember The Great Mouse Detective? That would be Price as the voice of the dastardly Rattigan...



Playing It for Laughs!

Lee has not been one to poke much fun at himself, although he can be seen doing comedic turns in such films as Gremlins 2 and the critically acclaimed Police Academy: Mission to Moscow, in which he played Commandant Alexandrei Nikolaivich Rakov.


Price was far more enthusiastic about making fun of himself, as evidenced by his countless variety show appearances throughout the 1950s-1980s. I'm particularly fond of his child-frightening appearance with Kermit the Frog.


Beards!

Lee rocked some Father Time-like facial hair as the wizard Saruman in another cherished geek franchise, The Lord of the Rings.


And who could forget the curly Jew-beard, complete with fake hook nose, worn by Price taking on the part of The Merchant of Venice's Shylocke in Theatre of Blood?


Bond Villainy!

A career film heavy's ultimate goal might be playing a Bond villain, and Lee got to do so as Francisco Scaramanga in 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun.


The closest Price came to playing a Bond villain was playing Egghead on the Batman TV show.


Political Incorrectness!

Lee played the very devious, very Oriental Dr. Fu Manchu on five different occasions.


Aside from the aforementioned Shylocke thing, Price also took on the disguise of a stereotypically gay hairdresser for Theatre of Blood as well, complete with '70s white man fro!


Did you know that the two men appeared in a total of four films together? They are, for those keeping score:

• The Oblong Box
• The Horror Show
• Scream and Scream Again
• House of the Long Shadows

And finally, as we celebrate these two elder statesmen of horror who share a birthday, let's not forget one other horror icon who shares this birthday as well!

"Hey guys... Do you ever wonder about all the different ways of dying? For me... the worst way to die would be for a bunch of old men... to get around me... and start biting me, and eating me alive..."

* Special thanks to Kevin Maher for his immense help in putting this post together.

TRAILER TRASH: Vincent Price Edition!

The Many Faces of Vincent Price

TRAILER TRASH: The Fly Edition!

Retro Review: House on Haunted Hill (1959)

"Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?"

From time to time here in the Vault, I've advocated for the importance of "having fun" with horror movies. Very often in our post-modern age, horror can become a dreary affair brimming with overly earnest angst aimed squarely at angry 20-something males whose sense of irony has been surgically removed. That's all well and good, but I also need a steady diet of fun, brainless, silly horror movies. Especially if they still manage to serve up some tasty frights along the way. And the original House on Haunted Hill is just such a picture.

Take William Castle, head schlock-meister of the Atomic Age, and add Vincent Price, the finest horror ham to ever intone a baritone cackle, and you have this rollercoaster ride of a movie. This is Price in his heyday as the king of the macabre, playing the role of Frederick Loren, a mysterious figure who offers $10,000 to a group of hapless individuals if they can stay the night in the titular house, a place dripping with the menace of past misdeeds. Is it really haunted? Or is it all part of Loren's mad scheme?

Along with one of the finest horror movie posters ever produced, this film benefits from never removing its tongue from its cheek. We are not meant to take it all very seriously, but rather, as with most Castle productions, we are supposed to have one hell of a hoot with it. Ideally, I imagine this would best be achieved watching it on the big screen--which, sad to say, I've never had the opportunity to do. Hopefully one day...

Carol Ohmart--who would also star a decade later in the cult classic Spider Baby--appears here alongside Price as Loren's bitter wife Annabelle. These two have some of the most delicious dialogue in the film, including a priceless (sorry) exchange that includes the unforgettable line at the top of this post. Robb White, who also wrote the scripts for Castle classics The Tingler and 13 Ghosts, is to be commended for a sharp and witty screenplay that greatly adds to the camp value.

Yes, much of the effects are cheesy--with the floating skeleton being particularly notorious in the annals of horror movie history. But I defy anyone to tell me that they didn't lose ten years of their life when that crazy old crone pops up behind the girl. You know the scene I'm talking about... For my money, the mother of all jump scares!

There is no doubt that this was one of the most influential fright flicks of its era. It raked in a ton of cash, and helped reinvigorate the more gothic-flavored horror film after a decade of giant-radioactive-monster movies. It's even been said that this was the movie that inspired Alfred Hitchcock to make his first bona fide horror movie--Psycho.

As I've said, this is Vincent Price perfectly hitting his stride as the master of on-screen creepiness. It had been some years since House of Wax put him on the map, and his collaborations with Castle would later lead to a legendary partnership with Roger Corman in the 1960s. To see him thoroughly relishing his role in Haunted Hill--as he always seemed to do--is to see a true legend at work. It's easy to see why this was the time frame in which he became the go-to guy for studios looking to class up their horror pictures.

The first of Castle's horror efforts, House on Haunted Hill was also arguably his best (with the obvious exception of Rosemary's Baby, which he only produced and did not direct). Grab it, get some friends together, nuke up some popcorn, and get ready to thrill, giggle and shudder. William Castle perfected the concept of horror-movie-as-funhouse, and this one is the greatest example.

Retro Review: Theater of Blood

Just when I thought it wasn't possible for me to love Vincent Price more than I already did, along came this absolute gem of a movie into my world. As an English major with a concentration in a Shakespeare, and an unabashed horror fanatic, this film was literally tailor-made for me, and it baffles me that I got this far without ever having seen it.

Fresh off the superb Dr. Phibes movies, Price made this flick, very much in a similar vein, and nearly as delectable. In it, he plays Edward Lionheart, a Shakespearean actor beloved by the public, who nevertheless is invariably panned by critics due to his over-the-top hamminess (and it's clear that Price relishes the role in part as a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of his own hamminess). Driven over the edge, his career in ruins, Lionheart concocts the master plan to bump off each of the critics one by one, using a method of murder taken from a different Shakespearean play for each.

And so, the central narrative very much resembles Phibes, in that the film revolves around a series of brilliant murder setpieces. And Price is utterly remarkable throughout each, playing the part of the vengeful Lionheart with such gusto that one can't help but be completely enraptured by him. In fact, if the one drawback of Phibes was that he couldn't move his mouth, then Lionheart makes up for it in spades. My particular favorite is the fencing scene, in which Price reenacts the duel from Romeo & Juliet, his face a gleaming mask of self-satisfied, evil glee as he spouts purple prose to no end.

As with many British horror films of the period, including the Phibes pictures, Theater of Blood is fairly packed with delightful English character actors. The lovely Diana Rigg plays Lionheart's mysterious daughter; Ian Hendry (Dr. David Peele of The Avengers fame) plays the leader of the critics' circle, Peregrine Devlin. Amongst the rest of the critics are Michael Hordern (Jacob Marley of the 1951 Scrooge and the voice of Gandalf in the BBC radio edition of The Lord of the Rings), Harry Andrews (one of the Kryptonian Elders in Superman), and that incomparable English gentleman Robert Morley as the fabulous Meredith Merridew. Irish favorite Milo O'Shea rounds out the cast as the unflappable Inspector Boot. If you'll pardon the obvious pun, this is a cast to die for.

Speaking of which, Theater of Blood is an exceptionally dark and vicious comedy. While unceasingly funny, it is also surprisingly bloody, featuring fairly graphic scenes of organ removal, electrocution, beheading and more. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of a gorier Vincent Price flick at the moment. A favorite of many fans of the film is the scene in which Morley's character meets his end--in which Lionheart, inspired by the baby-pies of Titus Andronicus, bakes up a couple poodles in crust and feeds them to his unwitting target until he chokes to death.

To watch Price chew up the scenery, letting Shakespearean soliloquies fly left and right, it's almost impossible to describe my elation. You can tell he's really enjoying himself here, and that carries across to the viewer. He also gets the chance to appear in a series of fairly ludicrous disguises, adding another level of delicious camp to his performance. Especially amusing is his turn as a '70s-era gay hairdresser, complete with white-man fro, giant gold chains, and painfully outdated slang. Truly an unforgettable Vincent Price moment.

I was lucky enough to come across this picture on DVD mere weeks ago on a discount rack, and boy, am I glad movies aren't sold based on their quality. Because this one was worth the five-spot I paid for it, about ten times over. I've already watched it multiple times, and am glad that after all these years, I can still discover an older film like this with so much to offer.

Theater of Blood proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vincent Price was a national treasure, and it is truly sad that he is no longer with us. Yet with thoroughly enjoyable films like this left behind, it's assured that he will never, ever be forgotten.

Retro Review: The Last Man on Earth

Screw Will Smith. Screw him in his giant Dumbo ear. In honor of Vincent Price's birthday yesterday, I'm taking a look at what I consider the finest adaptation of Richard Matheson's yet-to-be perfectly adapted novel I Am Legend. With all due respect to the great Chuck Heston, Omega Man is just not a really good film either, despite the glories of Heston chewing up the scenery in frilly '70s attire.

No, if you want to see the original undead apocalypse movie, this is where you need to go. Because without The Last Man on Earth, there would have been no Night of the Living Dead. Don't believe me? Just ask George Romero, he's said it himself on many on occasion. I've also always felt that this film version was greatly influenced by the Twilight Zone, yet presented in a more intense and brooding way that only a feature-length film can allow.

Originally intended to be a Hammer production, the film instead fell under the auspices of B-movie distributor extraordinaire American International Pictures, and was produced in Italy, of all places. Price is at his earnest, tortured best as Dr. Robert Morgan, the lone scientist driven to eliminate as many vampires as he can during the day while trying to to formulate a cure at night. That's one of the things I love about this version that was completely overlooked in the new one--he's actively out there wiping out these bloodsuckers. That's what I'm talkin' about!

Much more of the traditional vampire lore is maintained in this version, with Morgan staking the creatures through the heart, protecting himself with garlic, etc. And yet the seminal influence on zombie cinema is absolutely undeniable. We have the desperate guy seeking refuge in his boarded-up house. We have hordes of undead trying to get in and feast upon him. We have a worldwide epidemic. We have the fear of loved ones turning against you as they fall victim to the plague. It's all here. Just add a dash of Hitchcock's The Birds, and you have Romero's brainchild.

Speaking of loved ones turning, without question the film's most powerful and bone-chilling sequence occurs when Morgan recalls what happened to his own wife. After her death, Morgan, unable to bring himself to burn her body, instead buries it far from the house, even though he knows deep down she's coming back. This knowledge, however, takes nothing away from his abject dread--and the dread shared by the viewer--when she does indeed return, clawing at the front door, and moaning for him to let her in. And when he does... Let's just say it's hard to understate the terror in this scene, particularly for a pre-Romero audience.

The external location shooting in Rome adds to the film's feeling of realism--yes, Price's melodramatic hamminess is part of his charm, but it only makes for that much more of a jarring juxtaposition against the grim imagery of eerily empty city streets and fire pits filled with flaming corpses. If anything, it's a testament to Price's versatility that he fits in just as well in this scenario as in the classic Gothic visions of Roger Corman and the like.

Not quite the articulate anarchists of Omega Man, but also not the unthinking demons of Smith's version, these creatures are definitely proto-zombies, shambling about their post-apocalyptic landscape, moaning in their limited vocabulary for Morgan to come out so they can drink his blood. From a visual standpoint, the resemblance of some of these scenes to NOTLD (made only four years later) is remarkable.

And like NOTLD, The Last Man on Earth has a stark, uncompromising downer of an ending. Much more so than either of the subsequent versions. It's well known that Matheson has never been satisfied with any filmed version of his book, including this one, and yet this one is probably the most faithful of the three. There might be some major deviations, but if you judge it without loyalty to the novel in mind, on its own merits, I think you'll find it to be a highly effective little horror flick.

The film rarely gets the credit it deserves for being one of the earliest "modern" horror movies, often being completely overshadowed by the much more flamboyant Omega Man of ten years later. But if anything, the shameless Hollywood-ization of the property that occurred with I Am Legend should draw even more attention to this overlooked 1960s gem. Seek it out--in fact, thanks to a lapsed copyright, you can actually watch it right now!