Happy 93rd Birthday, Christopher Lee!

Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle in "The Wicker Man" (1973).

Born May 27th, 1922. Can you believe it?

Once almost irreconcilably typecast as the vampire Count Dracula, Sir Christopher Lee's career has crossed multiple genres and spanned seven decades. With over 280 acting credits to his name, he is more than established as one of the world's greatest and most well known fantasy actors.

Thank you, Sir Christopher, for givng us a lifetime of entertainment. Many happy returns!

And let us never forget his fellow horror icons, Vincent Price (May 27th, 1911 – October 25th, 1993) and Peter Cushing (May 26th, 1913 – August 11th, 1994). Happy birthday and may they rest in peace.

Christopher Lee with Vincent Price and Peter Cushing
in "House of the Long Shadows" (1983).

It's also Hart Fisher's birthday, the owner of American Horrors. Happy birthday, Hart!

AMERICAN HORRORS is the new uncut horror TV channel owned and hosted by legendary horror creator, Hart D. Fisher. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can watch for free on your ipod, ipad, iphone, or Android by downloading the FilmOn App!!!

Vincent Price died 20 years ago today

Vincent died on October 25th, 1993. Can you believe it?

He died before most of today's horror fans were even born!

I recommend buying one of these if you aren't familiar with the great man's work.

The last one is cheapest in Target.

TCM's Horror Schedule for October 2013

What a difference a year makes! The last time I posted one of these TV schedules, there were loads of classic horror movies to watch. Sadly, apart from a ton of Public Domain and Vincent Price movies, there's not much else to look forward to this month. Shame on you TCM! How very disappointing.

Since they've also stopped providing a convenient .pdf file, I've manually reformatted the official schedule and corrected the typos. It's easier to print out and tick off the movies as you watch them this way, but as we've all got huge horror DVD collections and/or Netflix, I doubt that any of us will bother.


Tuesday, October 1st
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 2nd
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 3rd
12:45am - The Collector (1965)
3:00am - Dr. Crippen (1963)

Friday, October 4th
8:00pm - Carnival of Souls (1962)
9:30pm - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Saturday, October 5th
1:30am - Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
3:00am - Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
4:45am - The Wasp Woman (1959)
10:30am - The Gorgon (1964)
12:00pm - The Devil's Bride (1968)

Sunday, October 6th
2:00am - Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula (1966)
3:15am - Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

Monday, October 7th
NOTHING!

Tuesday, October 8th
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 9th
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 10th
NOTHING!

Friday, October 11th
8:00pm - Horror of Dracula (1958)
9:30pm - Isle of the Dead (1945)
11:00pm - Dead of Night (1945)

Saturday, October 12th
1:00am - The Haunting (1963)
3:00am - The House of Seven Corpses (1974)
4:30am - Horror Castle (1963)
12:00pm - The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1961)
4:30pm - It Came from Outer Space (1953)
6:00pm - The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1959)

Sunday, October 13th
NOTHING!

Monday, October 14th
12:00am - Nosferatu (1922)
2:00am - Vampyr (1932)
3:15am - The Vampire Bat (1933)
4:30am - The Vampire (1957)

Tuesday, October 15th
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 16th
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 17th
NOTHING!

Friday, October 18th
8:00pm - Burn, Witch, Burn (1962)
9:45pm - The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
11:15pm - The Seventh Victim (1943)

Saturday, October 19th
12:30am - Curse of the Demon (1958)
2:15am - I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
3:30am - The Leopard Man (1943)
10:30am - The Devil's Own (1966)
12:15pm - The Plague of the Zombies (1966)
8:00pm - Freaks (1932)
9:15pm - Mark of the Vampire (1935)
10:30pm - The Devil Doll (1936)

Sunday, October 20th
2:15am - Incubus (1965)
3:45am - The Hypnotic Eye (1960)

Monday, October 21st
12:00am - Haxan (1922)
2:00am - Kwaidan (1965)
6:15am - Eye of the Devil (1966)

Tuesday, October 22nd
4:30pm - A Place of One's Own (1945)

Wednesday, October 23rd
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 24th
8:00pm - House of Wax (1953)
9:45pm - The Mad Magician (1954)
11:00pm - House of Usher (1960)

Friday, October 25th
12:30am - Diary of a Madman (1963)
2:15am - The Tingler (1959)
3:45am - House on Haunted Hill (1959)
6:45am - Tower of London (1962)
8:15am - The Raven (1963)
6:30pm - The Walking Dead (1936)
8:00pm - A Bucket of Blood (1959)
9:15pm - Dementia 13 (1963)
10:45pm - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Saturday, October 26th
1:15am - Sisters (1973)
3:00am - Spider Baby (1964)
4:30am - Village of the Damned (1961)
10:30am - Maniac (1963)
8:00pm - Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
9:30pm - The Mummy (1932)
11:00pm - Cat People (1942)

Sunday, October 27th
12:30am - White Zombie (1932)
2:00am - Psychomania (1973)
3:30am - The Witches (1966)
4:15pm - Children of the Damned (1964)
6:00pm - Them! (1954)

Monday, October 28th
NOTHING!

Tuesday, October 29th
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 30th
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 31st - HALLOWE'EN!
12:00am - Freaks (1932)
6:00am - The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
7:30am - The Mummy (1959)
9:00am - Horror Castle (1963)
10:30am - The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)
12:15pm - Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965)
1:45pm - The Devil's Bride (1968)
3:45pm - Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969)
5:30pm - Horror Express (1972)
8:00pm - Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
9:30pm - The Haunted Palace (1963)
11:15pm - The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Continuing Hallowe'en through to Friday, November 1st
1:00am - The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
2:45am - Twice-Told Tales (1963)
5:00am - The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
6.30am - The Conqueror Worm (1968)
8:15am - Theatre of Blood (1973)


What will you be watching?

Ghost Stories for Christmas - Part 6

You can't have Christmas without "A Christmas Carol", so here's the 1949 TV dramatisation of the Dickens classic as narrated by Vincent Price.

A Christmas Carol



As a bonus, here's an interview that Vincent Price did in 1982 with Terry Wogan just before making "House of the Long Shadows".

Witchfinder General (1968)

(AKA "Conqueror Worm")



"England is torn in civil strife as the Royalists battle the Parliamentary Party for control. This conflict distracts people from rational thought and allows unscrupulous men to gain local power by exploiting village superstitions. One of these men is Matthew Hopkins, who tours the land offering his services as a persecutor of witches."

Although I prefer "Mark of the Devil" (1970), for the 18th day of my "Hallowe'en Countdown", I offer you the director's cut of "Witchfinder General" which I have embedded above.

Back in the '80s, there was an unofficial novelisation of "Witchfinder General" in the series of pulp horror paperbacks published by Sphere and written by James Darke (a pseudonym for Laurence James) called "The Witches". I read those books long before I ever saw "Witchfinder General" for the first time and think they were rather good for what they were. For all of its merits, you see, "Witchfinder General" is a little bit tame in its non-director's cut version, and even with the gorier bits put back in, it's not exactly terrifying as a horror movie.

Where "Witchfinder General" does excel though is in how Vincent Price plays Matthew Hopkins without hamming the role up. It's quite a surprise to see that Vincent Price can actually act although the arguments on set between him and the director which caused such restraint are legendary. Vincent Price and Michael Reeves did not get on well together with Vincent being quite a primadonna considering that he wasn't even the first choice for the role. Originally, Michael Reeves wanted Donald Pleasance to play Matthew Hopkins, but Vincent Price was considered a better draw for American audiences.

As much as I love most of Vincent Price's movies, I wonder what "Witchfinder General" would have been like without him. His American accent is a bit incongruous among all the British ones, and, of course, he's too old to match the historical Matthew Hopkin's age. I don't think anyone else would have looked right either except perhaps John Hurt, but he was hardly a big name in 1968.

In the very late '70s, I was a huge fan of Ian Ogilvy as Simon Templar in the "Return of the Saint" TV series, and it's hard for me to get that later role out of my head whenever I rewatch "Witchfinder General". His Roundhead captain character, Richard Marshall, is too posh to be a "jumped up ploughboy" (as he is referred to in the script), but he's still fairly decent as a dashing hero whose life is torn apart. When I first saw "Witchfinder General" in the late '80s, I almost felt sorry for his character at times. Now that I'm older, harder and wiser, maybe not so much.

Hilary Dwyer plays the love interest and the cause of most of the problems for Richard Marshall. If only Sara Lowes wasn't so "easy", she could have saved everyone a load of trouble.

I found the scene where Sara offers herself to Matthew Hopkins to be far too hasty and contrived. She isn't in any real danger herself at that point, and there is no deliberating about it whatsoever. Having previously been fornicating in the Rectory with her future husband, she's no innocent. In many ways, what happens is simply the justice of "horror movie morality" being served.

Highlights of "Witchfinder General" include spotting all the British talent who went on to mainly do TV work including Nicky Henson, Rupert Davies, Bernard Kay, and Wilfrid Brambell (most famous for being Albert Steptoe). It's also a rather unpleasant piece of nostalgia as not only did Michael Reeves succumb to a drug overdose a year later but Patrick Wymark (who has a cameo as Oliver Cromwell) died a couple of years later as well.

"Witchfinder General" looks good, has a similar vibe to it as a Hammer production, but it isn't the most historically accurate depiction of 17th century England. The more eagle-eyed of you should scan the background for some obvious goofs including TV aerials.

According to the records, the extreme torture methods such as those used by the Spanish Inquisition to extract confessions were rarely used in England, and witches weren't burned at the stake in the 17th century. That's not to say that there were never burnings, but it was a punishment reserved for treason. If a suspected witch confessed to treason as well, there would be grounds for a burning, but hangings were the easier, preferred, and most common form of execution. Even in the case of Guy Fawkes, who we Brits all remember with our "Bonfire Night" on November 5th every year, he was never actually burnt at the stake either but condemned to hang.

Anyway, have a look at "Witchfinder General" for yourself, and let me know what you think about it in the comments section below.

House of the Long Shadows (1983)

"An American writer goes to a remote Welsh manor on a $20,000 bet: can he write a classic novel like Wuthering Heights in twenty-four hours? Upon his arrival, however, the writer discovers that the manor, thought empty, actually has several, rather odd, inhabitants."

For some reason when I was a lot younger, I always confused "House of the Long Shadows" with the abomination known as "Bloodbath at the House of Death". It probably had something to do with Vincent Price being in both of them, although I'd also guess that the stupid titles were somewhat interchangeable in my own mind. Either way, I'd only seen a third of the the latter before switching it off and had never watched the former. No matter how many times it cropped up on late night television, I'd vowed to never watch that crap again and changed the channel immediately.

Having recently discovered "House of the Long Shadows" on YouTube, I clicked on it to see if it was as horrible as I remembered. It was only then that I realised that it wasn't actually the film I hated at all.

Starring the four most famous veteran horror actors of my youth, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine (okay, that's really only three because I never much cared for John Carradine in anything), "House of the Long Shadows" was exploitation movie director Pete Walker's finale. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he never made anything else afterwards.

I'm going to keep this as brief as I can because I'm still somewhat undecided about whether or not I really liked "House of the Long Shadows". I did find it entertaining and enjoyed the series of twists at the end. More than that, I cannot say, but hopefully, I'll come to some conclusion by the end of this review.

Being pretty sure that I had only ever seen Desi Arnaz Jr. in the "Automan" TV series before watching this, I really have no idea if he was ever a serious actor or just a comedian. Therein lies a problem since the film spent a lot more time focused on his character than the horror actors. Everything about his persona was rubbing me up the wrong way in a kind of "poor man's David Naughton" manner at the beginning, but he grew on me by the end.

As soon as I saw Julie Peasgood, my heart really started to sink because I've never liked her or her incongruously fake posh accent which, to this very day, she still forces over the top of her real Northern one. She used to be Fran on "Brookside" (a Liverpool based soap opera on Channel Four), and I couldn't stand the sight of her on that either. I know it's an irrational thing, but some actors and actresses just do that to me. Mercifully, her appearances were brief and to the point in this film.

The "old guys" were either as serious or as camp as they ever were and had enough screen time to be more than just cameos. The only thing I didn't really like was Peter Cushing's rhotacism. It was embarrassing and a shame to ruin his perfect speaking voice.

Vincent Price was mostly his usual self but somehow slightly more serious due to his age. He was a pleasure to watch but certainly wasn't as commanding as Christopher Lee. Let's face it, nobody could be as commanding as Christopher Lee, and he stole every scene he was in.

As for John Carradine. Who? He didn't do much and I can't remember ever seeing him in a good movie, or at least, in a role where he played anything other than himself, a grizzled old man, or a cowboy.

There were a few other actors who all did well with what they were given. Although Sheila Keith was largely wasted, she looked horrible enough. Richard Todd did a great job at the beginning and the end. Norman Rossington was a suitably surly railway station master, and the married English couple of Richard Hunter and Louise English surprised me with their reappearance later in the film. I wanted to see a lot more of Louise English really but not quite in the way things turned out for her character.

The horror elements were quite good, but to be frank, this was all very dated and slightly comical stuff. Having read some things about the film since watching it, it seems that it was intended to be a comedy originally, but then it was decided to edit it back into a straighter horror. I see nothing wrong with that, and I wish it would happen to a few more "horror-comedies", but it's painfully obvious where one thing was intended and another delivered.

I was most amused by an obligatory "cat scare" which happened twice but only showed the black cat once. There was a "meta" moment of explanation concerning this, but following the big reveal at the end, the whole story turned out to be a giant old school prank anyway and three years before "April Fool's Day" did it all again.

"House of the Long Shadows" had no big scares, but one of the "gore scenes" disturbed me slightly because I know of at least one person on the planet whose real life story made that a lot more horrible to me than it really was. I'm not going to say anymore about that though because I'd hate for the Google search robots to pick up on it. I don't mind getting some second-hand internet fame from crappy old horror movies, but I don't want my blog to ever be associated with real crimes.

I suppose, if I liked films such as "Clue" (1985), I might have appreciated "House of the Long Shadows" more. I'm not a fan of very much outside of the horror genre though, so I was probably expecting too much from it. It was still a horror movie but with a much lighter feel than the ones I really like, so I'll just rate it as average.

I bought that for a dollar - part 1

In the midst of everything else, I am now launching a new irregular feature consisting of anything horror movie related which I have bought for a dollar.

First up is this Vincent Price double feature DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment.

I already had these movies several times over on other Mill Creek packs but I saw an online offer for $1 and decided that I could never have too many versions of my favourite Vincent Price films.

Obviously, I've reviewed them: House on Haunted Hill (1959) and The Last Man on Earth (1960).

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

"Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his 4th wife, Annabelle, have invited 5 people to the house on Haunted Hill for a 'haunted House' party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each."

I'm sure everyone is already familiar with this famous camp horror classic so I'm not going to spend too much time reviewing it. It's a William "The Tingler" Castle film and yet another vehicle for Vincent Price so what more do you need to know?

Yes, it's low-budget with some laughable special effects but everybody plays things straight and the story never lapses into comedy. In fact the subject matter is quite modern in a bizarre way with adultery, greed and murder very much on the agenda.

Although the title is reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's novel, "The Haunting of Hill House", this shares very little with the later Robert Wise movie, "The Haunting" (1963). There is a ghostly curse as a kind of wraparound subplot but it doesn't really play much of a part except to set the tone for the party Vincent Price has arranged for his guests. I think there are definite homages to Shirley Jackson's story throughout which you will spot but this is a completely different story overall. Elisha Cook's character, Watson Pritchard, is very much a precursor to Roddy McDowell's Benjamin Fischer in "The Legend of Hell House" (1973) too. Shirley Jackon's material obviously went a long way.

Like most black and white movies of this era, there is a great atmosphere provided by the use of that medium. Most people also notice how very pale the blonde Carol Ohmart looks in contrast to everything too. I'm pretty sure that was intentional. She also stands out more than any of the other actors not just because of her beauty but because of her acting ability and sinister intentions of her character. She screams quite effectively at one point too.

The other screamer in this is played by Carolyn Craig. Her character, Nora, is introduced with suitable creepiness by Vincent Price using the words, "Isn't she pretty?" That line is actually delivered in such an inscrutable way that I'm still not sure if it suggests that Vincent Price's character, Frederick Loren, fancies her, wishes she was his wife instead of the one he has, or is just designed to implant the idea of the Emperor's new clothes in our minds. I don't think she's very pretty at all but she can really scream. I had to keep turning the volume down because she shrieks at just about anything and everything and in a most annoying way.

The house itself should be the real star of the show though. It's a weird looking place from the outside and almost as bizarre as the one in the modern remake. The exterior shots were filmed at the historic Ennis House in Los Feliz, California, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He based the design on ancient Mayan temples. You'll see it crop up in a lot of other movies too over the years including "Blade Runner" (1982) and just about anything based in Los Angeles that needs a mansion for a backdrop. I've even seen it in episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

The interior shots of the house are all studio bound. There's a certain amount of claustrophobia since none of the rooms appear to have any windows and they don't use many of them. It's a pity that the filming couldn't have actually been done inside the Ennis House. I would love to know what that place really looks like on the inside. I probably never will though since it all started to collapse back in 2005 and is currently being renovated.

I suppose I should mention Vincent Price's performance since he is really quite arrogant and downright mean at times in this movie. Although it's possible to sympathise more with Frederick Loren once you know he has been cuckolded, you still can't excuse his sadistic delight and controlling nature. He is a very bad man and you shouldn't let yourself be fooled for a moment that he does anything out of the goodness of his heart. It's a quite fascinating portrayal of a real psychopath with nothing but selfish intentions. The more times I watch "House on Haunted Hill", the more I realise how fantastic Vincent Price actually was and how clever the script of this movie still is.

"House on Haunted Hill" is not without some major flaws as is often the case with any B movie from this era. The sets are pretty sparse looking and the backstory to the characters is often more interesting than anything they present on screen. What seem like plotholes actually aren't though. Everything that happens is done for a reason. No, not just somebody making a cheap movie to make lots of money.

This was probably William Castle's greatest film and, even though we don't have the gimmick skeleton (who also gets a credit) in our own homes, there are some genuinely scary moments and a few things to think about after the fact. I'll let you decide what they are.

The Last Man on Earth (1960)

"When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter."

I don't really need to say a lot about this film since it is the classic which inspired "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) and was remade in 1971 as "The Omega Man". The less said about the second appalling 2007 remake ("I am Legend" starring Will Smith), the better. All these movies are based on Richard Matheson's 1954 novella, but this is the only one where the author actually wrote the screenplay (even though he was dissatisfied enough with the final result to have them change his name on the credits to "Logan Swanson").

Although many people consider this to be Vincent Price's best film, I think he was completely wrong for the role in many ways. He acts in a very fussy and impatient manner throughout, often touching everything and flicking his hands as if they are dirty, to the point where he starts to get quite irritating. Also at 49 years old at the time of making this movie (as the IMDb date of 1964 for "The Last Man on Earth" is wrong), Vincent Price may have the excuse of being an older man, but he was beyond awkward in any of the physical scenes and certainly couldn't even run at the end.

Due to the low budget, Italian location, and general sloppiness of the direction, there are a lot of unintentionally funny mistakes and continuity errors. Most of these involve day changing to night and then back again within the same scene, but others highlight the poor quality of the sets particularly towards the end. Some people love looking for things like this though and, to be honest, none of them really spoil the story.

The thing that I noticed most was that the acting is very uneven. Some of it is very "stagey" and dated while other bits are just embarrassing. Most of it is good enough though, and if you are already a Vincent Price fan, you won't care anyway.

Generally, I liked "The Last Man on Earth". Technically, it's not the best movie in the world, it has very little suspense, no scares whatsoever (and absolutely no gore!), but it does have a certain amount of apocalyptic atmosphere. The story itself is good enough to make you want to stay with it until the end.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

"After a team of surgeons botch his beloved wife's surgery, leaving her for dead, the emotionally distraught Dr. Phibes creatively concocts a fatal prescription for revenge. Using the Good Book as his guide, Phibes unleashes a score of old testament atrocities - from a plague of locusts to an attack of rats - on his enemies."

Have you ever rewatched a film from your childhood with memories of it being really good only to discover as an adult that it was a load of old crap? Well, that's how I felt about "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" except that I never liked it much as a child either.

Now I realise that "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" is a cult classic for many people and is not a true horror film for a great many others, but bearing in mind that it was a forerunner of "Se7en" and "Saw", the vengeful serial killer storyline of "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" has become a staple of the horror genre. I've seen people argue that "Se7en" stole its plot directly from "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" minus all the campness and art deco set decorations, and they are probably right. I would argue in return that "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" stole a great many ideas from "The Avengers" and "Batman", and so did everything else from that era. Nothing is ever that original anyway.

The things I've always hated about "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" are mainly to do with the pace at which the story unfolds, the overly comedic British police, and the absolutely useless reactions of Dr. Phibes' (yes, I'm using the American way of abbreviating doctor with the full stop/period) victims.

When I rewatched the DVD earlier this morning, it was hard going to even stay awake for the first ten minutes due to it all being style over substance until the first murder by fruit bats occurred. Actually, it was the second murder as you only get to hear about the first murder using bees from one of the detectives. I don't think anyone at the time could figure out how to create the plague of boils caused by bee stings, but I would have liked to have seen them try.

Out of all the nitpicky things to annoy me the most though were Dr. Phibes' exaggerated hand gestures when he was supposed to be playing the organ. Well, obviously he wasn't really playing it nor were his Frank Sidebottom-headed robot musicians playing any of their instruments either. In spite of all the flawless 1920s set decoration, nobody seemed to care if anything else looked real or not and, in my opinion, that makes it a very bad movie.

Other things which threw me completely out of my willing suspension of disbelief were how I couldn't pin the time period down. The art deco (or art nouveau) stuff could be in vogue at any time, and since things don't change that much in England, it could just be due to well maintained listed buildings. The old cars were definitely later and the Tiger Moth biplane was created in the 1930s (albeit without the 1970s' "No Smoking" sign screwed to the dashboard in the cockpit). The heavy suits worn by the detectives looked very early 1960s although the uniformed police could have been from the '40s or '50s as far as I know. I've read that it was all supposed to be set in 1929, but it was all over the place. Couple all that with the late Peter Jeffrey's obviously 1970s comedic delivery as Inspector Trout and you have one hell of a mess to get your head around.

But since it's all fantasy anyway, maybe these things work in favour of "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" especially when it comes to creating a cult film. I don't really understand how that works or why something so obviously bad gets promoted to greatness, but to each his own. I'm sure that most people will agree with me that "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" is flawed, dated and overrated whatever their opinion of cult films is anyway.

I didn't watch "The Abominable Dr. Phibes' just to pull it apart but to see if it should remain as a recommendation in my "Video Vault". I didn't have a problem with Joseph Cotten's bad acting, the far-fetched nature of the story, or even all the plotholes surrounding the mute Vulnavia. What concerned me the most was that it was actually all very boring. The supposedly ingenious murders and their horrific aftermaths weren't all that entertaining to me as a fully grown adult living in the 21st century. There was no tension or suspense involved in any of the punishments even with the timed one at the end and I didn't know enough about any of the characters apart from Terry Thomas (who always seemed to play the same role in films) to feel anything for them. None of the victims tried to fight back either, and that was just odd.

I suppose that if I ever decided to overthink things then I could probably empathize with Dr. Phibes, but only if I'd ever been married to the uncredited Caroline Munro and lost her. Yeah, losing a gorgeous trophy wife like that would be enough to drive anyone nuts. But surely to gain a non-speaking Virginia North as a replacement would be satisfying enough, wouldn't it? Actually, the more I do think about it, I'd prefer Valli Kemp from the awful sequel "Dr. Phibes Rises Again" which was on the same DVD.

I highly doubt that anyone who saw "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" when it was released in 1971 was horrified or scared by it. British horror films of that time, especially AIP produced films set in Britain, were actually way of sync with the nastiness that American and European filmmakers were delighting their audiences with. If anything, "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" was a throwback to the cosy Roger Corman, Hammer and Amicus style from ten years before and would have stood out glaringly as such amidst the competition. I wasn't there at the time though so all this is just hypothesis.

Another major factor in determining whether or not anyone would still enjoy "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" is how much they like Vincent Price. People who have read further into my blogs will probably already know that I bought Vincent Price's autographed cookbook (signed to Boris Karloff) from the auction of Mrs Evie Karloff's estate which was coincidentally on the day that Vincent Price died (October 25th, 1993). At the time, I was even more into all things horror related especially anything to do with the old guys. If you haven't already seen it, here's a link to a post about Vincent Price's "A Treasury of Great Recipes" on The Bloody Forum and a picture to whet your appetite:

Even though I would class myself as a Vincent Price fan, I really didn't like him as Dr. Phibes. The whole role was a mockery of what he could achieve as an actor. Even though he was hardly the most physical of actors, I still think that "The Last Man on Earth" was his best film with "Witchfinder General" a close second. I know that other people will disagree (especially the essay writers over at vincentprice.org), but everybody who likes Vincent Price chooses a different favourite film of his as being his best anyway.

Anyway, should I leave "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" in the Video Vault and recommend it to you? I think not. Since it was originally a borderline entry with a score of only 5 out of 10, I can't justify putting it anywhere now except The Dungeon. It's a shame, but when your tastes change as much as mine have over the years, it really is a case of putting childish things like this away and moving on.