The Merchant of Menace, Vincent Price, gets his due from MGM/Fox in this box set that collects several of his finest films together. Although the Price fan may want to sharpen their pendulums since most of these have been on DVD before.
Vincent Price (1911-1993) was known to audiences worldwide as a horror star and to be counted on for both chills and tongue in cheek fun. His urbane manner and cultured voice made most think he was from England but he was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He was also known to be a connoisseur of the arts and gourmet cooking, but it was his horror roles that would spread his fame. MGM/Fox collects seven of his films and a bonus disc of featurettes to glorify the ghoulish gourmet.
Tales of Terror (1962): The triple threat of terror is a three-episode treat dripping with murder, necrophilia, dementia, live burials, zombies and the terrifying performances of some of horror’s greatest spooks – Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone – resulting in nothing less than juicy entertainment and spine-chilling cinema.
Twice Told Tales (1963): It’s spine-tingling terror… in triplicate! “Virtuoso of horror” Vincent Price dials up the depravity in this spellbinding trilogy of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “all-chiller” classics! Featuring a demented genius, poisonous plants, oozing blood, and a corpse in a wedding gown. Twice Told Tales spins three diabolical nightmares of madness, mayhem and murder most foul.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971): Vincent Price plays a diabolical doc seeking the ultimate revenge with precision creepiness… and surgical wit! After a team of surgeons botches his beloved wife’s operation, the distraught Dr. Phibes unleashes a score of Old Testament atrocities – from a plague of locusts to an attack of rats – on his enemies that climax in what may be one of the eeriest endings on screen record.
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972): Vincent Price breathes new life back into one of his most prefect horror villains in a sequel that’s even better than the original. The eminent Dr. Phibes reawakens from a decade of suspended animation and heads to Egypt with the corpse of his dead wife… which he intends to resurrect by murdering people in strange and heinous ways to invoke a magical incantation.
Theater of Blood (1973): Vincent Price delivers a thrilling tour-de-force performance as a small-time actor plotting a big-time revenge… in inventively Shakespearean ways. Boasting a topnotch supporting cast, this dramatically delicious concoction delivers an equal mix of horror, comedy, and Shakespeare that’ll please just about everyone – critics included and proves that all the world is a stage… for murder!
Madhouse (1974): Masters of the macabre Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Robert Quarry give performances to die for in this diverting little chiller. When horror star Paul Toombes’ fiancé is brutally killed, he loses more than his job… he loses him mind. But twelve years later, when he returns to TV – only to discover a fresh batch of corpses – Paul finally begins to understand what melodrama and murder can do for you career.
Witchfinder General (1968): As superstition and fear sweep the Middle Ages, an educated rogue named Hopkins (Price) wanders from town to town proclaiming to be an official witchfinder. Town leaders pay him to accuse and then execute – usually innocent – suspects. But when a brave solider returns home to find his sweetheart on the rack, ready to burn, Hopkins realizes he may have whacked his last witch.
Six of the films in this set have already been released by MGM before and those titles are direct ports of what was on those original discs. The major addition to the set is perhaps Price’s finest role, as Matthew Hopkins the Witchfinder General. I’ll not go into too much discussion of that film since I’ve reviewed it separately. MGM did Price fans, which have all the other releases already most likely, by releasing Witchfinder in a separate release.
The Witchfinder in this set and the separate release are exactly the same. The Phibes philms (as I like to call them) feature Price in a tailor-made role and could be said to be the only time he played a role that was his own and his alone. Most other times he played characters of Poe, Hawthorne, etc. Theater of Blood is purported to be his favorite role since he gets to kill all the critics and it too is tailor-made, but differs from Phibes in that it has no sequel.
Madhouse plays as Price’s Sunset Boulevard since it relays a horror history for Paul Toombes that closely resembles Price’s own film career. Tales of Terror is a gem assembled out of Poe’s tales and features a hilarious turn by Lorre and Price in a wine tasting scene. Twice Told Tales does the same with Hawthorne, but the results are done more cheaply and it shows. House of the Seven Gables is compressed down to around 20 minutes!
The films are spread across double sided discs with Witchfinder and the bonus disc as single discs. Sadly the hopes of Price fans with widescreen televisions are dashed as instead of remastering the titles, MGM/Fox just re-releases what MGM did to being with. The following are available in widescreen but not enhanced for 16x9 televisions: Theater of Blood (1.66:1) and Twice Told Tales (1.66:1).
The following are widescreen and enhanced for 16x9 televisions: Tales of Terror (2.35:1), both Phibes philms (1.85:1), Madhouse (1.85:1), and Witchfinder General (1.85:1). Special features amount to trailers on the films. Only Witchfinder General is given a commentary and featurette (again, see my full review posted separately on the site). The final disc is exclusive to this set and is entitled a “Disc of Horrors.” It contains three featurettes.
The first is the 27 minute “Vincent Price: Renaissance Man” which interviews Richard Squires (curator of http://www.vincentpriceexhibit.com ), screenwriter Christopher Wicking, author/editor Stephen Jones, and novelist/film critic Kim Newman about Price’s cultural leanings. The 12-minute “Art of Fear” interviews screenwriter/film historian Steve Haberman, editor Tony Timpone (of Fangoria magazine), film historian David Del Valle, director/writer Donald F. Glut, and Brett Halsey (co-star in Twice Told Tales) about Price’s horrific roles.
The 15 minute “Working with Vincent Price” interviews those from the first documentary about the actors that shared the screen with Price. The running time of the disc is listed at 66 minutes, so it appears to be missing about 12 minutes. I wondered if another documentary was supposed to be on there and was either left off or scuttled at the last minute.
Hardcore Vincent Price fans may well want to just stick with the single release of Witchfinder General since they’ll already have the other titles in the set. The bonus disc is interesting but it probably isn’t cost effective to just buy this set for that (unless you just want to save some shelf space since the titles are doubled-sided and in slim cases).
New fans of the old master will should consider this a grand way to collect some of his best films (Phibes and Witchfinder). However, the lack of 16x9 enhancement was disappointing to me, but the low cost for those that don’t own the film is very appealing.
Vincent Price: MGM Scream Legends Collection is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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