Midnight Movie of the Week #178 - The Oblong Box

Every year, on May 27th, I celebrate three birthdays. One is my sister's, which is inconsequential here unless we are speaking of Clownhouse.  The others belong to Sir Christopher Lee - who turned 91 AND released a heavy metal album on Monday - and his late companion in horror villainy, Vincent Price.  So this week, I celebrated another year of love for two of horror's greatest stars with a viewing of their first on-screen collaboration, The Oblong Box. (I celebrated with the sister too, sadly without Clownhouse.)

The film is an adaption-in-name-only of an Edgar Allan Poe story of the same name, which tells of an ill-fated sea voyage and the dark secret locked away in one piece of cargo.  The film, on the other hand, dabbles in voodoo, grave robbing, revenge, and madness with Price starring as a man whose brother is disfigured thanks to a curse by an African tribe and condemned to live locked up in one room on the family estate. Driven mad by circumstance, the brother - played by the primarily masked and character actor Alister Williamson - is made to appear dead by another witch doctor, and escapes from his brother's reign after being buried alive in a coffin that is - you guessed it - oblong in shape.  (By the way, this guy gets my respect for trusting a witch doctor AFTER he's already been cursed and deformed by a witch doctor. That's some surprising trust.)

What follows is a neat horror story that lives somewhere between Frankenstein and the modern slasher film that may have drawn some inspiration from the German "krimi" films of the 1960s. The devious and disfigured brother, Edward, is risen from the grave by his co-conspirators and then dons a red mask and goes on a spree of madness against those who wronged him (and the occasional shifty prostitute who tries to overcharge him for ripping her breast from her gown).  He's actually a pretty fantastic villain, spouting rage-filled dialogue from behind the hood and showing off his imposing size as he moves through the film. Lee co-stars as the doctor who unwillingly takes in Edward and provides him a home, and perhaps the most lasting image of the film is how it manages to make us think Edward is towering over and dominating the 6'3" man who made Dracula seem taller than Godzilla.

The Oblong Box is directed by Gordon Hessler, who would make two more films with Price the following year - Scream and Scream Again and Cry of the Banshee being the others, and the director brings a vision that seems more in tune with the pulse of its era than many other Gothic horror films of the time. The film is not exceedingly violent, even by the standards of 1969, but the masked killer is something quite different for the time period. And the fact that he is made to look stronger than both Lee - who spends much of the movie trying to sound tough but never really threatening Edward - and Price - who is in that "tortured soul who would be good if it weren't for his secret" role that he does so well - does wonders for the film. We don't expect to see Christopher Lee and Vincent Price both losing out to one villain in a horror film, and the fact that Hessler offers that for much of this film is a bold and kind of brilliant twist on the viewer's expectations.

Though the film was produced on a low budget for American International Pictures, there's definitely a grand feeling to the story at times. The script is attributed to two writers: Lawrence Huntington, who died at the age of 68 in the year before the film's release, and Christopher Wicking, a twenty-six year old writer who re-wrote the script that Huntington and original director Michael Reeves (who also died during production) had put together. Despite the number of contributors and the unfortunate circumstance around the film, it still offers some interesting twists. There's a bit of psychological play - led by the strange sexual relationship between the killer and pretty young servant and some late film showdowns between Price's character and his brother - and I definitely felt like the film was turning toward the new breed of horror that had been started by films like Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary's Baby in 1968. I am a big fan of Price/Poe films like those made by Roger Corman, of course, but it's easy to see that The Oblong Box was conceived from a different mindset than those films.

The end result is a macabre piece of horror that manages to create something new without wasting the talents of its two iconic stars. It's funny to me that the thing that drew me to this film was the pairing of Lee and Price, and yet it's probably the thing I'm least interested in talking about right now. If you're a fan of these icons you know what you're getting from them (Repeated Warning: it's not the dominating villain role for either, so check your expectations accordingly), which makes it important to know that most of the things around them - particularly Williamson and whoever provided his character's voice - are fantastic on their own. The Oblong Box is not what you might expect, but if you expect good horror cinema you could do a whole lot worse.

The Mike's Top 50 Horror Movies Countdown: #33 - The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness  Number 48 - House on Haunted Hill  Number 47 - The Monster Squad  Number 46 - Hellraiser  Number 45 - The Fog  Number 44 - Creature From the Black Lagoon  Number 43 - Zombie  Number 42 - Tales from the Crypt  Number 41 - Bubba Ho-Tep  Number 40 - Phantom of the Paradise  Number 39 - Dog Soldiers Number 38 - Pontypool  Number 37 - Dark Water  Number 36 - Army of Darkness  Number 35 - The Legend of Hell House  Number 34 - Poltergeist

The Abominable Dr. Phibes

(1971, Dir. by Robert Fuest.)

Why It's Here:

Vincent Price and I are certainly homeboys. And I don't think he's ever been in a more unique, interesting, and all-out FUN film than The Abominable Dr. Phibes.  As a mute and disfigured doctor who is out to avenge the death of his wife (CAROLINE MUNRO!!!!), Price moves through the film like a silent movie star.  He haunts most every scene with his visage - which has been assisted by some fantastic special effects - and unleashes the fury of the 10 Biblical plagues on the doctors and nurses he blames for her death. The concept alone is worth a place on this list.

The Moment That Changes Everything:

Gosh, I really struggle to break Phibes down to one moment.  The most effective moment in the film might be the sequence that involves locusts, but the film goes off the rails into Awesometown long before that scene. From the first time the Doc's robot band kicks out a tune, it is ON.

It Makes a Great Double Feature With:

Price + Price is always a recipe for success.  The sequel, Dr. Phibes Rides Again, is surprisingly good - some prefer it to the original - but I'm not going that route.  Instead, I'll toss you another late Price gem, Theatre of Blood.  It's almost the same movie in some ways - this time the murders are based on Shakespeare plays and the crimes being avenged are poor reviews - but it's got Price and the lovely Diana Rigg and lots of great stuff.

What It Means To Me:

The Phibes movies and Theatre of Blood always seem like Price's last great stand as a leading horror star to me. But, really, I'm also pretty sure that this is my favorite Price film by a good margin. I don't mean to discredit anything else the man did - I love his work in the '50s and '60s a bunch too - but Phibes just sticks out as something that is really a special film.

The Mike's Top 50 Horror Films Countdown: #48 - House on Haunted Hill

Previously on the Countdown: Number 50 - Happy Birthday to Me  Number 49 - Prince of Darkness

House on Haunted Hill

(1959, Dir. by William Castle.)

Why It's Here:

Horror has rarely been as fun as it is when William Castle's pulling the viewer's strings.  And when you combine his behind-the-scenes showmanship with the star power of the great Vincent Price, you get what I like to call a magical conjunction.  With a great setting and plenty of effective gags, House on Haunted Hill becomes a must see for anyone interested in classic B-Movie horror.

The Moment That Changes Everything:

When Price lays out the stakes for the evening in the haunted house on the haunted hill (Although, didn't you ever wonder if the house was actually innocent and just got a bad reputation because the hill was haunted? I did.), he sells the rest of the film easily.  When Vincent Price tells you horror is coming, you believe it unequivocally. 

It Makes a Great Double Feature With:

Something else by Castle makes sense - perhaps his original 13 Ghosts is the best fit - as does another Price classic like House of Wax.  But I've always liked the pairing of Castle's film with one of my favorite Price films, Last Man on Earth.  The two films have drastically different tones, but both show off Price at his scene-stealing best.

What It Means To Me:

It's really not the best movie in any way, but House on Haunted Hill is one of those movies that I just want to throw in a time capsule and preserve forever.  I wasn't fortunate enough to be around for the days of Castle films, but I can still feel the fantastic sense of ridiculous fun that pours from the work of crowd pleasers like him and Price.  Some would argue that the 50+ year old film is dated, but I really think this is an ageless treat for anyone who enjoys a dose of the macabre.

The Lists Are In! 42 True Heroes of Horror Later....

I never like to have an idea without getting input from others.  And when I decided to share my True Heroes of Horror throughout the month of October, I knew I couldn't possibly honor everyone.  Thankfully, there are always Midnight Warriors out there to join the FMWL party.  A half dozen of my favorite folks on the interwebs offered up their own lists of their Top 10 Heroes of Horror...and the resulting mega list has me doing my patented fistpumpdance of joy.

First, let's recognize the awesome Midnight Warriors who added to this megalist....

• Morgan from the tubular The Kid in the Hall
• Marvin the Macabre from The Montana Mancave Massacre
• Christine M. from Paracinema Magazine
• Nicki from Hey! Look Behind You (See her full list here!)
• Christine H. from Fascination with Fear (See her full list here!)
• Andreas from Pussy Goes Grrr

I gotta say, these fine folks brought their best to the table, and are a testament to horror fans everywhere.  The names listed vary across hundreds of years, cover both genders, and are varied from authors to actors to TV hosts to directors.  Heck, they even named some folks I'd never even heard of.  Really.  I feel like a proper tool.

Between the six of them and the one of me, we listed 42 names.  And I'm going to share them all with you now. Names will be listed in alphabetical order, and the name of each voter will be shared in parentheses.

The following True Heroes of Horror received one vote each....

Clockwise from Top: Atkins, Lewton, Wood, Peterson, Pitt, Perkins.

Tom Atkins (Morgan), Clive Barker (Marvin), Joe Bob Briggs (The Mike), Poppy Z. Brite (Nicki), Lon Chaney Sr. (The Mike), Roger Corman (Andreas) (Note from The Mike: Corman was officially the last cut from my list; my #11.  Kills me to have left him off!), David Cronenberg (Andreas), Fred Dekker (Morgan), Guillermo del Toro (Marvin), Johnny Depp (Christine H.), Robert Englund (Morgan), Adam Green (Nicki), Herschell Gordon Lewis (Nicki), Val Lewton (Andreas), Takashi Miike (Nicki), Morgus the Magnificent (Nicki), Kim Newman (Andreas), Anthony Perkins (Christine H.), Cassandra Peterson (Nicki), Ingrid Pitt (Marvin), Roman Polanski (Andreas), Anne Rice (Christine H.), Susan Hill (Christine H.), Mary Shelley (Christine M.), Bram Stoker (Christine M.), James Whale (Andreas), Edward D. Wood, Jr. (Christine M.), Mary Woronov (Andreas).

That's 28 of our 42 right there, which means 14 folks received more than one vote.  Also, the fact that Mary Woronov got on to this list MAKES MY DAY.  I <3 Mary Woronov.

The following True Heroes of Horror received two votes each....

From Left to Right: Lugosi, Craven, Hitchcock, Argento

Dario Argento (Morgan, Christine H.), Bruce Campbell (The Mike, Morgan), Wes Craven (Morgan, Christine M.), Jamie Lee Curtis (The Mike, Morgan), Alfred Hitchcock (Christine H., Nicki), Boris Karloff (The Mike, Marvin), Christopher Lee (The Mike, Marvin), Bela Lugosi (Christine M., Andreas).

There go 8 more, leaving us with only 6 folks who received votes from three or more of our 7 voters.  A lot of my favorites are in here, and I expected many to do better. The Hitchcock thing makes me think too, because I argued with myself for days about whether he should be on my list.  Love the guy more than any filmmaker ever, but in the end I didn't feel his impact was specifically "horror".  Semantics can trip me up.  Anyway, glad to see others voting for him!

The following True Heroes of Horror received three votes each....

H.P. Lovecraft (Marvin, Christine M., Andreas), Tom Savini (Morgan, Marvin, Nicki.)

An interesting combination if I've ever seen one.  And I didn't vote for either of these guys, which makes them the top folks on the list who didn't make my ten.  And now, we've got just Four of our 42 folks left to name!

The following True Hero of Horror received 4 votes....

Vincent Price (The Mike, Marvin, Christine M., Christine H.)

I don't know why, but sometimes I get the feeling horror fans don't like Vincent Price any more.  Clearly that was not the case among our small sample of voters, as he gets the fourth most mentions of anyone.  I'm quite OK with that.

The following True Heroes of Horror received five votes each....

Stephen King (The Mike, Morgan, Marvin, Christine M., Christine H.), George A. Romero (The Mike, Morgan, Christine M., Christine H., Nicki)

For a while, it looked like Stephen King was gonna run away with this thing.  The first four lists I received had him on them, as did mine.  Then he dropped off to land in this tie for second.  It's also worth noting that it's me and the ladies of the internet who love Romero. Why's that worth noting? Because if you read the word "ladies" like Isaac Hayes would say it, then it makes The Mike sound cool.

And then....there was a True Hero of Horror who received six of a possible seven votes....

John Carpenter (The Mike, Marvin, Christine M., Christine H., Nicki, Andreas).

Like I said at the beginning...these results make me FISTPUMPDANCE.  John Carpenter might not have been #1 on my list (he might have been too, I was too scaredy-pants to pick a #1) but I have no problem with him winning the vote here.  It brings me happy.

As do all the Midnight Warriors out there!  I want to thank these fine folks for joining in the October fun, and I sincerely want to thank everyone who's watched the True Heroes of Horror train pass through FMWL this month! I've been truly humbled by all the comments and kind words about the posts, even if I haven't always been the best host and responded to them.  Y'all have helped remind me what I love about horror this month, and that's exactly why I keep writing this stuff.  Seriously, thank you all so much.

With that, the True Heroes of Horror experiment at FMWL has passed.  But for how long? I've had a blast putting my posts together, and it's quite possible I'll bring them back in the future for all the people I left off my list.  Ten is such a small number anyway, isn't it?  

Until next time, I'm The Mike, and you're all awesome.  Don't forget it, because Halloween is only 364 days away!

The Mike's True Heroes of Horror (8/10) - Vincent Price

As my own True Heroes of Horror list rolls to a close, the choices become much more obvious to me.  With three spots left, it's time to bring out some of horror's most revered names, starting with...

Vincent Price

Who is Vincent Price?

Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1911, the Vincent Price you know was actually the third in a line of very successful Vincent Prices.  His grandfather, also Vincent Price, invented a revolutionary baking powder and his father, Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., was the president of the National Candy Company.  In a way, that kind of makes the junior Price the Willy Wonka of the horror movie world.

Price left St. Louis for an education at Yale University in the 1930s, which is also when he first began acting on stage.  He got into film in 1938, but only sporadically appeared in horror films before his career as a horror star took off in the 1950s.  Price would stay active in schlocky genre roles - despite his education and his polite manner (check out this statement he made on racial and religious prejudice in 1950) - through most of the 1970s, and stayed as active as he could in television and film until his death from lung cancer in 1993.

Price is best known for....

Being the biggest star in horror for nearly a quarter-century.  From 1953's House of Wax to the Dr. Phibes films of the 1970s, Price made his mark on horror repeatedly.  Whether he was collaborating with a showman like William Castle or a low-budget maestro like Roger Corman, Price always commanded respect in the Gothic horror scene.

Other Horror Hits....

Price first got into the horror scene when he appeared with Boris Karloff in 1939's Tower of London, which was followed up by him getting the title role in the 1940 Universal Monster sequel The Invisible Man Returns.   After plenty of dramatic roles and several forays into film noir in the 1940s, it was House of Wax that established the horror genre as a money maker for the 1950s.  Price's star shot to the roof quickly, with The Fly and its sequel, House on Haunted Hill, and The Tingler all becoming hits by the end of the decade.

 In the '60s, Price spent a lot of time making Edgar Allan Poe adaptations with Corman, including The Pit and the Pendulum, Masque of the Red Death, and The Fall of the House of Usher.  Also in that span Price made a couple other favorites, the I Am Legend adaptation The Last Man on Earth and the inquisitive Witchfinder General.  The '70s brought a few more favorites via the American International Pictures banner, with modern/Gothic horror combos The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Theatre of Blood.  That's just a small sample of Price's horror output, but it's a good one.

So, why's Vincent Price here?

Price is kind of a funny horror icon to me.  On many days I wouldn't list any of his films in my Top 10 horror faves, and I think I might even struggle to fit him into the Top 25 sometimes.  But when it came time to make this list of people who represent great horror, he was one of the first two or three names I came up with.  What's up with that?

To me, Vincent Price is one of the few actors in the world who has the gift to raise the quality of any material he touches.  I am Legend is a fine example of this.  I love the book, and I gotta think it's one of the more "unfilmable" books I've ever read.  Megastars of the 1970s and 2000s (Charlton Heston and Will Smith, respectively) both got a shot at the story in different adaptations, and both had only limited success with the material and the one-man-show nature of the story.  But Price's turn in The Last Man on Earth - an extremely low budget European production of the story - seems almost effortless at times.  Few actors of his generation were as gifted in monologue as Price was, and his ability to step up and take over makes it the most interesting adaptation of Matheson's book.  Heck, I like the other movies well enough - but I don't think the competition is even close.

Other Price films of the '50s and '60s were wise to frame their own stories around Price's talents.  To the horror fan, House on Haunted Hill was an invitation into Price's home for an evening, and Vincent got to play the perfect host in almost the whole film.  Masque of the Red Death and The Pit and the Pendulum are only a couple of examples of films that focused entirely on Price while urging the audience to hate his character.  Amazingly, the audience complied - and still left the film happy that they got to see Price in action.  Witchfinder General turned him loose in a more straight-faced role as real-life witchhunter Matthew Hopkins, but even that film is as much about the Vincent Price experience than it is about the historical events that it's following.

According to many anecdotes, Price never really bought in to the horror genre like most horror fans do.  When I recently read Jason Zinoman's great take on horror of the 1970s, Shock Value, I was struck with a bit of sadness during a section that talks about Price losing a televised battle of wits to a scholar/censor who was set on condemning the horror genre to the world.  Price knew where his money came from and knew there was a loving audience for his work, but you kind of get the feeling that he knew what he was doing wasn't high art.

And yet, his performances never suffered.  Even in the '70s, when his brand of horror had clearly been surpassed - case in point being William Castle's ousting from Rosemary's Baby, a film that was supposed to star Price, in favor of Roman Polanski  - Price found movies that kept him relevant to modern audiences.  The Abominable Dr. Phibes (which might be my favorite Price film) is a perfect example, as it gives Price the same kind of macabre role we'd expect from him while moving the setting to modern day London.  It's a film that bases murders on the Biblical plagues, but at the same time it's a film that bought in to modern British humor and allowed Price to teeter on the brink between the new and old brands of horror cinema.  And Price - who spent most of the film emoting only with his eyes - turned the role into a horror icon with ease.  The same formula, with a few twists, worked a couple of years later for Theatre of Blood, which replaced the Bible with the works of Shakespeare and kept letting Price do his thing.

Despite a generational gap, many of today's horror fans have grown up recognizing Price as the face and voice of horror cinema.  A large bit of credit must be played to his voice cameo at the end of Michael Jackson's iconic Thriller video, but Price was more than willing to keep showing up on TV and other mediums until his death.  Despite any troubles he had with taking the genre he is known for seriously, Price's willingness to hold on to the image horror fans of the '50s-'70s once knew helped keep the horror films that preceded Rosemary's Baby and its sort alive.  Even if those films aren't my favorite horror films, they often provide the best Midnight snack, and I'm extremely grateful that Vincent Price was willing to dedicate more than 40 years of his life to horror fans around the world.

Even if it was occasionally a pain in the neck.

The 30 (Horror) Movies, 6 Words Each List

Ah, lists. One of my favorite Midnight Warriors, E from Shredded Cheddar, introduced me to a simple 30 movie meme that made me think quite a bit.  Of course, I made the thing a little more difficult than it needed to be...because I made the list (which was designed for all genres) all about horror movies.

Oh, and I only got to use six words on each movie. To a rambler like myself, that's kinda torturous.  

So, here's thirty movies in thirty categories. I tried to pick movies I haven't covered extensively here...most of the time.  Take a gander, and steal freely if you like!

 The 30 Movies, 6 Words Each List

#1 -- One of Your Favorite Movies

(But Not Your Favorite Favorite)

The Exorcist

Overrated? No. As good as advertised.

#2 -- A Movie You Hate

(Or Just Plain Really, Really Don't Like)

Halloween 2

Zombie's insulting vision makes me rage.

#3 -- A Movie You Watch With Friends

The Monster Squad

The ultimate in monster fan adventure.

#4 -- A Movie That Pleasantly Surprised You

Zombieland

Tired of zombies, but had fun.

#5 -- A Movie That Disappointed You Terribly

The Haunting

Was 18, not smart enough yet.

#6 -- A Movie from Your Childhood

The Phantom of the Opera

Learned of monsters, learned to read.

#7 -- A Movie from Your Childhood That You Hated

Pumpkinhead

Slow, bad acting. Better with age.

#8 -- A Movie You Watched on a Date

A Perfect Getaway

Well, I still dig the movie.

#9 -- A Party Movie

Feast

Unpredictable and silly, provides many laughs.

#10 -- An Action Movie

The Mummy

Better than Karloff? In a way.

#11 -- A Comedy

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini

Everything a drive-in party flick needs.

#12 -- A Romantic Comedy

Night of the Creeps

A girl with a flamethrower? Schwing!

#13 -- A Thriller

Copycat

Serial Killer 101 with great actresses.

#14 -- A Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie

The Last Man on Earth

Less science than Matheson's masterful book.

#15 -- An Indie Film

Humanoids from the Deep

Corman produced trash. Slimy, vile, fun.

#16 -- A Documentary/Biopic

Halloween: 25 Years of Terror

Fine tribute to the real Myers.

#17 -- A Musical

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Coulda been my "surprised you" pick.

#18 -- An Adaptation of a Book, TV Series, Etc.

The Dead Zone

Walken in a telepathic wonder land.

#19 -- A Movie Made before 1967

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Gill man versus ladies swimwear? Sweet.

#20 -- A Worthy Sequel/Remake/Reboot

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Dokken, Langenkamp, Fishburne, Dokken, Arquette, Dokken.

#21 -- A Sequel/Remake/Reboot That Wasn't Worth the Celluloid It Was Filmed On

Day of the Dead

Nothing worth praising. Nothing at all.

#22 -- A Movie That Made You Cry

The Mist

No tears, actually. But emotionally draining.

#23 -- A Movie You Walked Out Of

(Or Straight Up Stopped Watching)

Antichrist

I think I'm allergic to pretension.

#24 -- A Movie You Watch for Comfort Food

Horror of Dracula

Lee and Cushing, beauty and chills.

#25 -- A Well-Liked Movie That You Don't Care For

Insidious

Can't believe people fell for that.

#26 -- A Movie You Love That Many Do Not

The Devil Rides Out

Heroic Christopher Lee versus the occult.

#27 -- A Movie You Can Quote Extensively

Army of Darkness

Hail to the King, Midnight Warriors.

#28 -- A Movie with a Celebrity Crush

Dracula A.D. 1972

Caroline Munro, you complete The Mike.

#29 -- The Last Movie You Watched

Final Destination 3

Stupid, but William Castle would approve.

#30 -- Another Favorite That's Not Your Favorite Movie

The Blob

Like I wasn't gonna say that.