The Vincent Price Movie Review

aka From a Whisper to a Scream
Released in 1987
Directed by Jeff Burr

The Offspring is a horror anthology movie from the late 1980’s that Vincent Price starred in at the tail end of his career. It’s the last horror movie he made, in fact. The Offspring is in the similar vein as other horror anthologies of the 80’s like Creepshow and Tales From the Crypt which feature sordid characters and twist endings. The largest difference is that The Offspring does not offer any lighthearted black comedy; it’s gruesome and unrelenting.

The movie is made up of four separate story segments that each take place in the same town of Oldfield Tennessee, but at different periods in time. The segments are wrapped together by another story that stars Vincent Price as the narrator of the tales. Price plays Julian White, a chronicler of Oldfield’s lurid history who relates the horrible stories to a visiting journalist that is covering the execution of Julian’s niece. Even though there isn’t much of a purpose to the wrapper story besides narration, it’s kind of nice to see a horror anthology that actually ties all the separate elements together in some way.

Since each of the segments in this film have a twist ending, I will try to refrain from spoiling the fun by limiting the details of my review.

The first segment stars veteran actor Clu Gulager as Stanley Burnside, who is a creepy guy that lives with his invalid sister in their old family house. Most of the segment deals with Stanley’s desire to court one of his female coworkers, and his subsequent inability to cope with the rejection amid hints of incest. I found that I enjoyed this segment mostly due to Gulager’s portrayal of Stanley. The performance of Miriam Byrd-Nethery, his wife in the film and in real life, was equally creepy. You’ll probably be wondering what the twist ending is by the time you get towards the end of the story because nothing is really withheld from the viewer up to that point. Let me just say that this movie was made in the late 80’s during the days of the cute monster horror movies like Ghoulies and Gremlins.

Moving on…

The second segment is probably my favorite out of all four. It opens with a sleazy guy named Jesse Hardwick(Terry Kiser) being ambushed in his trailer by a couple of heavies who are shooting to kill. In his frantic escape attempt he gets shot up pretty bad, but manages to make it to a boat at the edge of a swamp. He wakes up several days later in a shack owned by a hermit who lives there in the swamp. Despite being grievously injured, he survives and learns more about the peculiar old guy who saved him. While the old hermit is out hunting for mushrooms one night, Jesse discovers a journal that leads him to believe the hermit is over a hundred years old and possesses the secret to everlasting life. After secretly watching the hermit perform some witchcraft ceremonies, Jesse believes he has found the ingredients that grant the power over death. He asks the old man to teach him the secret, but gets frustrated when the hermit seems to be only showing him phony tricks instead of the real thing. Being the treacherous degenerate that he is, Jesse tries to murder the old man and steal his potions, but you can’t murder someone who is immune to death. Jesse finds out that there are fates worst than death, however.

The third segment is a somewhat bizarre story about a group of circus freaks. The circus is run by a magic-using circus master, who actually grants the freaks’ powers. She also uses her magic as a threat against the circus workers who want to escape. The story focuses on one particular freak called the Glass Eater. This is the guy who eats glass, of course, but he also munches on nails, razorblades, and other sharp objects. After he falls in love with a young girl, the Glass Eater tries to escape from the circus to be with his lover. The circus master finds out, and decides to enact some extremely gory punishment on both of them. Let’s just say the Glass Eater certainly ate a lot of sharp objects during his tenure, but he didn’t necessarily digest all of them. The story ends on an upside: his girlfriend gets a new job at the circus.

I liked this third story the least out of the four. The acting is pretty weak.

The last segment goes back in time to the civil war period, when Oldfield was just being founded. I think the premise is interesting and somewhat terrifying. Imagine travelling to the war-torn South, and stumbling upon a small town where there are no inhabitants but children; all the adults have been killed in the war. Having witnessed the full brutality of war, the children are so traumatized and desensitized to violence that they use dead soldiers’ body parts as toys to play with. I realize this theme has been tried many times with Children of the Corn, etc, but I find this particular story has more impact because it actually could have happened. (or at least certain aspects of it)

Even though Vincent Price doesn’t have much to do in his last horror movie, I would still recommend giving it a try. Be aware that this is 1980’s horror material here…there’s definitely a cheese-factor mixed with a fair amount of gore.

If you are trying to find this on DVD it will be titled From a Whisper to a Scream.

Released in 1970
Directed by Gordon Hessler

“smells like cheese, looks like ham, tastes like chicken…”

Oh my lord. This is the most god awful movie I have ever seen. Hmmm, I wonder who could have made such a terrible movie, let’s see….yep it’s Gordon Hessler…again. Not satisfied with the incredible stinkbomb that was The Oblong Box, Hessler manages to actually make a movie that’s even worse! Let me reassure you, this movie is not bad in a good way - it’s just all bad.

Well, almost all bad. At least it has Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing in it. Vincent Price has a small role, but Lee and Cushing only have a few lines each. Their characters are basically unnecessary.

But let’s get back to the bad stuff:

This script is totally fragmented. It’s as if someone randomly interchanged the scenes from three different movies and spliced them all together in a confused jumble. So there’s a mad doctor who cuts people up and assembles a totally new human out of a combination of different parts. There’s a psychotic maniac who strangles women and sucks their blood. There’s some officer of a faux Soviet country that uses a Vulcan neck pinch to murder people. There’s an extremely long and unnecessary car chase. Bleh. In the end they do their best to try and mesh all the plot lines together but it ain’t happening. Not even Vincent Price can save this movie.

I don’t care much for the directing either. Hessler has this style where he shoots a lot of awkward close-ups. He does it over and over and it’s annoying. Combined with the constant shaky camera it actually makes the film somewhat nauseating. Also there are a lot of scenes where it’s too dark to even see what’s going on. It probably doesn’t matter that you can’t see them though, because about 1/3 of the scenes in this movie have no relationship with the “plot” anyway.

I am seriously not looking forward to viewing Hessler’s next collaboration with Price. (Cry of the Banshee) If it’s as bad as Scream and Scream Again and The Oblong Box I might consider egging Hessler’s house.

Please, for the love of God, do not watch this movie under any circumstances. There are so many better movies with Vincent Price in them.

Released in 1940
Directed by Joe May

“we’ve got orders to shoot on sight”

“i thought you said he was invisible!?”

The Invisible Man Returns was Vincent Price’s fourth movie. Some say it was Price’s first venture into the horror genre, but that is debatable; it is more of a sci-fi thriller than a horror flick. This movie is the first sequel to the original Invisible Man. Unlike most sequels, however, The Invisible Man Returns is a good movie. Technically Vincent Price is the main character, but we don’t actually see his face until the last scene in the film. His presence is mostly established by his unique voice acting.

So how does Vincent Price become the next invisible man?

Geoffrey Radcliffe (Price) is fortunate enough to be close friends with a certain Dr. Frank Griffin (John Sutton), who just happens to be the brother of the original Invisible Man. Dr. Griffin discovers his brother’s formula for duocaine, the chemical that causes loss of color in humans. (and guinea pigs!) When Radcliffe is found guilty of murdering his brother, Dr. Griffin slips him the vanishing cream just in time to escape the execution. Radcliffe manages to get away, but is dismayed by the knowledge that duocaine causes gradual madness. While Radcliffe searches for his brother’s true killer and evades Scotland Yard, Dr. Griffin works frantically in his lab trying to discover an antidote for duocaine before his friend degenerates into a lunatic.

While all this is happening, we are continually treated to the numerous special effects employed to create the illusion of an invisible man. For a movie of its age I was expecting some fairly cheesy effects, but was surprised by how well executed they were. The effects, although not jaw dropping for a jaded modern viewer, are still neat to watch. IMDB lists this movie as being nominated for an Academy Award for Special Effects.

The cast and script are both good as well. I enjoyed pretty much every performance in the film, even the supporting cast. Vincent Price’s voice acting is superb, and he displays a wide range of characterization in his lines. He goes from frantic fugitive to self-deprecating lover to vengeful ghost to insane babbler to ordinary Geoffrey, while managing to infuse his character with a sympathetic quality. John Sutton puts on a good show as Dr. Griffin. Sutton is similar to Price in that he possessed a distinctive voice. You might recognize him if you are a Vincent Price fan because they acted in a lot of movies together. Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Nan Grey give notable performances as well.

Vincent Price’s first horror movie? Maybe. Vincent Price’s first sci-fi thriller? Yes. Either way you should watch this movie.

Released in 1962
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Leo Gordon, F. Amos Powell, and Robert E. Kent

“Strange that they died so easily, with their struggles no more than sparrows in the teeth of a fox.”

So, it’s 23 years later and we find Vincent Price in a second Tower of London movie. This time around he plays Richard III, and he is out for revenge for getting unceremoniously dumped in the vat of malmsy in 1939.

Although this version of the Richard III story is more simplified, it might help if you read the brief synopsis I posted on the earlier Tower of London review. Basically, Richard is the youngest brother of King Edward IV, and to attain the crown he must kill off all his brothers and their children. (which he does!) Corman and the writers chose to give the story more of a horror slant, with emphasis on ghosts, occult, and torture.

The movie starts off fairly well, but the first thing you notice is how low budget everything appears. It’s not even shot in color like most of the other Corman-Price pictures. It looks like for the battle scenes they actually used footage from the 1939 Tower of London.

I feel a bit ambivalent about Vincent Price’s performance. He does deliver some good scenes, but it seemed like the majority of his lines were overly ham-infested. Some of his histrionic reactions to the ghost visits gave me an unexpected chuckle. But in fairness to Price, this screenplay doesn’t give him much to work with; it’s the weakest part of this whole production. Price made dozens of low budget movies and the ones that worked had solid scripts.

My favorite scene from the movie has to be when Richard III tortures Buckingham. He doesn’t just stretch Buckingham out on the rack; Richard has something more terrifying than that! He chains Buckingham’s arms and places a tight-fitting metal box with lid around his head and neck. Then Richard drops a large, ravenous rat into the box and locks the lid. The rat casually snacks on Buckingham’s face until he dies. Gruesome! The movie would have been much better if more scenes like this were included.

The thing that really disappoints me about this movie is that the Richard III role could have been Vincent Price’s best dramatic vehicle. The character of Richard III is perfect for him. It was almost like Shakespeare saw all of Price’s movies and went back in time and wrote this character just for him to play. Price excelled at portraying complex villains who could unexpectedly evoke the viewer’s sympathy.

This 1962 version of Tower of London is somewhat forgettable. If you’re in the mood for Richard III I would recommend watching the 1939 version of this movie instead. It’s a better movie and both have Vincent Price in them. If you want to watch a good horror movie starring Vincent Price then pick one of his many other much better horror films.

Released in 1939
Directed by Rowland V. Lee
Written by Robert N. Lee
Based on Shakespeare’s Richard III

“Marry your enemies and behead your friends”

Tower of London was Vincent Price’s third movie right after he did Elizabeth and Essex. It is based somewhat on Shakespeare’s Richard III play, which I read for the first time before viewing this movie. Starring alongside Vincent Price are Basil Rathbone as Richard and Boris Karloff as Mord, his menacing executioner henchman. The plot, like the original play, is somewhat convoluted and involves many side characters. If you haven’t been exposed to British historical legends or aren’t familiar with the play, you will probably find yourself a little confused as to what is going on in the movie. Some dramatic license is taken as well. A brief background:

The events take place during the last part of the War of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster. On the York side are the brothers Edward, Clarence, and Richard. On the Lancaster side is Henry VI and his son, the Prince of Wales, and Henry Tutor who is in exile in France. Richard III is the younger brother of King Edward IV, who claimed the throne from the mentally incompetent King Henry VI. Richard III wants the throne for himself, but there are many people ahead of him in the line to be king. The first is King Edward IV, his brother. Then next in line are Edward IV’s two sons. After that is the Duke of Clarence, Richard’s older brother. Another strong claim on the throne comes from the Prince of Wales, Henry VI’s son.
To ascend to the throne Richard III must do away with all of these people; British history lesson concluded.

Well, let’s get back to the movie. Putting Karloff, Rathbone, and Price all together in a film is a good idea. I think the only other movie with all three of them was The Comedy of Terrors. Rathbone and Karloff both know how to play creepy and sinister, and they do so with good effect in this movie. Rathbone portrays Richard with an icy confidence. This is highlighted thoughout the movie but in particular when Richard is murderously musing over his little throne room dolls, plotting the death of each person with a sneer. (For some reason his appearance kept reminding me of Spock, from Star Trek. Rathbone would have made a good Vulcan.) The role of Mord seems to be created just for Karloff. It’s a brutish, lurching, frankenstein looking character who delights in the torture and murder of others. Vincent Price plays the Duke of Clarence, who in this movie is portrayed as effete and cowardly. His favorite activities include whining and drinking malmsy wine. One of my favorite parts in the film is when Richard and Clarence agree to have a drinking contest to determine the ownership of some disputed territory between them. Awesome.

The supporting cast is somewhat forgettable. John Sutton is okay as Wyatt. (he was in half a dozen movies with Vincent Price) Ian Hunter as Edward IV is not bad.

It’s an old movie, but it’s worth seeing.

There was another Tower of London movie made in 1962 starring Vincent Price as Richard.