The delightfully devious, deliciously devilish Vincent Price is a consummate horror actor, and while he was featured in many non-genre efforts, particularly earlier in his career, like his excellent roles in film noir melodramas and mysteries like Laura, Dragonwyck and Leave Her To Heaven as well as westerns like The Baron of Arizona, he often portrayed a villain, Hollywood taking advantage of the sinister undertones with which he could imbue the most syrupy sincere line. From his iconic string of Edgar Allan Poe films with Roger Corman to juicy, madcap ghoulish pictures like Theatre of Blood and The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Price is hands-down one of the greatest actors in the horror genre and fully deserving of the legendary status he has achieved.
I thought for this jaunt into the Sultan of Satanic Suave, I’d dig into the nooks and crannies of Price’s career to unearth a few films that folks may not be as familiar with. So without further ado, let us dim the lights, grab some popcorn and sink our fangs into something juicy.
The Bat (1959)
A noted mystery writer rents a house that harbors dark secrets. Will she survive the night!? The Bat, a remake of a remake, is mostly a pretty standard old dark house mystery but with an unusually high body count setting it apart from many of the hoary old thrillers of the ’30s and ’40s of which it most resembles. In fact, the masked killer murders with such alarming regularity that it almost feels like a proto-proto-slasher. Unfortunately like many slashers, it’s also fairly easy to predict who the killer is. Still, you could do a lot worse although honestly I may prefer the 1930 version The Bat Whispers due to its very good cinematography.
The Horror Hall of Fame (1974)
This is a TV special hosted by Vincent Price and ostensibly a combination of talk show and clip show with Price interviewing various guests like John Astin and John Carradine interspersed with Price introducing clips from various “hall of fame” horror films, from the early Universal monster features to The Exorcist. Price is pleasantly delightful to watch in full ham mode slinging puns like nobody’s business, and his interview with Carradine reminiscing about their first film appearances is genuinely delightful with them conversing like old friends. For big fans of Price and other classic horror, this is actually a pretty decent watch if you can stand the cheesiness of the whole affair.
Once Upon a Midnight Scary (1979)
Once Upon a Midnight Scary was a TV movie aimed more at children with adaptations of the kid-lit classics “The Ghost That Belonged to Me” and “House with a Clock in its Walls” (which of course just got a big budget adaptation courtesy of horror bro Eli Roth) and the Washington Irving classing story “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. “The Ghost…” and “House with a Clock…” both play out like episodes of Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark with some pretty cheesy effects (although I mean… it’s a 1979 TV movie so that’s expected), but they are still fine for what they are. “Sleepy Hollow” is distractingly hilarious though in large part due to the incredibly ridiculous, effeminate Ichabod Crane who the director apparently wanted to be as lame and foppish as possible. The actual horror element isn’t really executed all that well, but it’s still worth a watch for folks who like bad movies.
The Three Musketeers (1948)
While this isn’t one of Price’s horror pictures, it’s a fine example of Price in full villainous splendor as the dastardly, underhanded Richelieu. Price is in top form as his craven cardinal seeks to unfold his malicious machinations. The film as a whole is a little spotty as an adaptation though giving some of character development short shift. Having said that, I will say it’s a fun flick if you like your spry swordplay. Gene Kelly in particular adds such a sense of fun to the proceedings that it’s almost worth it for him alone.
Escapes (1986)
Escapes is an oddly subdued anthology that creates one of those weird paradoxes where the wraparound in the movie has the movie as a VHS itself being sent to a character, creating some kind of odd echo chamber of Vincent Price introducing lazy shorts that don’t even seem to want to be scary. “Coffee Break” for instance doesn’t really amount to much beyond a crusty diner employee trying to get a guy to slow down and drink some coffee. And that’s pretty much it. A couple of the stories attempt to be vaguely scary like “Who’s There” but fails miserably. Honestly, the wraparound segment is sadly the best thing about this half-assed effort.
An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe (1970)
To cap off a successful run of Poe collaborations with Roger Corman, Vincent Price starred in this no-frills TV special (originally intended as an on-going series, it didn’t get picked up). Here Price gives us four Poe tales: “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Sphynx”, “The Pit & The Pendulum” and “The Cask of Amontillado”, and really what you get here is pure unadorned Price at his teeth-gnashing, scenery-chewing finest. Not many actors can hold my attention by themselves without much else besides a few stagey props, but Price shines.
The Monster Club (1981)
In the ’60s as Price began to take his career less seriously and embrace his genre work fully, he began to appear in more comedies like Beach Party, Dr. Goldfoot and as Egghead in the Batman ’66 TV series as well as horror comedies like Comedy of Terrors and Bloodbath at the House of Death. With The Monster Club coming pretty late in his career, Price once again leans into the comedy a little with a role as an oddly polite and genteel vampire. Price pulls it off admirably by actually keeping the scenery chewing dialed down a little and layering on the charm. Incidentally it’s the only time Price ever played a vampire if you can believe it! The film as a whole is a decent, entertaining swansong for Amicus anthology horror with a nice mix of styles from gothic love story to tongue-in-cheek dark humor to straight up grim horror. It’s not one of Amicus’ best but for fans of of their anthology films, you’ll still have a good time seeing old favorites like Price, John Carradine and Donald Pleasance all making appearances.
Madhouse (1974)
Madhouse is a nice little proto-slasher with a dash of meta-horror starring Price as a horror actor (a stretch I know) who’s accused of murdering his wife and institutionalized. Years later when he gets out, more murders start happening in the style of the deaths in his films. Is he subconsciously responsible or is something more sinister at play? Price is very good here playing both the overly theatrical actor he’s more known for as well as a more tired, disillusioned person who’s afraid their past is coming back to haunt them. He shows a subtlety in some scenes here that I don’t often see with Price making this one well worth a watch for fans of Price and general horror fans alike.