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‘Now is the winter of our discontent’
Theater of Blood is another classic you can watch on Amazon Prime,
a horror comedy that was apparently a personal favourite of both its stars,
horror icon Vincent Price.
‘You see’
and the great Diana Rigg, who died last year.
‘You’ll find we’ve made some alterations in the text and one rather large cut.’
The plot is simple, Price’s aging actor sets out to take bloody revenge on the critics he feels have wronged him.
There’s no more to it than that and yet it is fabulously entertaining
thanks to its bloodily inventive set pieces, and some quite brilliant performing.
‘An opinion I find myself incapable of sharing.’
Only Price is capable of making horror this sincere and this funny.
‘One is reminded irresistibly of a ham sandwich’
But he is more than ably backed up,
this is one of those rare films that you feel you could review just by reading the cast list;
Michael Hodern.
‘That damned editor cut the best part of my review’
Jack Hawkins,
Robert Morely.
‘Oh my God, I think Georgina’s going to fate.’
Arthur Lowe,
and more.
‘Did I write that?’
Dennis Price there.
Even once you’ve got past the who’s who of British character acting at the time,
you’ve got former glamour girl Diana Dors.
‘A wee rub’ll make it feel better.’
Bond girl Madeleine Smith,
‘George Maxwell is dead’
Comic legend Eric Sykes.
And I guarantee that someone will chastise me in the comments section for leaving out their personal favourite.
This is a wealth of talent,
throwing themselves into the tongue in cheek humour.
‘What about my wretched wife?’
and the grand guignol horror.
‘Basin’
Make no mistake, just because this is comedy, doesn’t mean it skimps on the gore.
Price’s Edward Lionheart takes inspiration from Shakespeare,
‘In Cymbeline she wakes up and finds a headless body in bed with her.’
and if you haven’t read any since school then this is a timely reminder that these plays are violent.
It’s not a story with a lot of twists and turns, it’s not a story with a lot of character development,
and these are usually things on which I would pick,
but this is simply entertaining and a master class in performance.
‘Oh pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth.’
I’m tempted to say there is no one who plays that tricky combination of comedy and horror as well as Vincent Price.
Even in the silliest of scenes.
‘Who’s this great big beautiful thing with you’
He remains a very believable threat.
'Go on kill me then.'
‘I’ll kill you when I am ready.’
The film has obvious comparisons to The Abominable Dr Phibes, made a few years earlier,
but personally, this is the one I prefer,
it’s just a joy to watch Price cut loose.
‘The dragon wing of night o’erspreads the earth.’
Although, as a sort of a critic, it does worry me a little.
‘Critics are likely to make enemies, inspector’
I wonder if David Fincher’s seen that review of Mank.
Thanks for watching. Critics do upset people, what film reviews have irritated you
and what are your favourite Vincent Price performances? Let us know in the comments below.