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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Bad Movies  |  House of Long Shadows « previous next »
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Author Topic: House of Long Shadows  (Read 1953 times)
Vermin Boy
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« on: September 14, 2002, 12:32:36 AM »

I just watched this 1980s haunted house/slasher flick. Overall, it was nothing too great, but pretty enjoyable throughout, largely due to the presences of Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine (and Desi Arnaz Jr., but that's beside the point). Carradine isn't given much to do, and Cushing seems a little confused, but Price and Lee are great, giving their trademark over-the-top performances (the highlight of the movie has to be when Lee calls Price "b***h." Not "a b***h," mind you, "b***h.")

One gripe though: At the end, there's a major, pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you plot twist, which I was okay with... Until five minutes later, when there was another, completely unrelated pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you plot twist that negates the first. I mean, if you're going to have two twist endings, at least give the viewer some time to accept the first one before springing the next. It's like having a character wake up and realize it was all a dream, then waking up and realizing that the previous realization was a dream, too.
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John
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« Reply #1 on: September 14, 2002, 03:55:25 AM »

Is this the one where a girl splashes water on her face from a bowl and it turns out to be acid or am I thinking of something else?
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Steven Millan
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« Reply #2 on: September 14, 2002, 04:11:10 AM »

                        Yeah,Vermin,I fully agree with you about this Golan/Globus-produced film with the coolest vintage horror cast,and the maestro of British splatter surprisingly mellowing out his balls-out style,and that ending was copied(very poorly)by 1986's "April Fools' Day"(one of the 80s all-time Worst slasher flicks).
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BoyScoutKevin
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« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2002, 01:48:21 PM »

Carradine + Price = "The Monster Club" Price + Lee = "The Oblong Box" Lee + Cushing = "The Horror of Dracula" plus numerous others. Cushing + Price "Madhouse" And Cushing + Lee + Price = "Scream and Scream Again" But, this is the only film were all four of them would appear in the same film. Plus Richard Todd, who was the title character in "The Story of Robin Hood" and you have a fan of this film for life.
As for the ending, this might be a case of the film following the source matter too closely, as the movie is based on a play called "Seven Keys to Baldpate" written in 1917 by George M. Cohan. (And yes, that George M. Cohan.)
And the only one still living is Christopher Lee. No wonder he is still in such demand. The last of the old time villains. And today's films are much lesser for that.  Enjoy!
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Cullen
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« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2002, 01:53:23 PM »

"Is this the one where a girl splashes water on her face from a bowl and it turns out to be acid or am I thinking of something else?"

I believe so, though it's in my mind that there's more than one movie with that scene.

God, do I hate this movie!  What. A. Waste.  If only that ending wasn't there.  Either of them!  Gah!

Oh well.  Not like I have to ever watch it again, or anything.

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Cullen - Super Genius, Novelist, and all in all Great Guy.
peter johnson
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« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2002, 02:02:15 AM »

The Baldpate Inn is just up the road here in Estes Park, Colorado.   Yes, it is indeed the same Inn the play was placed in. They do get much mileage out of the connection.
I anticipated this film so very much & was so very disappointed, not the least by the mush-mouthed accent that Cushing was asked to do for his character.  I mean, here you have one of the premiere speakers of the English tongue at your disposal, & you ask him to speak as if he's negotiating golf-balls in his mouth?!?!
Still, I did like to see them all together . . .
Who do we have today to match their stature?
Speaking of stature, I had occasion to watch Boris Karloff in Black Sabbath again recently.  Good lord . . . that man could get a whole scene from a single glance . . .
peter johnson
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Flangepart
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« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2002, 03:14:05 PM »

Cushing...Lee...Karloff.....Holm....its offical. When you want good acting on in a b-movie, hire Brits. Its all that stage experiance between flicks that tightens the old acting muscles, i think.....

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"Aggressivlly eccentric, and proud of it!"
peter johnson
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« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2002, 01:03:28 AM »

That, frankly, is a damn good observation.
I once wrote to Molly Sugden, of "Are You Being Served", and complimented her on her delivery & "takes" & suggested that she must have had some theatrical training of pretty high caliber.  She wrote back with a very lengthy letter that I have framed here in my living room . . . "television was in its infancy then.  I did study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as did so many of my contemporaries . . ." etc. etc.
Christopher Lee studied in numerous places, but I think his stint as a member of British Intelligence (Covert assassinations & etc.) in North Africa during WW2 (See his auto-bio "Tall Dark & Gruesome") is as informative to his horror portrayals as anything else.
What I believe it boils down to in the case of the British actors per se, is a deep sense of world history & a culture that values being widely read.  If you ask a gas-station attendant about a local ruin in Britain, even the most toothless & seemingly dim attendant will be able to give you at least 300 years worth of who shot who & why.  This is not as common over here.   Not to minimise some very good American actors, but a sense of culture is simply not valued in American acting.  "Feeling", for good or ill, is valued over knowledge.  Deeper knowledge of history & the human condition gives anyone a wider palate from which to draw one's paints when attempting a portrait.  Put another way, listening to the lowest member of the British lower classes read to his children a bedtime story is a richer experience than seeing many American films, because the sense of characterization is ingrained in them all culturally from the word "go".  We have lost our oral/storytelling traditions pretty much over here, & the ability of parents to read aloud to their children is diminshed.  Thus our innate ability to act is gone as well.  Not so with the Brits.
peter johnson
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