I was sick at home yesterday, and I found this Vincent Price flick on the tube. In style, it's much like Phibes. It's a mixture of horror and black comedy, in which Price plays a hammy actor, believed dead, who sets out to kill his critics using methods taken from Shakespeare. It's an interesting movie, being quite gruesome and very funny at the same time.
Ken Begg likes this better than either Phibes movie, but I really like "The Abominable Dr. Phibes." Still, this has a fun performance by Price - again killing artfully, and a cast of weird characters. Stuffy critics and groundlings galore.
Never offer up a pound of flesh...
A classic. I have a friend whose mother forbade him to see it for the longest time because she had been traumatized by it when she was younger (apparently thanks to the dog-cooking scene). Interestingly, I watched it with my mom, and she absolutely loved it; the dog scene was her favorite part!
Really, how can you not love a movie featuring Vincent Price doing backflips off trampolines and swinging a sword around while reciting Shakespeare with a Swedish accent (even if it is a stunt double)?
Talk about black humor!
Dark indeed, but full of cheesy goodness. Robert Morely was the critic why got the "Titus" treatment, i think. Hummm....now there is a great movie name. Morely was always fun. A man who knew how to deliver a line with style. Ah, we could use him today....well, okey...we could use all the dearly departed today...it just reminds me of how many good B actors and actresses we can still enjoy on tape or dvd.
He also wrote. Did a book about "Clangers" once. A brit expression of "Bloopers". Good book.
(even if it is a stunt double)?
You mean that someone else is reading Shakespeare with a Sweidh accent?
I found the beheading to be the most disturbing scene, even though no real gore was shown, and it was done with a touch of humour. Just the image of a couple of nuts in surgical gowns creeping into a bedroom, drugging a sleeping couple and sawing the guy's head off with his wife sleeping right next to him. Ewwww! The soft music made it all the more creepy.
I thought the dog scene was really funny, and I'm a dog lover. As soon as the detective learns what happens in Titus, you know it's coming, and they just play it for all it's worth, with the guy savouring every morsal. Mind you, those big chunks of meat hardly look they could have come from a toy poodle. Looked more like turkey breast to me.
This is a very neat film. I'm sure there is nobody who dis-likes it. I also liked it better than the Dr. Phibes films.
Excellent movie! Even better than the second Phibes film, which still is one of my favourite flicks starring Price. Ahhh, Price killing following Shakespeare writings...
Ahh... Diana Rigg....