Every creative artist’s favorite anti-critic movie, as poorly reviewed Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart gruesomely avenges himself on those who panned him. Probably the classiest of Vincent Price’s late career vehicles, in which he’s supported by the cream of British character actor royalty. Beautifully shot by Wolfgang Suzchitzky with a memorably contrapuntal romantic score by Michael J. Lewis, nuanced direction by Douglas Hickcox and a wittily literate script by Anthony Greville-Bell. Similar to Price’s Dr. Phibes murder sprees, but far less cartoony and more emotionally affecting. Apologies for the poor quality of this trailer (with Danish subtitles yet) but it’s the only one we could find in the correct ratio with the narration intact.
The post Theater of Blood appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Theater of Blood appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 9/18/2020
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
By Hank Reineke
Basil Dearden’s intriguing The Man Who Haunted Himself is a feature-length remake of a thirty-minute televised episode of Alfred Hitchcock’s Presents. That episode - from the 1955 program’s first season - had the distinction of having been directed by the maestro of suspense himself. It was one of only a handful of dramas in the series that Hitchcock chose to helm. The episode was based on Anthony Armstrong’s short story (later novelized) “The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham” (Methuen & Co. Ltd., UK, 1957). The book was later published that very same year in the U.S. as part of Doubleday & Co.’s fabled “Crime Club” series.
Armstrong’s psychological thriller had been originally published in the November 1940 issue of Esquire magazine. The short story was later re-sold and re-published in June 1955 as part of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine… which is likely where Hitchcock became acquainted with it.
Basil Dearden’s intriguing The Man Who Haunted Himself is a feature-length remake of a thirty-minute televised episode of Alfred Hitchcock’s Presents. That episode - from the 1955 program’s first season - had the distinction of having been directed by the maestro of suspense himself. It was one of only a handful of dramas in the series that Hitchcock chose to helm. The episode was based on Anthony Armstrong’s short story (later novelized) “The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham” (Methuen & Co. Ltd., UK, 1957). The book was later published that very same year in the U.S. as part of Doubleday & Co.’s fabled “Crime Club” series.
Armstrong’s psychological thriller had been originally published in the November 1940 issue of Esquire magazine. The short story was later re-sold and re-published in June 1955 as part of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine… which is likely where Hitchcock became acquainted with it.
- 7/12/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
(This review pertains to the UK Region 2 DVD release).
By Tim Greaves
Normal 0 false false false En-Us X-none X-none
I first encountered Lionel Jeffries’ 1973 melodrama Baxter! during the summer of 1978 on what I believe to be its one and only British television airing by the BBC. Its conspicuous absence on video in the UK – and, until 2014, DVD – meant that, for me, some 36 years elapsed between viewings. A small, and in many respects not particularly memorable film, it nevertheless stayed with me over the intervening years for, I think, two reasons. The first was its unexpectedly dark nature, which completely caught me off guard given the family friendly nature of the director’s previous films, The Railway Children and The Amazing Mr Blunden; best remembered for his myriad of on-screen performances, Baxter! was in fact the third of only five projects which positioned Jeffries on the other side of the camera.
By Tim Greaves
Normal 0 false false false En-Us X-none X-none
I first encountered Lionel Jeffries’ 1973 melodrama Baxter! during the summer of 1978 on what I believe to be its one and only British television airing by the BBC. Its conspicuous absence on video in the UK – and, until 2014, DVD – meant that, for me, some 36 years elapsed between viewings. A small, and in many respects not particularly memorable film, it nevertheless stayed with me over the intervening years for, I think, two reasons. The first was its unexpectedly dark nature, which completely caught me off guard given the family friendly nature of the director’s previous films, The Railway Children and The Amazing Mr Blunden; best remembered for his myriad of on-screen performances, Baxter! was in fact the third of only five projects which positioned Jeffries on the other side of the camera.
- 9/30/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
UK horror fans are getting treated to a Blu-ray release of Vincent Price’s Theatre of Blood next month thanks to Arrow Video and we have all the details on the upcoming release. Not only will there be a standard edition that’s loaded with bonus features, but a limited edition steelbook has also been produced and we have a look at it below.
“It’s never been tougher to be a critic than in Theatre of Blood, one of the greatest horror comedies of all time. Vincent Price gives a career best performance as Edward Lionhart, a veteran Shakespearean actor who, when passed over for the coveted Critic’s Circle award for Best Actor takes deadly revenge on the critics who snubbed him.
With one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled for a horror film including Diana Rigg, Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins and Arthur Lowe, Theatre of Blood...
“It’s never been tougher to be a critic than in Theatre of Blood, one of the greatest horror comedies of all time. Vincent Price gives a career best performance as Edward Lionhart, a veteran Shakespearean actor who, when passed over for the coveted Critic’s Circle award for Best Actor takes deadly revenge on the critics who snubbed him.
With one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled for a horror film including Diana Rigg, Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins and Arthur Lowe, Theatre of Blood...
- 4/11/2014
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Arrow Video is thrilled to announce the UK Blu-ray and Blu-ray Steelbook release of Theatre of Blood, the seminal 1973 British horror classic starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Ian Hendry, Harry Andrews, Arthur Lowe, Robert Coote and Coral Browne. This newly restored feature will make its worldwide Blu-ray debut on 5th May 2014. Featuring a bumper crop of bonus features such as a newly recorded audio commentary with The League of Gentlemen (Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith), interviews with the likes of Victoria Price, author and film historian David Del Valle, Theatre of Blood star Madeline Smith and composer Michael J. Lewis. The release also features a reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Sam Smith and a collectors booklet with new writing on the film by critic Cleaver Patterson and a reproduction of the original press book material, illustrated with original archive stills. Synopsis: Vincent Price gives a...
- 4/11/2014
- 24framespersecond.net
Paul Henreid: From lighting two cigarettes and blowing smoke onto Bette Davis’ face to lighting two cigarettes while directing twin Bette Davises Paul Henreid is back as Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013. TCM will be showing four movies featuring Henreid (Now, Voyager; Deception; The Madwoman of Chaillot; The Spanish Main) and one directed by him (Dead Ringer). (Photo: Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes on the set of Dead Ringer, while Bette Davis remembers the good old days.) (See also: “Paul Henreid Actor.”) Irving Rapper’s Now, Voyager (1942) was one of Bette Davis’ biggest hits, and it remains one of the best-remembered romantic movies of the studio era — a favorite among numerous women and some gay men. But why? Personally, I find Now, Voyager a major bore, made (barely) watchable only by a few of the supporting performances (Claude Rains, Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee...
- 7/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Vincent Price Week is moving right along at Trailers from Hell, with TV writer Alan Spencer introducing "Theater of Blood," a hilariously creative revenge-fantasy film in which Price exacts Shakespearean punishment on the critics who have panned his stage performances over the years. Every creative artist's favorite anti-critic movie, as poorly reviewed Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart gruesomely avenges himself on those who panned him. Probably the classiest of Vincent Price's late career vehicles, in which he's supported by the cream of British character actor royalty. Beautifully shot by Wolfgang Suzchitzky with a memorably contrapuntal romantic score by Michael J. Lewis, nuanced direction by Douglas Hickcox and a wittily literate script by Anthony Greville-Bell. Similar to Price's Dr. Phibes murder sprees, but far less cartoony and more emotionally affecting. Apologies for the poor quality of this trailer (with Danish subtitles yet) but it's...
- 2/26/2013
- by Trailers From Hell
- Thompson on Hollywood
ComingSoon.net has spoken with Michael J. Lewis, CEO and Co-Founder of RealD , one of the main pioneers in the current wave of 3D projection, a number of times back when CinemaCon was still ShoWest . The first time was shortly after the overwhelming success of the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana concert movie, which opened only on 3D screens, then a year later following the similar success of DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. 3D has come a long way since then, but it's also started to hit a bit of a wall with James Cameron's Avatar in 2009 starting an avalanche of last-minute poorly converted 3D movies like Clash of the Titans , The Last Airbender and Wes Craven's My Soul to Take that have started to sour moviegoers on paying premium prices for 3D movies of a...
- 3/31/2011
- Comingsoon.net
In Theatre of Blood, Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart, a Shakesperean actor who isn't celebrated the way he is supposed to be (at least according to him). After being denied an important award in his career, Lionheart decided to kill himself, at least this is what everybody thinks. When a mysterious serial killer starts murdering the theatre critics who slammed him, the police has to find out the truth about Lionheart and corned him before he stages his unique vision of King Lear . The picture is filled with grisly baroque revenge set pieces, each one of them modeled on a famous Shakespeare play. Think Se7en with more theatricality and a unique tone which balances between being a comedy and a horror.
The music for this picture is a most unique achievement as it has to convert the horror-like ideas into a hilarious macabre comedy. Thankfully Vincent Price's delicious performance helps this task,...
The music for this picture is a most unique achievement as it has to convert the horror-like ideas into a hilarious macabre comedy. Thankfully Vincent Price's delicious performance helps this task,...
- 2/3/2009
- Daily Film Music Blog
Watching The Medusa Touch on Hungarian commercial television is one of my earlier film watching memories - I saw it several times as for some reason the station showed it quite frequently. The film tells the story of the telekinetic John Morlar (Richard Burton), who manages to cause various catastrophes just by thinking at them. It really works a bit like the early Omen movies which showed numerous inventively arranged deaths, but Morlar's talents even overshadow that of Damien Thorne. Did I mention that this picture features Lee Remick as well?
The music is the type of scoring that easily impresses a young, impressionable mind - it's totally in your face, very powerful and really spooky at the same time. And like any movie whose music I remember from this age, there's a sequence very dominantly built around the music. "Destruction of Cathedral" is an exhillirating 5-minute ride which I...
The music is the type of scoring that easily impresses a young, impressionable mind - it's totally in your face, very powerful and really spooky at the same time. And like any movie whose music I remember from this age, there's a sequence very dominantly built around the music. "Destruction of Cathedral" is an exhillirating 5-minute ride which I...
- 1/30/2009
- Daily Film Music Blog
The term "Hitchcockian" is thrown around easily these days, reviews tend to use it for anything with a slight phsychological edge or if there is a twist at the end. What they forget is that a "Hitchcockian"film is consisted of much more, so while having a twist isn't harmful, there's a lot more to be done for such a distinction. Unman, Wittering and Zigo is a movie that could easily claim to be Hitchcockian if there were people who actually saw it. It's quite an obscure little feature about a school teacher John Ebony (David Hemmings) who is convinced that his students want to kill him just like they did with their previous teacher. The kids are some of the creepiest scoundrels this side of Village of the Damned and we soon start to feel for Mr. Ebony - unfortunately his collagues are the exact opposite! Michael J. Lewis...
- 1/28/2009
- Daily Film Music Blog
Directed by Franklin J. Shaffner, Sphinx is often lambasted for reasons beyond my understandig. It's a fun, pulp adventure with something for the guys (Lesley-Anne Dawn), something for the gals (Frank Langella) and Shaffner's style still shines through the picture. Okay, it's no Patton or Apes, but it seems everyone had fun doing this picture and sometimes that's as good as a starting point as anything else. The character of Erica Baron seems a lot more surprised and clueless than she should be considering she's an egypiologist of sorts, but most of the problems in this field can be found in almost all adventure movies.
Speaking of other adventure movies, this film most interestingly came out just a couple of months before Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I always wondered how it would have fared had it been released just after the Indiana Jones picture. It would have certainly been roasted as a wannabe.
Speaking of other adventure movies, this film most interestingly came out just a couple of months before Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I always wondered how it would have fared had it been released just after the Indiana Jones picture. It would have certainly been roasted as a wannabe.
- 1/27/2009
- Daily Film Music Blog
Welcome to the first special thematic week of the blog. It's quite hard to organize one of these things properly, but I'll try to do one at least every month. To get the jist of what I have in mind, a thematic week focuses on one particular composer or theme for 1/4 of a month. While selecting the titles for the "seven scores" specials, I'll try to feature both well-known and obscure titles from the subject of the special week.
This weeks' featured guest is composer Michael J. Lewis, who was born in Wales in 1939 and scored almost three dozen films from 1969 onwards. During the upcoming week, you'll be able to read Michael's thoughts about seven of his scores from his career. Most people might know Michael's music through his The Passage score without even realizing it. The track entitled "Apassionata" from that score is now known as the music played...
This weeks' featured guest is composer Michael J. Lewis, who was born in Wales in 1939 and scored almost three dozen films from 1969 onwards. During the upcoming week, you'll be able to read Michael's thoughts about seven of his scores from his career. Most people might know Michael's music through his The Passage score without even realizing it. The track entitled "Apassionata" from that score is now known as the music played...
- 1/27/2009
- Daily Film Music Blog
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