The Oblong Box (1969)

Director:

Gordon Hessler

Writers:

Lawrence Huntington (writer)
Edgar Allan Poe (story)

Release Date:

11 June 1969 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

For the first time... the classic tale of the restless dead and their unspeakable hungers!

Plot:

Aristocrat Julian Markham keeps his disfigured brother, Sir Edward, locked in a tower of his house....

Plot Keywords:

Hood | Body | Doctor | Voodoo | Flashback Sequence

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Sir Julian Markham
Christopher Lee	...	Dr. J. Neuhart
Rupert Davies	...	Joshua Kemp
Uta Levka	...	Heidi, the prostitute
Sally Geeson	...	Sally Baxter, Dr. Neuhart's Maid / Sir Julian Markham's Maid
Alister Williamson	...	Sir Edward Markham
Peter Arne	...	Samuel Trench
Hilary Heath	...	Elizabeth Markham (as Hilary Dwyer)
Maxwell Shaw	...	Tom Hackett
Carl Rigg	...	Mark Norton
Harry Baird	...	N'Galo
Godfrey James	...	Weller, Grave Robber
James Mellor	...	Holt
John Barrie	...	Franklin
Ivor Dean	...	Hawthorne

Also Known As:

Dance, Mephisto
Edgar Allan Poe's The Oblong Box

Runtime:

USA:91 min | USA:97 min (DVD)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Iceland:16 | Germany:16 (re-rating) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Norway:18 (1972) | Sweden:15 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

American International Productions

Trivia:

Alister Williamson is dubbed.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Sir Edward murders Heidi the prostitute, the special effects knife clearly sprays blood onto the actresses' neck well before it actually touches her.

Quotes:

Trench: Sir Edward. I thought you've been-
Sir Edward Markham: Buried. Yes. Waking up in that horrible oblong box, no air to breathe, trapped and no escape. Earth raining down on the lid, every shovel full burying you more deeply.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Fantastic Fantasy Fright-o-Rama Show Vol. 1 (1996) (V)

A very versatile tale of terror

We have all kind of barbarities featuring in this dark and moody tale. Only the wicked pen of Edgar Allen Poe could have come up with a tale that blends voodoo, body snatching, medical experiments, brotherly betrayal and a taste of what most likely is the worst imaginable nightmare: being buried alive! Set in the second half of the 19th century, Vincent Price (oh, how I love this man) stars as a wealthy landlord who returned from Africa severely traumatized. His brother got cursed by the aboriginals there and now lives locked up in his room, heavily deformed. But he's still clever enough to plan an escape and pays some small crooks to have him appear dead. Due to several unfortunate events, the plan goes wrong and Sir Edward's supposedly dead body ends up in the laboratory of morbid scientist Christopher Lee (another man I love!)

The entire film carries some sort of unnameable eeriness. The depressing set pieces and colorless locations add a great deal to the sublime horrific atmosphere. All this, together with an intriguing and complex screenplay makes this movie yet another highlight in the careers of Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Both icons of horror give away amazing performances and it's actually a damn shame they don't share many sequences together. This is a marvelous film from the time that horror still was the greatest genre in cinema. They simply can't deliver movies as good as this anymore. Maybe I'm giving it a little too much praise but you can't but agree with me that at least this kind of horror oldies demand a much wider attention span than the nowadays gore-junk. For that aspect alone, I feel obliged to give it a high rating.