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AIP
Horror Double Feature
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Banshee
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5 |
Morgue
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4 |
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9 |
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MGM
serves up another double helping of Gordon Hessler-AIP horrors,
this time Cry
Of
The
Banshee (1970) and
Murders
In The Rue Morgue
(1971). The two previous films Hessler helmed for American International,
The Oblong
Box and Scream
And Scream Again (both 1969), were paired as a DVD
double feature last year, so the combo is most appropriate.
This time, however, MGM saw fit to include video interviews
with director Hessler as a compliment to each title.
Cry
Of
The
Banshee: In 1500s
England a cruel and abusive magistrate, Sir Edward Whitman (Vincent
Price), holds sway over a rural community by means of draconian
decrees. People are routinely imprisoned, tortured and occasionally
hanged or burned in his campaign to stamp out witchcraft and
paganism. This crusade in the name of Christian law is really
just a convenient excuse for the debauchery and exploitation
he and his thuggish minions indulge in at the expense of the
local populace. (Busty barmaids beware!) Retribution comes to
the House of Whitman after soldiers under the magistrate's command
slaughter some of the followers of Oona (Elisabeth Bergner),
pagan witch and coven leader, who seeks vengeance with the help
of Satan. A curse is place on Whitman and his entire family,
with impending death heralded by the howl of a demonic spirit,
the Banshee. One by one the members of the Whitman clan —
male and female —
are savagely killed by a werewolf-like creature, the Sidhe,
summoned to do Oona's bidding. Too late the Whitmans realize
that the murderous beast may reside within their own household...
While a deeply
flawed picture, Cry Of
The Banshee has enough going
for it to be entertaining. The acting is generally quite good
by all involved, better than one would expect. (Though familiar
face Hugh Griffith tends to overdo it as a drunken graverobber.)
There's the always watchable Price, of course, who's actually
somewhat subdued here in comparison to his performances in similar
roles. His corrupt magistrate is a thoroughly despicable villain,
as are just about the entire Whitman family... Even the two
'good' Whitmans —
enlightened, Cambridge-educated son Harry (Carl Rigg) and daughter
Maureen (Hilary Dwyer) —
exhibit darker shades to their characters on occasion. Thus
we're keen to see Edward and his nasty, dysfunctional brood
get their just desserts. Where the flick comes a cropper is
its limited budget, most obvious in the dearth of extras present
onscreen —
the entire village seems to consist of all of 20 people. A ruined
church set, where Oona and her flock hold their rituals, looks
quite phony. Numerous made for TV movies, set in the same period,
appear richer in production values. The script, too, deserves
some of the guilt: it makes the confusing turn of having the
audience clearly identify with the wrongly persecuted pagans
only to have them revealed to be Satan worshippers. (Which pagans
most definitely are not.) But Price and the expected 'shock'
payoff —
not to mention a plenitude of bare breasts on display throughout
—
makes the film worth sitting through. (A hearty toast to those
buxom serving wenches, guv'nor!)
Murders
In The Rue Morgue:
Would that Vincent Price have starred in this one... Instead
we get Jason Robards in the lead role. Robards, in his time
one of America's finest actors, seems dispirited to be headlining
an AIP exploitation flick. He plays Cesar Charron, leader of
a theatrical troupe specializing in gory Grand Guignol-style
stage performances in 19th Century Paris. During the run of
a production based on Poe's Murders In the Rue Morgue,
various members of Charron's company, both past and present,
start turning up dead at the hands of a sadistic murderer the
press dubs the "Acid Killer". The villain responsible is a disfigured
actor, Marot (Herbert Lom), who was once part of the troupe
until horribly burned with acid in a stage 'accident'. Thought
to have committed suicide, the insane Marlot clawed his way
out of the grave to pursue a campaign of vengeance against Charron
and his employees. Assisted by urbane dwarf sidekick M. Triboulet
(Frankenstein's Castle Of Freaks'
Michael Dunn), Marot sets about destroying Charron while obsessively
coveting his enemy's much younger wife, the fragile and mentally
troubled actress Madeleine (Christine Kaufmann). It's all quite
colorful and handsomely mounted on a modest budget —
and rather dull, too.
Robard's obvious
disinterest in the proceedings is likely to carry over to the
audience. The film's not bad, just boring... which can be even
worse. There's really no mystery to the story as the killer
is known from the get-go; the final plot twist can be seen coming
a mile off. Quite mild as far as exploitation fare is concerned,
the murders aren't gory and there's no gratuitous nudity to
keep things interesting. The movie just seems to be going through
the motions —
it isn't really involving or titillating enough to merit its
existence. The numerous dream sequences are certainly well-directed
by Hessler but even these quickly get repetitive. As Marot,
Herbert Lom skulks about in a cape and mask much as he did in
Phantom Of
The Opera (1962), to which
this film owes more in terms of themes and imagery than its
namesake story by Poe. (I couldn't help but note how, whenever
the masked Marot removes his hat, the lower part of his face
is quite pale while above the mask his forehead is noticeably
tan. Sloppy!) I feel certain that Vincent Price, who was originally
slated for the Charron role, would have injected some badly
needed energy into the project. He virtually never failed to
lend gravitas to even substandard genre pictures such as this.
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MGM's
double feature DVD utilizes terrific-looking transfers for Cry
Of The
Banshee and Murders In The Rue Morgue.
Both are presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and are
anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 TVs. The mono audio tracks are
clear and strong. In A/V terms, Banshee
is (fortunately) the superior of the two.
This also marks the first time these films
can be seen uncut on home video. In Banshee's
case this means a healthy dollop of bare-breasted bodice ripping
initially removed for American audiences. As for Rue
Morgue, the film has been reassembled with some 11 minutes
of footage cropped by the AIP honchos just prior to theatrical
release, thus making this DVD a 'Director's Cut' edition of the
movie. (Not that this made it a good flick, mind you.)
In addition to the theatrical trailer, each film has a companion
interview piece with director Gordon Hessler. In A Devilish
Tale of Poe (17 minutes), Hessler recounts his early days
as an expatriate Brit breaking into the U.S. television industry,
his transition to film work, and collaborating with Vincent Price
on the three AIP films they made together, including Cry
Of The
Banshee. The Side B featurette, Stage Tricks and Screen
Frights (9 min.), sees Hessler focusing on Rue
Morgue, its cast, location filming in Spain, and his disappointment
with the severe edits and chronological rearrangement of scenes
mandated by AIP. 5/09/03 |
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