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Vincent
Price Double Feature
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Haunted
Hill
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6 |
Last
Man
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5 |
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5 |
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Guest
Review by Lucas
Micromatis |
Another
double feature DVD from the budget-minded folks at Diamond.
One of schlockmeister
extraordinaire William Castle's best gimmick flicks (the famed
"Emergo," in which a plastic skeleton seemed to emerge from
the screen and float above the audience), House
on Haunted Hill stars Vincent Price as an eccentric millionaire
who invites five strangers to a secluded mansion for a haunted
house party, and a chance for $10,000 each if they survive the
night. Elisha Cook Jr. babbles on (as only Cook can) about ghosts
and spooks, much to the disbelief of his fellow partygoers.
Naturally, all manner of strange occurrences are visited upon
the hapless group: severed heads appearing in the darndest places,
blood dripping from the ceiling, spectral visions, floating
skeletons, etc. While there are considerable lapses in credulity
and plot holes large enough to drive a stake through, the film
succeeds on its own terms as a fun slice of spooky nonsense,
with some genuine shocks thrown into the mix which still pack
a jolt (especially the old hag in the basement). Price lords
over the film with tongue firmly planted in cheek; he's at his
best when trading poisoned barbs with his sultry wife, played
by Carol Ohmart ("Remember the fun we had when you poisoned
me?")
House on Haunted
Hill has been released on DVD twice
before: once by Warner Bros. in a no-frills edition (though
it does feature the fun trailer), and again as a pricey Roan
double-feature paired with the utterly forgettable The
Bat. Diamond's print is comparable in image quality,
crisp with few blemishes, and widescreen to boot.
The raison d'être for this
disc, however, is the inclusion of one of Price's more elusive
offerings, the low-budget, Italian-lensed The
Last Man on Earth. Based on Richard Matheson's classic
horror/sci-fi hybrid I am Legend (which was later remade
as the loopy Charlton Heston vehicle The
Omega Man), the film stars Price as Robert Morgan,
sole untainted survivor of a devastating plague which turned
its victims into vampires. Vampire-slayer by day, Morgan barricades
himself in his house each night as the ghouls feverishly try
to break in, led by his former best friend. Although burdened
by a low budget and futile attempts to disguise the streets
of Italy as Los Angeles, Last Man
still works thanks to loads of atmosphere and some well-done,
bleak imagery. Price looks thoroughly world-weary as he treks
through the barren streets littered with corpses; one great
sequence positions him alone on a huge, Potemkin-esque
stairway, looking about frantically for any sign of life. In
one of his few heroic roles, Price convincingly carries the
film (if he sounds oddly dubbed, it's because he was. The original
soundtrack was lost, and Price was called in to re-record all
his dialogue).
Unfortunately, Last
Man does not fare as well in its presentation as Haunted
Hill. Shown fullframe (the opening American-International
title reads "erican Internatio"), the print is often
scratchy and blemished, though the back blurb claims it boasts
"fully restored and enhanced digital masters". Still, it is
an improvement over the various bootlegs floating around.
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 Diamond's
disc is lacking in extras, outside of brief bios of Price and
William Castle, and each film boasts a paltry two chapter stops.
Nevertheless, the budget disc is worth the five dollar price tag
for Last Man alone. It's also packaged
nicely; the cover art is a nice merging of the main graphics of
the two films' movie posters.
Overall a fun release from Diamond,
whose other releases include such double features as Carnival
of Souls/Horror Hotel and
Giant Gila Monster/Killer
Shrews, and solo films like Count
Dracula and His Vampire Bride (the uncut Satanic
Rites of Dracula, with the American release title tacked on)
and the psychedelic They Came from Beyond
Space. 7/21/01 |
| UPDATE
In September 2005 MGM released the best version of Last
Man on Earth ever on
home video, pairing it on a double feature DVD with the apocalyptic
Panic In Year Zero! (1962). You can
read the EC review of this disc HERE. |
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