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Review
by
B. Lindsey
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Oblong
Box
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4 |
Scream
Again
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6 |
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7 |
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Among
the latest batch of MGM's 'Midnite Movie' line of DVDs, this
bargain-priced disc pairs two Vincent Price AIP shockers from
1969, The Oblong Box and Scream
and Scream Again. Despite the films' wildly different
tones and subject matter this is an entirely appropriate double
bill —
and not just because Price headlines each movie. Both
also costar Christopher Lee and were directed by Gordon Hessler
(Cry of the Banshee, The
Golden Voyage of Sinbad). Given the presence of two
towering icons of horror cinema and its gothic subject matter
(ostensibly based on something by Edgar Allan Poe), one would
think Box would be the better film.
Turns out this isn't the case. The sci-fi flavored 'Austin Powers
Meets Frankenstein' shenanigans of Scream
actually proved more entertaining.
In The
Oblong Box, Price is back to his familiar routine of
burying relatives alive. He plays Sir Julian Markham, a wealthy
British landowner who inherits the title with the passing of
his older brother Edward. Only his sibling didn't really die.
Edward (Alister Williamson), who's horribly disfigured in a
way we're not shown (not yet, anyway) has been kept locked up
in a room in the family mansion ever since he and Julian returned
from Africa. It seems Edward took the blame for an accident
there, really caused by Julian, which resulted in the death
of a young native boy. In reprisal Edward was tortured by a
witchdoctor during a voodoo ceremony, leaving him disfigured
and cursed in some way. Once brought home to England Edward's
periodic fits of violent rage left his brother little choice
but to keep him imprisoned.
Edward concocts
a plan to fake his own death in order to escape from the house.
Working through Julian's shady solicitor, Trench (Peter Arne),
Edward is smuggled a drug which simulates death. But the plan
is thwarted when Julian supervises the body's internment; Trench
and his associates aren't able to get near the locked coffin
to spring him. Thus Edward is buried alive, waking from his
state of suspended animation within the oblong box, dirt raining
down on the lid. Since Trench has already been paid, the lawyer's
not too concerned with digging him up.
But Edward
escapes suffocation when graverobbers unearth the casket and
deliver it to their employer, the unethical Dr. Neuhartt, played
by Christopher Lee in a shaggy gray wig. (Just what kind of
illegal experiments Neuhartt is conducting is never explained.)
Revived, Edward blackmails the sinister doctor into hiding him
and, donning a red hood to mask his disfigured face, sets out
to get revenge on the double-crossing Trench and his own brother.
In the process he claims an unintended victim, slitting the
throat of a prostitute (Uta Levka) who tries to roll him. Soon
the police are hunting a mysterious man in a crimson hood. Julian,
in the meantime, is newly married and happy for the first time
in years. Edward aims to change that.
Box
runs only 97 minutes but feels like a solid two hours. It pokes
along at a stately pace, with a number of scenes stretching
on much longer than needed. (The African prologue and the revels
of some rowdy pub patrons are particularly egregious in this
regard.) Price and Lee —
who share only one fleeting scene together near the end —
look bored, delivering professional but uninspired performances.
A blunt criticism of European colonialism in the script, along
with a little extra blood, a dash of nudity and the director's
predilection for using a "fish eye" camera lens, are
the only differences between this and your average Hammer film
made 10 years earlier... Only if Terence Fisher had helmed,
the pacing would be much better. Box's
climax is feebly mounted and predictable. That so much is made
of Edward's facial disfigurement, cloaking it in mystery until
the very end, is a major mistake considering the scene
is a tremendous letdown. (Instead of a horrid, ghastly visage
from some nightmare we get a guy who looks as if he's suffering
from a bad sunburn and a case of nasal impetigo). Despite Price,
Lee and the lurid subject matter, The
Oblong Box will likely disappoint fans of the stars and
gothic horror films in general.
Time to flip
over that disc!
Scream
and Scream Again is often confusing and disjointed, but
at least it doesn't plod along like the lethargic Box.
Set in 'modern' (as opposed to Victorian) times, it's got a
blood-drinking serial killer, dismemberment, political chicanery,
espionage, torture, a mad scientist and even a couple of goofy
rock songs thrown in for good measure. Oddly, the film doesn't
really have a main character, as the narrative jumps rapidly
back and forth between disparate plot lines. For a good chunk
of the running time you'll be convinced that the story won't
ever make a lick of sense. In the end, though, things do come
together.
A
London jogger collapses, only to wake up a prisoner in an undisclosed
hospital setting tended by a nurse (Ms. Levka again) who never
speaks. Kept alive, one by one his limbs are surgically removed
for some unknown reason. As this is taking place, Scotland Yard
is frustrated by the elusive "Vampire Killer" (Michael
Gothard), a brutal serial murderer who preys on young women
at nightclubs. They manage to capture the killer, handcuffing
him to a patrol car's bumper, but incredibly he escapes by tearing
his own hand off! Chasing him to a large country house the police
are further astonished when the killer jumps into a vat of acid
rather than surrender. This throws suspicion onto the estate's
owner, the eminent scientist Dr. Browning (Vincent Price). But
Browning is doing top secret research for the government; higher
authorities order the Yard to back off. With the case officially
now closed, a young police surgeon (Scars
of Dracula's Christopher Matthews) decides to pursue his
own investigation of the doctor.
In yet another entirely separate plot thread
set in an unnamed, mythical Eastern European nation, secret
police officer Konratz (Marshall Jones) climbs the ranks of
the service by assassinating his superiors. He kills them by
administering some kind of lethal Vulcan Death Grip. (One of
his victims is Peter Cushing, making a cameo appearance as a
publicity-conscious apparatchik who disciplines Konratz for
torturing political prisoners.) Meanwhile, U.K. intelligence
chief Fremont (Christopher Lee) has a crisis on his hands when
a Royal Air Force spy plane is shot down by said mythical police
state, the pilot captured. Konratz, now in charge of his country's
secret service, offers Fremont an unusual deal — he'll exchange
the downed pilot for all of Scotland Yard's files on the Vampire
Killer case.
Keeping all of this straight, are you?
As
mentioned, the story doesn't come together until the last 10
minutes. Director Hessler often whipsaws between the plot threads
so quickly that some viewers may be left scratching their heads.
(After all, the movie's based on a sci-fi novel called The
Disoriented Man.) With so much going on there isn't time
to focus on a central character; Price and Lee have relatively
small roles. But at least things never get boring. The hunt
for the superhuman Vampire Killer is the most interesting, with
the escape scene particularly memorable. Basically, Scream
and Scream Again is just weird enough to be mildly diverting.
(It also contains a surprising amount of nudity for a PG-rated
film.)
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As
with the majority of the 'Midnite Movie' titles, this is essentially
a bare bones presentation with only the theatrical trailer for
each film as extras. However, the anamorphic widescreen transfers
are vast improvements over prints used for television broadcasts
and VHS editions. I remember seeing both of these flicks on TV
a number of times in the '70s and '80s and they never looked or
sounded this good.
For
what you get — two complete, uncut films of natural interest to
cult movie fans (whatever their actual merits) — the DVD's low
price is simply unbeatable. 9/07/02 |
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