VINCENT PRICE, born in St Louis on May 27, 1911

Theatre of Blood

Witchfinder General

The Masque of the Red Death

Very easily going for my beloved, madly poetic Confessions of an Opium Eater. Fuck Jesus' Son or Requiem for a Dream. THIS is how drug movies should unfold. And it contains the greatest hallucinogenic freakout scene in cinema history.

The pathos he manages to convey in something as inherently silly as The Fly is pretty impressive, I think. I feel like I ought to vote for one of the Cormans, or Witchfinder General, but Theater of Blood is a personal fave even if it's basically a rip-off of the Dr Phibes movies.

Yeah, I know him best from a Canadian TV show, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, where he did rhyming intros for a bunch of Billy Van characters. "Hilarious" may have been overstating the case...Laura and Witchfinder General don't live up to their reputations for me; I haven't seen hardly anything else except for The Fly and the two jokey early-'70s horror films. I guess The Fly, just for "Help me! Help me!"

supposedly VP had a hard time not laughing in that Fly scene. His role is too peripheral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buRFANaKp0c

truly "the master of the macabre" and a total ham. I saw many of these on late nite TV in the pre-VCR era, through a haze of smoke

it's been awhile but I remember Witchfinder General aka The Conqueror Worm as being bizarre and kinda arty in a low-budget way

thread is missing While the City Sleeps, a solid late Fritz Lang

witchfinder general

I think Masque of the Red Death is my fave film in which he's the lead, but W.General may be a better performance -- he doesn't camp.

He's funniest in House of Usher and His Kind of Woman -- tho I haven't seen Champagne for Caesar yet, or an uncut print of Theatre of Blood.

While the City Sleeps might've been the last one I cut to get 50; sure I've seen it, but I don't recall his role.

KJB, Opium Eater isn't on disc, right?

Haven't seen nearly all of these, but I've always really liked Masque of the Red Death.

oh, CoaOpiumE seems to be here (as Souls for Sale):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoRBNxuweP0

"The Bat" is absolutely terrible in terms of plot, script, casting, dramatic tension and is visually unpleasant, but Vincent Price is so sinister and creepy in it that he stands out.

the tingler, not just for the spectacle of vincent price on acid, but for everything he says or does in it. so gay, so great.

Part of me wants to say Witchfinder General, but how can the answer not be Theatre Of Blood? One of my favourite films.

Very hard to choose, one of my favourite actors.
Last Man on Earth is still my favourite version of I Am Legend; and as I mentioned in some other thread, Phibes and Theatre of Blood freaked me out when I was a kid (Robert Morley's death!).
Never saw Confessions, it seems a good movie.
I could listen endlessly to his little bit on Alice Cooper's album.

Yeah Confessions of an Opium Eater is not officially available afaik. Might as well dive into the youtube version. Don't think I have a better copy myself.

Theatre of Blood

― Michael B, Sunday, May 1, 2011 2:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Witchfinder General

― Ramen Noodles & Ketchup (R Baez), Sunday, May 1, 2011 3:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The Masque of the Red Death

― Darin, Sunday, May 1, 2011 3:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol the 3 I was torn between while reading the list

Those three are top of my list, but The Masque of the Red Death is pretty easily my favourite. Think maybe some of the other Poe ones aren't getting the love they deserve, though.

I never thought the others were all that good.

oh, tomb of ligeia is p good, at least - v early robert towne script, lots of English countryside location work that slightly anticipates the 'rural gothic' of withfinder general, blood on satan's claw etc, and with the same kind of morbid necrophilliac atmosphere as things like freda's terror of dr hitchcock or bava's black sunday - worth a re-screen, i'd say

the region 1 dvd of dragonwyck (included in vol 2 of 'fox horror classics') has a v gd commentary track by steve haberman & constantine nasr, where they point out that this was the film that first presented/created the 'sinister' price persona. even over the course of the film he goes from simpering husband to camp sadistic bully.

had to vote theatre of blood, just over witchfinder general and scream and scream again, an absolutely wonderful swinging 60s horror flick which has price, cushing and lee all in the cast, though they don't appear in any scenes together.

I liked diary of a madman when I saw it ten thousand years ago but c/r much about it besides it being based on the horla which is a super-fun thing to say

he's a villain earlier than D'wyck surely? but as I haven't seen all that early stuff I can't say when the persona was born.

I feel I screwed up most in omitting his performance as Egghead on the Batman TV series

He's awesome in Song of Bernadette as the skeptic who doesn't believe in all the miracle stuff. It's a very non-campy performance, which makes it especially interesting. A really good actor in my opinion.

I feel I screwed up most in omitting his performance as Egghead on the Batman TV series

Eggsceptional!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WpK4FI-07xY/TcN4zJdOviI/AAAAAAAAAL4/0ASBmebJPdM/s400/Vincent+Price+Egghead.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Corman:

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/44600/roger-corman-reflects-his-vincent-price-years

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

reasonable dispersal

these results seem abt right, tho' Conqueror Worm is an inferior cut/edit to the Brit Witchfinder General version

Happy 100th birthday Vincent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjmeAmKz0wM

Come on, Turner Classic Movies -- get with the program.

also happy 89th birthday to sir christopher lee

Confessions of An Opium Eater out on Warner Archive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGPakl57PbI

I bought a Nimslo last week at a Thrift Store! Boxed!

i saw Abominable Dr. Phibes for the first time in a very nice 35mm print last night. There's quite a bit of funny stuff in the first half -- Peter Jeffrey is a hoot as the hapless cop Trout, and his scene with the goldsmith (Aubrey Woods) is a small comic masterpiece -- then the 'intentional camp' kinda takes over in the third act. (And poor Joseph Cotten, denturing his way through another thankless post-stardom role.)

Campy Old Price has never been my thing, but it is very stylish and ballsy in that you don't even hear his voice for the first 30 minutes.

(i'd definitely seen the opening titles on TV before, a great scene, with Phibes at the pipe organ)

note bag full of witchfinding sherbet fountains

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm5pdDhW4AEo_x-.jpg

Just watched that for the first time the other night. The scene with the chocolate sundae was terrifying.

Saw a nice 35mm print of The Oblong Box last night, a sort of Hammer-aping Poe film by AIP (Britain). Not bad at all but Price camps it up just a touch. First teaming of VP and Christopher Lee, but they share only one brief scene near the end.

Michael Reeves of Witchfinder General was supposed to direct but he died alas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2mqqGpYUCo

I've kind of made watching a VP flick each Halloween season an annual thing, and this year I went with The Fly for the simple reason that it is the one that I remembered to record off TCM. Frankly a bit of a slog in parts--a good chunk of the film is given over to domestic melodrama that ain't exactly Sirkian in its calibre--but the parts that everyone knows (the POV shot, the spider web finale) are iconic for a reason. This is early for a Price horror film, so he's not in full ham mode yet. It was fun seeing 80s/90s comedy mainstay Kathleen Freeman in an earlier role as an exasperated maid.

well, he's not really the star (David Hedison is)

After The Oblong Box, Price and Lee (plus Peter Cushing) all re-teamed with Gordon Hessler the following year for Scream and Scream Again, written by the interesting UK genre scriptwriter Christopher Wicking. The big stars don't have a scene altogether, and the film is in some ways a bit of a mess, a horror-sf hybrid, but it's got some interesting ideas and isn't so obviously derivative of the Corman Poe cycle. I cautiously commend it to you, Morbs.

Most recent Price thing I've watched is Comedy of Terrors, an original screenplay by Richard Matheson and directed by Jacques Tourneur, rather than Corman, which gives it a slightly different flavour again (although AIP regulars like Floyd Crosby and Dan Heller are still involved). Price plays slightly out of character - he's quite low rent, and a vulgar abusive drunk - paired with Peter Lorre, who looks very ill and tired (he died three months after shooting). Boris Karloff also seems very frail, but his performance is typically crafty and engaged. It's Basil Rathbone who actually steals the film, shouting Shakespeare, fighting duels, full of vim and vigour (Rathbone and Karloff actually switched parts just before shooting got under way, precisely because of Boris' increasing infirmity). I watched this on a very lush looking Arrow Blu-Ray, and watched again w/ a pretty good commentary track w/ Price fan and friend David Del Valle.

Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) is an amoral undertaker in 19th-century New England who takes to murdering people to have enough cash to support his drinking habit.

sold

i've wanted to see it for ages

saw him the other week in Leave It To Heaven, a noir shot in technicolor, & so lushly focused on the colour overall, that Price appears to be perspiring teak through his main, climactic scene

Saw Witchfinder General the other day with his daughter Victoria introducing it. Funny how much she looks like him in the face. Nothing to add about the film itself except, gee, I didn't realize the director was only 24. Nice job.

Vincent Price delivering homemade hot dogs to fans at Dodger Stadium (1960s) pic.twitter.com/0Ngtgl94Gd

— 41 Strange (@41Strange) October 2, 2019

Ha, nice.

I've watched...3? 4? Price films over the last several days. I knew he was in it but it took me forever to realize that he was the Invisible Man in Universal's second installment. Granted, it was over a decade prior to when his genre career kicked off in earnest, but he apparently hadn't yet truly refined the Price Voice so he was virtually unrecognizable by vocal stylings alone.

I recently snapped up copies of almost all the AIP material I didn't already have so my October is pretty much set.

he narrated a good horror drama series on bbc radio 4 in the 70's called The Price of Fear. I caught a few eps recently. It was standard fare but his delivery was the main draw.

I bet he had homemade hot dogs to deliver

some variety w/ Boris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXi7w-1dCA&fbclid=IwAR0syke5oSznsNkqiE5AbHOlAAm0UgaNDgqpFUZ3QP8lfkjI_PIL9ExFPM4

dammit, lets try again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goXi7w-1dCA

Vincent Price, 1970 pic.twitter.com/i7BP9QIqZt

— Conrad J. Barrington (@cjubarrington) July 19, 2020

aw i wanna hang out with him

<3

i think i had that shirt in 1970

Looks like the cover for his long-lost singer-songwriter album.

"The Audible Dr. Phibes" (RCA, 1970)

Spare a thought for his himbo turn in Laura.

17-year-old Vincent Price, 1928 pic.twitter.com/grGGTkuQ7h

— Нил Юнг (@BohemiaStable) July 25, 2020

https://www.gifcen.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/kermit-the-frog-gif-8.gif

I have absolutely no information about this GIF.

So will Price become a vampire or a werefrog?

I can't actually think of any films where he played a vampire!

Still need to get a copy of this

https://cdn.hmv.com/r/w-1280/hmv/files/21/216c88fc-b6bc-4a62-8d24-fa60b83e11b1.jpg

Price vampirizes John Carradine in The Monster Club (1981).

only one vote for his kind of woman

I try to watch that muppets clip at least once a week. It contains all that is good in life.