Great news for UK fans of Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and classic British horror, 1969’s The Oblong Box, is getting a Blu-ray release courtesy of the BFI (available from Monday, 21 October 2024).
In shadow-shrouded Victorian England, Sir Julian Markham (Price) is a landowner hiding a terrible family secret, while Dr Neuhartt (Lee) is a surgeon carrying out dreadful experiments upon stolen cadavers. When their disparate destinies entwine – and a mysterious murderer in a red mask begins a mission of vengeance – a series of brazen, bloody atrocities ensue.
Those masters of terror, Price and Lee, are both at their spine-chilling best in this grisly gothic tale of the macabre, inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe story and produced and directed by Gordon Hessler for American International Pictures. Actors and crew that worked on 1968’s Witchfinder General were brought together again for this stylishly shot, fast-paced slice of Grand Guignol from 1969 – featuring customarily powerful performances from its charismatic cast.
Released by the BFI – its first time on Blu-ray in the UK, extras include a newly filmed interview with Victoria Price, who discusses her father’s career, and an article about the film’s production by — guess who? Yep! Me! I do hope you enjoy reading it and adding the film to your Vincent Price Blu-ray collection.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Presented in High Definition
- Audio commentary by film historian Steve Haberman (2015) – ported over from the US Kino Lorber Blu-ray release
- The Immortal Mr Price (2024, 17 mins): Victoria Price discusses her father’s career and his trips to England in the late 1960s
- The Bells (1913, 15 mins): Edgar Allan Poe’s poignant poem underpins this silent film rarity, which tells a melodramatic tale of love and death
- Prelude (1927, 7 mins): Rachmaninov’s wonderfully disturbing ‘Prelude in C-sharp minor’ sets the tone for a silent, nightmarish reverie on Poe’s The Premature Burial
- The Pit (1962, 27 mins): a strange and experimental gothic short, adapted from Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum
- Roger Corman on Edgar Allan Poe (2013, 9 mins): the legendary director and producer discusses his Poe adaptations, including The Pit and the Pendulum and The Masque of the Red Death
- Image gallery: original stills and promotional materials
- Theatrical trailer
- ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with essays by Peter Fuller and Benjamin Halligan: notes on the special features and credits
Over the years the 1970 sci-fi horror conspiracy thriller Scream and Scream Again has aged surprisingly well. Its seemingly unnconnected plots actually look quite hip in today’s channel hopping, attention deficit, age. And the horror thriller was certainly hip in its day, earning big at the box office for its producers, Amicus and American International Pictures.
Vincent Price gets top billing as cancer scientist Dr Browning, conducting mysterious research in a rural Surrey mansion; while Alfred Marks’ London detective is tracking down a homicidal sex maniac dubbed, The Vampire Killer, who is targeting girls in local nightclubs. Meanwhile, in some unspecified Eastern European totalitarian state, Peter Cushing gets bumped off by Marshall Jones’ Konratz (though everyone calls him Konrad in the film) as part of his climb to the top job, while back in Blighty, Christopher Lee’s British Intelligence official is trying to secure the release of a lost British pilot.
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