The Late Great Vincent Price 1911-1993

[The Rev Lionel Hardcore]

Originally Posted by BigAl123

Some of his work was done as narrator, lending character & depth to the great BBC series
Rumpole Of The Bailey, with Leo McKern, another fine actor.

Rumpole was not a BBC series, but for ITV, Thames to be precise. The reason why add-ons with Price, and people like Alistair Cooke, were added to stuff on PBS was to bulk the running time up to an hour, as being ITV series, they ran for fifty-odd minutes once the commercials were taken out. Had they actually been for the BBC, there would have been no commercial breaks. It's always weird how PBS would show average (to us Brits) series like The House Of Eliot or Bramwell, under the slogan "Masterpiece Theatre" -- "Adequate Time-Killer Theatre" would have been more precise. Shame the Yanks don't get to see our realistic, tough series. Not all period costume arseing around is good British drama, or vice versa.

Back to Price himself, yes he was fantastic, and many consider his best to have been Theatre Of Blood.

[number1perv2008]

Do any fellow Canadians remember Vincent on "The Hilarious house of Frightenstein?" A big time childhood favourite Used to watch it every morning before heading to school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZKybIIyvG4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATOTtECYehY

[snorkie]

He was capable of playing the idle playboy in films like "His Kind of Woman" and "Laura."

[quacksacker]

I've always felt Vincent was underrated as an actor, and one of the few I ever wanted to meet.

[sephiroth]

Hey guys, you may want to check this out:
http://otrplus.com/viewtopic.php?t=5343

You need to register but it's worth it. You'll find about 4 Gigabytes of Vincent Price's audio recordings ranging from his early radio work in the 1940s to stage performances, appearances in musicals and his commercial LP recordings of the 70s and 80s. His radio work is even more underrated than his films.

[Trip]

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3FT8LogQns

(Note the framed portrait of his deceased wife, is femme fatale Caroline Munro)

Cult Classic The Abominable Dr.Phibes (1971) stars Vincent as Anton Phibes,
a famous organist with doctorate degrees in Music and Theology,
who was thought to have been killed in a car crash while rushing
to the side of his sick wife, Victoria.

He was horribly disfigured in the accident, but survived only to discover his
wife had died on the operating table.
Phibes, convinced that his beloved wife was a victim of incompetent doctors,
spends several years planning a vendetta against those who operated on his wife.

Dr. Phibes takes his inspiration for the murders from the Old Testament, the Ten plagues of Egypt:

1. Boils: Prof. Thornton is stung to death by bees.
2. Bats: Dr. Dunwoody is mauled to death by bats.
3. Frogs: Dr. Hargreaves's throat is crushed by a mechanical mask of a frog.
4. Blood: Dr. Longstreet has all the blood drained out of his body.
5. Hail: Dr. Hedgepath is frozen to death by a machine spewing ice.
6. Rats: Dr. Kitaj crashes his plane when attacked by rats.
7. Beasts: Dr. Whitcombe is impaled by a brass unicorn head.
8. Locusts: Nurse Allen is eaten by locusts.
9. Death of the first born: Phibes kidnaps and attempts to kill Dr. Vesalius's son Lem.
10. Darkness: At the ending of the film, Phibes drains the blood from his own body,
while injecting embalming fluid, apparently joining his wife in death.

The quintessential last operation scene of the film details how Phibes will have acid
poured onto the bound son of Dr.Vesalius (Joseph Cotton) in 6 minutes
if Dr.Vesalius cannot operate and remove the key to the acid feed from
his son's body, lodged near his heart.
This is when Vincent Price speaks his classic line that haunted us as kids:
"He will have.....a face, like ....mine..."

That's when Vincent Price takes off his mask......





There was a sequel called Dr.Phibes Rises Again made in 1972.

[scoundrel]

The Abominable Dr Phibes

Dr Phibes Rises Again.


I was not very old when I saw these films: they may have been on BBC2 for the first time when I saw them. I haven't seen either of them for at least 30 years but I still have vivid memories. They used a colour process which would probably seem antedeluvian to filmakers now but which complemented the story well. Nurse Allen is covered in a Chlorophyl slime to make her palatable to the locusts, a really satisfyingly lurid green. Dr Longstreet's blood is crimson and convincingly arterial.

Thank you trip, incidentally, for naming all the characters: except for Phibes and his late wife Victoria, I wouild have remembered none of them, yet if I were artistically gifted I could draw all their faces. As I said, these were striking visual films.

Price was perfect for the role: how well and evocatively he used that deadly voice. His performance would have chilled the blood of a frozen fish finger. They broke the mould when he was made.

Vincent Price: you entertained millions over many chill-packed years. May you sleep softly now.

[haldane4]

I saw him on telly today in Laura but thought he was very miscast as a sort of nasty fop. It was an early role when he hadn't really found his niche yet.

My own fav Price movie is Theatre Of Blood.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Thank you trip, incidentally, for naming all the characters: except for Phibes and his late wife Victoria, I wouild have remembered none of them, yet if I were artistically gifted I could draw all their faces. As I said, these were striking visual films.

Price was perfect for the role: how well and evocatively he used that deadly voice. His performance would have chilled the blood of a frozen fish finger. They broke the mould when he was made.

No problemo


My brothers and I snuck into the theatre to
be genuinely freaked out by those films.
Might be considered campy and cult classics now,
but back then as little kids, that was an insane ride for us.

The guy was just a great, great actor.

Again I can't stress enough that fans should
re-visit The Last Man On Earth.
This is the original screenplay adaptation
of the 1954 Richard Matheson novel, I am Legend,
and after much Hollywood contract-shifting,
was finally filmed in Italy on a small budget.
Don't watch it for the comparison to Will Smith
in the new I am Legend or Charlton Heston in
The Omega man, but for Vincent's finesse.

The tortured mental dialogs that he has with himself
in living through, and documenting his last days
of survival, after the death of his wife and child.
Brilliant portrayal, of a man at the end of his rope.
After the virus took over, the doctor even kept working
on an anti-viral serum, as well as reminiscing through
painful memories, flashbacks, as well as home movies
of his wife and child, and his now venomous brother in-law.



...another childhood memory of ours, is the the dialogue spoken
by his brother in-law, once a trusted medical student and assistant
to the doctor, as he haunted Vincent, surrounding the house with
his fellow feral ghouls and infected zombies every night:

"Morgan......come out........Morgan....come out, Morgan....."



Study Vincent Price in this film role.
Even his thoughts about the garlic
in the supermarket freezer he stashes....
The drinking of coffee, carrying the
coffee pot and cup around with him....
His garage generator...getting some sleep...

They just don't make films like that
anymore and they surely don't feature
the eloquence of such an actor.

He was a very detailed man in his craft, in his art,
in his cooking as a chef, and in every aspect quite
an accomplished man. I just saw this film again
recently after seeing the third version of
I am Legend starring Will Smith, and the original
film remains the best of the three.

It's a Classic.

[Mufflover]

Originally Posted by haldane4

I saw him on telly today in Laura but thought he was very miscast as a sort of nasty fop. It was an early role when he hadn't really found his niche yet....

Yes, he was not good in Laura. The fact is, he found his niche very early on, when on Broadway he played the creepy husband who seeks to drive his wife mad, in the play called Gaslight in London and Hollywood and Angel Street on Broadway.