Film Review
Dr Phibes rises yet again - well almost - in this stylish near-remake
of the vindictive fiend's first gory outing in
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
(1971). This time, the homicidal maniac is a vindictive actor out
to settle a few scores with the critics who blighted his career, but
the plot is pretty well the same: a series of themed murders enacted
with dazzling panache and a surfeit of Grand Guignol theatricality by a
raving madman played to perfection by one of horror's great icons,
Vincent Price. The blood-soaked plays of William Shakespeare
provide the inspiration for each of the macabre killings, the Bard's
methods of dispatch given a twisted reinterpretation for darkly comedic
effect. For, despite its grisly premise,
Theatre of Blood is unmistakably a
comedy, all the more so for those who are well-versed on
Shakespeare. You don't have to be familiar with the cartload of
carnage that the Bard happily serves up in
Richard III,
Henry VI and
Titus Andronicus to enjoy this film
but fore-knowledge of these plays does add a certain piquancy.
At a time when horror was beginning to go out of fashion, companies
like Hammer and American International Pictures having pretty well
mined the genre to death,
Theatre of
Blood brought a fresh stimulus to the twitching corpse of
British film horror but it still feels like a valedictory piece.
It's a lavish production with a stunning cast, but you can sense it
marks the end of an era. Good-natured, stylised, tongue-in-cheek
horror films of this ilk would soon become a thing of the past, swept
away by a new wave of horror that offered far more realistic and
visually explicit thrills set in the real world.
It is not hard to see why
Theatre of
Blood was one of Vincent Price's personal favourites. Not
only does it allow him to do what he does best, let rip as a
deliciously evil villain, it also allows him to indulge his lifelong
passion for Shakespeare. If Price hadn't been such a success in
the movies he could conceivably have made a name for himself as a stage
actor, something that is readily apparent from his exquisite rendering
of the Bard's text in this film. Even though Price does (by
virtue of the character he is playing) tend to ham things up in a few
scenes, his interpretations of the famous soliloquies are charged with
genuine human feeling, his rendition of Hamlet's 'To be or not to be'
speech being particularly poignant.
Even with a cast that includes some of Britain's finest actors
(including two ex-Avengers, Diana Rigg and Ian Hendry), Vincent Price
dominates the proceedings from start to finish, stealing every scene as
he works his way through a bewildering array of guises. With a
witty and ingenious script to support him, and a director (Douglas
Hickox) able to make the most of his talents, Price turns in one of the
best horror performances of his career (just a notch below his greatest
performance in
Witchfinder General). As
a hideously twisted Shylock, Price makes Laurence Olivier look like
an effete amateur. Why the RSC didn't drag him into their hallowed
ranks after this tour de force is a total mystery. If only the
critics had been a little kinder to him...
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Edward Lionheart is convinced he was the greatest Shakespearean actor
of his day but instead of glory his final season of performances ended
in humiliation when a group of critics bestowed on a newcomer an award
which was his by right. The same critics had previously ridiculed
Lionheart in their scathing reviews of his work, but this final insult
was too much. Driven to suicide, the actor survives and embarks
on a gruesome plan of revenge. Lionheart has made up his mind to
kill each of the critics, taking his inspiration from the Bard
himself. The first victim is cut to ribbons by a mob of squatters
on the Ides of March, à la
Julius
Ceasar. The second is lured to Lionheart's theatre to be
murdered by the actor's accomplices, a gang of meths-drinking vagrants,
his carcass carried away by a horse, replicating the fate of Hector in
Troilus and Cressida.
Cymbeline provides a macabre touch
to Lionheart's next killing, a stylishly executed decapitation.
By now, the surviving members of the group of critics realise that
their lives are in danger and begin to wonder if Lionheart is still
alive. Suspicion falls on the actor's daughter Edwina, but she
insists that neither she nor her father has anything to do with the
murders. As the police continue their investigation more horrific
deaths follow in quick succession. Lionheart has no qualms over
altering Shakespeare's text to serve his purpose, as one critic
discovers when he is tempted into playing Antonio in an X-rated rewrite
of
The Merchant of Venice...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.