Price-Told Tales

Vincent Price is well known for his collaborations with William Castle (The House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, both in 1959) and Roger Corman (House of Usher, 1960, and Pit and the Pendulum). Two of his lesser-known efforts made with other directors are currently available on Netflix: The Conqueror Worm (aka The Witchfinder General, 1968) and Madhouse (1974).

Price was almost exclusively making horror films in the 1960s and 70s. Many of these were adaptations of works by Edgar Allan Poe. However, calling them "adaptations" is an exaggeration.For the most part, Corman and his cronies at American International would take a Poe title and come up with a mostly unrelated plot that featured Price.When American International agreed to co-finance the British production of The Witchfinder General, they demanded two things. First, the movie would star Price. Director Michael Reeves wanted Donald Pleasance for the role of 17th century "witchfinder" Matthew Hopkins but had to defer to AI, rewriting the script to fit Price's style. Second, AI changed the name of the movie for its U. S. release to The Conqueror Worm, a poem by Poe which bears no resemblance to the film.

The movie follows the exploits of Hopkins and his assistant John Stearne as they accuse, convict and condemn people as witches during the English Civil War. Price is magnificent as the witchfinder, cold and deceitful. The movie has no real supernatural elements to it; rather, it focuses on the torture inflicted by the witchfinders for its horror. The filmmakers had to back off their original script because of the amount of gore and sexual innuendo. The movie seems rather tame by modern standards but still is effective in its fictionalization of this disturbing figure from British history.

Madhouse is a more typical Price vehicle. He plays an aging horror star who is accused (but never convicted) of killing his fiancee. After spending some time in a mental institution, he is asked to reprise his most famous screen role, Dr. Death, for television, and more deaths follow him. Price is joined in the movie by his horror rival Peter Cushing, who plays Dr. Death's co-creator. It was the third of four collaborations between the two horror superstars. The plot is ridiculous (how many times must a suspect be present at the death of another murder victim before he's arrested?), but it's still fun to see Price playing a parody of himself and to see him wearing the Dr. Death makeup, no doubt an homage to The Abominable Dr. Phibes, in which Price had starred in 1971.

Also available on Netflix now, two of Price's most famous films: The House on Haunted Hill (which will also be featured this Halloween on UALR University Television) and The Fly. Why not make it a marathon of "Price-Told Tales" and watch all four this Halloween?