Duckyworth's Thoughts: Theatre of Blood~1973

Nov 3, 201231 min read

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Duckyworth

Published: Nov 3, 2012

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Good evening, my undead servants....

Tonight, I have booked a seat for all of you, in a performance unlike no other.... a rendition of the works of the great Bard, William Shakespeare

, where you will be DYING to see more, and in my personal opinion, the best of the late Vincent Price's performances.... Take your seats.... in the THEATRE OF BLOOD!

Vincent Price is known for having been a man of many talents - having been a talented gourmet cook, art collector and (obviously) an extremely talented actor from 1938 (Service de Luxe) to 1992 (Edward Scissorhands). Some of my favourite of his performances are as Professor Ratigan (the Disney villain in Basil the Great Mouse Detective - 1986), as the Scientist in Edward Scissorhands, many of his Edgar Allan Poe film adaptation performances (The Raven, Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum and Tales of Terror) House of Wax (1953 - the first 3D film in cinemas to land a top ten position in the American Box Office) and in The Invisible Man Returns (1940).

He even had his own cooking show, wrote numerous cookbooks, narrated Michael Jackson's Thriller, read numerous Edgar Allan Poe writings, was a good friend of Tim Burton (and narrated his 1982 short film Vincent, which was an obvious homage to Price's works) and even appeared in an episode of The Muppets where he got bitten by a vampire Kermit!

But, perhaps my favourite of his horror films his performance as the crazed thespian Edward Lionheart in the British 1973 horror film Theatre of Blood, which shows just how great the works of William Shakespeare and Vincent Price can be.

So, this critique is going to be written in memory of the actor Vincent Price.

First of all... when you hear a theme like THIS www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJFCLy… in the opening credits.... you KNOW you're in for a great time... It reminds me slightly of themes from horror films like Child's Play... they almost seem soothing, but you KNOW that this horror film can offer some creepy deaths and imagery... and this film does that greatly.... It also provides some real sad moments in the film - even though most of the film is pretty cheesy, and even funny and campy at times.. But that's one of the many things I love about this film...

And of course.. within the first five minutes or so.... we get the first of many grisly murders in this film....

The first of the critics, George Maxwell (played by Michael Horden), is lured to an abandoned warehouse by the 'police' and is asked to remove a group of tramps who have cluttered up the area...... But, alas, they are extremely violent.... and, a re-enactment of the murder scene from Julius Caesar is carried out.... 28 stabs to the chest.... and on the Ides of March (15th March).

Yes, 9 critics.... 10 plays in Edward Lionheart's repertoire.... and 10 chances to get revenge on the critics who denied his chances of fame and fortune......

I would NOT want to write critiques of any of Edward Lionheart's Shakespeare plays.... because the nine critics that reviewed his repertoire dubbed them terrible, and broke his heart.... After it appeared that he commited suicide, he was actually saved by a group of tramps, and he planned his revenge on the critics who wronged him.... murdering them each in a way according to the play that each of them wrote reviews of......

I'm not too familiar with most of the Bard's writings, but I can see that, through this film, most of his murder scenes that he wrote into his plays are not only well-written and designed.... but I can see just how HORRIFIC they must have seemed when Shakespeare's plays were first performed when he was alive...

One of the many delights this film provides is the creativity and execution of the murders... Like in Dead Space Downfall, they appear so creatively cruel...

As well as the Julius Caesar murder on Maxwell, Hector Snipe (played by Dennis Price) is speared, and his corpse is dragged by a horse, similar to the fate of Hector at the hands of Achilles in Troilus and Cressida, Horace Sprout (don't you just love these names?

By the way, Horace is played by Arthur Lowe, who also played Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army

) is decapitated in bed with his wife and his wife just discovers it as she wakes up (she was drugged to sleep) similar to Imogen awaking to discover the headless body of Cloten in Cymbeline, Trevor Dickman (played by Harry Andrews) has a pound of flesh removed - HIS HEART

- based on a pound of flesh offered to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Oliver Larding (played by Robert Coote) is drowned in a barrel of wine (similar to the murder of Clarence in Richard III), Solomon Psaltery (played by Jack Hawkins) is tricked into believing his wife is cheating on him, and he murders her, sentencing him to a life in prison (similar to a scene in Othello), Chloe Moon (played by Coral Browne) is electrocuted to death by some devious hair curlers

(similar to Joan of Arc being burnt at the stake in Henry VI: Part 1), and Merridith Merridew (played by Robert Morley, who also played Lord Rawnsley in Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines

) is choked to death on his two poodles baked in a pie (similar to Queen Tamora being fed the flesh of her two sons, baked in a pie, in the climax of Titus Andronicus.)
Yes......... sorry for any nightmares that these thoughts may have caused....

The premise is actually pretty similar to The Abominable Dr Phibes, where Vincent Price plays a serial killer who murders a group of doctors for failing to save his wife from death, in the style of the Curses of Moses...

However, one critic, the one who survives, Perregrin Devlin(played by Ian Hendry), suffers painful renditions of TWO plays in this film...

Well, he was the head of the Critic Circle, so I'm guessing Lionheart wanted to make his pain twice as painful...

He loses in a painful fencing match with Lionheart (shadowing the duel between Tybalt and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet) and he is almost blinded with two daggers (in King Lear, Gloucester was blinded to improve his judgement)...... If I was to ever review any of Lionheart's plays.... I have two things to keep in mind... One, stay positive, and two, let someone else be the head of the Critic Circle...

I have to admit, many of the murders did actually make me feel a bit uneasy when I first watched it, but the next few times, I found many of them more amusing (the music when Sprout is beheaded, the way that Lionheart is dressed up as a surgeon with his main assistant, a hippy

, and the music that plays, is especially funny.... and when he starts cutting Sprout's neck with a scalpel, the way he says 'Basin... BASIN!!' as he watches the blood start spurting is just comedy gold... in a dark way...

) However, the death I enjoy the execution of the most is the Richard III murder - Richard III was one of the Shakespeare plays I studied in secondary school English... and I enjoyed studying that play... and at that part, I enjoyed the memories of studying Shakespeare.

Another thing I love about this film is how Vincent Price makes an EXTREMELY convincing thespian... He actually admitted in an interview that he wished to appear in more Shakespeare works, but because of the number of horror films he performed in, it seemed he wasn't cut out to do Shakespeare work...

I for one think he could be a GREAT Shakesperean actor... The way he works so much emotion and energy into the lines he recites is just so entertaining in it's own right, and when you listen to the lines used in context to what is going on..... It all fits together perfectly... The atmosphere appears so heavy in so many of the scenes that the lines practically write themselves...

In the scene that he re-enacts Richard III, I actually turned the subtitles on, so I could read along... Again, it brought back memories of studying the play in English.

And, funnily enough, while the premise is horrific, we actually SYMPATHISE with Lionheart.... true, his way of getting revenge is monstrous, but when we see just how petty the critics are (apparantly, some of them represent the Seven Deadly Sins and this coincides with their deaths) and how much they destroyed Lionheart's dreams, and also left his daughter Edwina (played by Dianna Rigg) in a state of undying melancholy, we actually think to ourselves 'You know what? They deserve it!' And when his daughter dies..... the way that they both quote King Lear perfectly.... and how sad he sounds when he says it.... It is incredibly sad....

'Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones: Had I your tongues and eyes, I'd use them so that heaven's vault should crack. She's gone forever! I know when one is dead, and when one lives; She's dead as earth. '

I also love how STUPID the POLICE are in this.... They're supposed to guard the critics.... but they either miss the critics, are called away, or are just plain IDIOTS..... But of course... we want them to fail, as, again, we want to see the critics get murdered...

The only real flaw that I have about this film is how quickly it ends...... But then again.. only one main flaw is a great thing indeed.

If you would like to see Shakespeare's best AND worst... and Vincent Price's cool acting come together in perfect harmony, check this film out... Just be warned... you may never see Shakespeare in the same way again...

And, I would like to end this critique by saying....
RIP Vincent Price 1911 - 1993
And now, in honour of Vincent Price, I shall now insert quotes from Hamlet, and a quote from Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven..

'Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest....'

'And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!'