Stills from the 1974 A.I.P. release were all over the place in magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland when I was a kid,making me anxiously await seeing it back then.Despite that,and the pairing of legends Vincent Price,Peter Cushing,and cult actor Robert "Count Yorga" Quarry, who all give acceptable performances,the production is bogged down by uninspired direction,unimaginative deaths(for the most part),hokey effects,and a Phibes-esque twist ending.Price's movies,for the most part,are like pizza though.When they're good(Witchfinder General,Abominable Dr. Phibes) they're phenomenal,and when they're bad(Beach Party,War Gods of the Deep),they're still pretty good.Price always delivers.That said,this is no doubt a lesser example of his rich body of cinematic work,spanning fifty-five years until his death in 1993.
Dr. Death(Price),whose presence commands a lot of ...well,death.
Paul Toombs(oh brother),a Hollywood actor known for playing horror icon "Dr.Death",is having a party,screening his older films for his guests before announcing his upcoming marriage to an up and coming blonde starlet.Producer Oliver Quayle(Quarry) mentions in passing that Toombs' wife-to-be,was a former porn actress of his.Oops.Then someone lops off her head upstairs in the bedroom.When Toombs discovers her body,he screams into the camera,giving the viewer an unsettling fish-eye view of each and every one of the fillings in his mouth.Brrrrrr.This nervous breakdown forces the actor to take a long sabbatical in the local squirrel farm.
Toombs(Price) does a heckuva lot of extreme close up screaming in this one.
Writer Herbert Flay(Cushing) scores a tv series based upon the Dr. Death character,and calls upon the frazzled Toombs to revisit his famous part,produced by the same Quayle who pissed upon his disastrous wedding plans years earlier.Only now,people are dropping like flies on the set and off,being killed by someone dressed as the diabolical doctor.But is it Toombs,driven mad by watching archival footage from The Raven,Haunted Palace,and Tales of Terror(all earlier Price films,mind you)?Or is someone trying to finish the job they started earlier when they removed his fiancee's head?Will Toombs get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings or will he deliver a hammy ten minute solo speech,burning the corpse of a young love interest,the horror set,and himself,before revealing he knew all along that it was Flay's jealousy that caused him to try and frame Toombs for the murders,leading to a final battle that kills the writer in a pit of daggers,leaving Toombs to make himself up like Flay and laugh about the whole thing over dinner with a horribly burned former fling who now plays with spiders,some of which are of the dime store rubber variety?I think we both know the answer to this one.
Flay(Cushing)and Toombs get some down their necks.
At a costume party,Cushing and Quarry both dress like vampires,ironically,since Cushing made the Van Helsing character famous in Hammer films,and Quarry played A.I.P.'s hit vampire Count Yorga years earlier.Wink,wink.There are some gaping continuity problems here as well,dead bodies that breathe heavily,Cushing's character never leaves a tv audience during the time he's supposed to be off murdering,and the aforementioned rubber dime store spiders,but still,a decent way to occupy some Wednesday night time,regardless of the many shortcomings.You never really can go wrong when sitting down to a Price film,even one so lifelessly produced such as this one.Due to the cast and their admirable go of it,I give this:
What Vincent Price movie would be complete without a lengthy delivery of grade A ham?
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