This is Vincent Price's finest screen moment, and co-star Diana Rigg’s favorite film role, as his supportive daughter. It is also one of the most literate horror films ever made. Few actors possess the theatrical flourish of Vincent Price, and he was perfectly cast as Edward Lionheart, a veteran stage actor often dismissed or underrated by the critics. He can handle only so much negative press before he flips his lid, and goes on a killing spree. Vincent Price is so talented at playing a mad man, it is uncanny. He REALLY silenced his critics once and for all. And where did they find these “theater critics”? I have never seen a more self-important, unlikeable bunch of snobs gathered in one movie. True casting genius. Seeing them brutally dispatched one by one in a medley of appropriate Shakespearean circumstances was a joy to watch. Both Price and Rigg were truly great thespians of the English stage, and some of their soliloquies are wonderfully delivered; especially Diana’s heroic death scene. This is not a ha-ha comedy, but I was amused by the Lionheart’s very creative and funny disguises. Lionheart had saved each bad review he's had gotten and dispatches the critics with a method from the play. Some of the Bard's works used are from Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, Titus Andronicus, and King Lear and others.
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AuthorWritten by Ben Clark. Copyright 2016-2023. All rights reserved. Archives
August 2023
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