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(1911–1993). American actor.
Acted in
television: "A Christmas Carol" (1951), episode of Family Theatre;
"Night of Execution" (1955), episode of Climax; "Operation Flypaper,"
"One Thousand Eyes" (1956), episodes of Science Fiction Theater; "The
Perfect Crime" (1957), episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; "The Foxes
and Hounds Affair" (1965), episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; "An Egg
Grows in Gotham/The Yegg Foes in Gotham" (1966), "The Ogg and I/How to Hatch a
Dinosaur," "Louie the Lilac," "The Ogg Couple," "Catwoman's Dressed to Kill"
(1967), episodes of Batman; "V Is for Vampire" (1967), episode of F
Troop; "The Deadly Dolls," episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
(1967); "Is This Trip Necessary" (1969), episode of Get Smart; "Love and
the Haunted House" (1970), episode of Love American Style; "Class of
'99" (1971), "The Return of the Sorcerer" (1972), episodes of Night Gallery;
The Aries Computer (tv movie) (1972); An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe
(tv movie) (1973); Alice Cooper: The Nightmare (tv movie) (Joorn Winther
1975); The Hilarious House of Frankenstein (tv series) (1975); "Black
Magic" (1976), episode of The Bionic Woman; episode of The Muppet
Show (1976); Ringo (tv special) (1978); "The Boy Who Left Home to
Find Out About the Shivers" (1984), episode of Faerie Tale Theatre.
Also: episodes
of Lights Out and The Web.
Voice for
animated films and television: The Butterfly Ball (Tony Klinger 1976); Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs (1984); Pogo for President: "I Go Pogo"
(Marc Paul Chinoy 1984); Ruddigore (tv movie) (1985); The Thirteen
Ghosts of Scooby Doo (tv series) (1985–1986); The Great Mouse Detective
(John Musker, Dave Michener, Ron Clements, and Bunny Mattinson 1986); The
Nativity (short) (1986); The Little Troll Prince (tv movie) (1987);
"How Sweetie It Is" (1991), episode of Tiny Toon Adventures; "A Day at
the Races and a Night at the Opera" (1994), episode of The Critic; Arabian
Night (Richard Williams 1995).
Hosted: Once
upon a Midnight Scary (tv movie) (1979); Dracula: The Great Undead
(documentary) (1985); Escapes (David Steensland 1986); Creepy
Classics (compilation) (1987).
Hosted tv
series: ESP (1958); Time Express (1979); Mystery
(1981–1989).
Narrated: Naked
Terror (documentary) (1961); Taboos of the World (documentary)
(Romolo Marcellini 1965); Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle,
and Federico Fellini 1969); The Beginning of the End of the World
(1971); The Devil's Triangle (Richard Winer 1976); The Strange Case
of Alice Cooper (documentary) (1979); Days of Fury (documentary)
(1980); Vincent (animated short) (Burton 1982); The Sorcerer's
Apprentice (short) (1986); America Screams (narrator) (1987); Don't
Scream It's Only a Movie (documentary) (Ray Selfe 1989).
And yet, and
yet—to paraphrase Brian W. Aldiss on Hugo Gernsback, Vincent Price was one of
the worst disasters to ever hit the horror field. Single-handedly, he almost
managed to destroy the entire genre. Everything that we admire about the horror
films of the last forty years represents a vehement, visceral repudiation of
Price and everything he embodied.
If these
sentiments seem extreme, consider for a moment any of the films of the 1960s,
1970s, and 1980s that served to fruitfully redefine the horror film—and the
short list might include Psycho, The Night of the Living Dead, The
Exorcist, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street—and
imagine what those films would have been like with Vincent Price in the cast.
The conclusion is inescapable: with Price as the investigator of Marion Crane's
murder, or the exorcist, or the policeman chasing Freddie Krueger, it would
have been absolutely impossible to take the film seriously. Instead of a horror
film, it would have become a parody of, a pastiche of, a tribute to, a horror
film. It might have entertained audiences, but it never would have terrified
them.
To understand
why this would have been the case, it is necessary to consider Price's acting
style, and the peculiar moment in the history of the horror film when he made
his presence felt. Even at the start of his career, Price was already an
anachronism, a throwback to the fading school of film acting that emphasized theatrical
flamboyance appropriate to the stage but overblown and alienating on screen,
with exaggerated facial expressions, grand gestures, and precisely articulated
speech almost becoming an affected British accent. It is little wonder that,
after some initial flirtations with horror, Price usually found himself cast in
period films; in an era when Hollywood was falling in love with Humphrey
Bogart, Price was channeling Ronald Colman. By the 1950s, as Price neared the
age of forty, he was apparently on his way out, destined for oblivion.
At that time,
an observer might have said the same thing about horror films. After a decade
of glory—the 1930s—and a decade of treading water—the 1940s—horror
films now faced the challenge of a new film genre, science fiction film, that
suddenly made the horror film seem passé. In the midst of giant dinosaurs,
flying saucers, and aliens, it was suddenly hard to arouse interest in vampires
or reanimated corpses. Eventually, ways would be found to make the horror film
exciting and relevant again, but in the meantime a different sort of survival
strategy gradually became evident: if horror films could no longer be
impressive in contemporary settings, they could become stylish period pieces,
set in Victorian times and decorated with classy antiques. The horror film
could be reinvented as an exercise in nostalgia, an appealing re-creation of
bygone times for filmgoers willing to settle for tepid jolts of fright amidst
colorful and dignified splendor. And here was this actor, Vincent Price,
ideally suited for such old-fashioned dramas and available to any producer with
a slightly-higher-than-rock-bottom budget. It would be, as Price might have
announced with florid, pseudo-macabre glee, "a marriage made in Hell."
Strangely,
even though the first artifact in this tradition—Price's 3-D remake of House
of Wax—was a big hit, Hollywood producers were slow to recognize the
box-office potential of this new approach to horror, and it was left to
Britain's Hammer horror factory to really get the ball rolling with the
anachronistic Cushing/Lee remakes of Dracula and Frankenstein. In
the meantime, Price was killing time with occasional parts in mainstream films,
dreary gimmick films from William CASTLE, and oddities like The Fly and Return
of the Fly, where for once Price was perfectly justified in treating the
goings-on around him as a silly comedy. But that wily cheapstake Roger CORMAN
recognized that easy money could be made following the Hammer example, and
further realized that he could avoid the costly copyright issues that might
arise from adaptations of old horror films if he went even further back in time
to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, all safely in the public domain. The less said
about the miserable string of Corman/Price Poe adaptations that ensued, the
better; Masque of the Red Death was a little bit better than the rest,
and was accordingly proclaimed a masterpiece, while the openly farcical but
relentlessly unamusing The Raven was the worst. In between these
unrewarding assignments, Price kept himself busy with other forgettable
comedies (like the Dr. Goldfoot movies) and excursions into television
(including an overpraised turn as Bat-villain Egghead). One film director,
Michael Reeves, unwisely tried to use Price in a genuine horror film, Witchfinder
General, but Price was visibly uncomfortable in that milieu.
As he entered his sixties firmly enshrined as the Grand Old Man of Horror
Films, Price became the centerpiece of a series of relatively big-budget
films, each seemingly designed as his elegant swan song: The Abominable
Dr. Phibes and its sequel, Theatre of Blood, and Madhouse.
All of these remained films that fans wanted to like more than films they
could sincerely like, but Theatre of Blood commands attention in
large part because of the presence of Diana RIGG,
who admirably took her murderous business seriously even if her on-screen
mentor could not. Yet even after this series of last bows, Price sadly
could not bring himself to retire, and the last fifteen years of his career
ended up a sorry mess: more television work, lots of voiceovers for animated
films and documentaries, appearances in justly-overlooked films, and two
heartfelt but embarrassing tributes from the worshipful Burton.
Unlike Karloff and Bela LUGOSI, who have long
lingered on after death as recognizable icons, Price now appears to be
vanishing from the cultural zeitgeist, his stately manner and polished
voice no longer deemed necessary in an age that cherishes genuine horror
but is no longer amused by its pale simulation. Vincent Price was a man
of many admirable qualities, and he brought many admirable qualities to
his screen performances, but he crucially lacked a sense of conviction,
a real belief in and commitment to the essence of the crudely powerful
genre that he endeavored to remake in his own elegant but shallow image.
He was long esteemed as a master of horror, but after decades of viewing
his work, the mask is finally crumbling, and everyone can see the face
of the clown who pretended to be a monster.
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