Vincent Price playing a hammy theatre actor, delivering Shakespeare monologues, right before taking revenge on a critic who’s wronged him, played by a gallery of great British character actors (Harry Andrews, Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins), and the bloody murder has some thematic tie to a Shakespeare play. And then you have Diana Rigg playing Price’s daughter who is a devoted accomplice? (Singing) These are a few of my favourite things…. Everything I want in the movies!
As a horror comedy, Theatre Of Blood (1973) is no doubt influenced by Price’s earlier film that decade, The Abominable Dr Phibes, and this has the sting of an EC comics/Amicus horror movie with the grotesque ways each pompous critic is dispatched. And it’s pretty straight forward, repeating the same scenario as the investigating police (led by Milo O’Shea) are always five steps behind. A terrific vehicle for Price which allows him to shine as a slyly wicked screen presence. Ian Bannen is also reliable as the head of the critic’s circle, and the main antagonist. And when Robert Morley’s character is introduced cradling two poodles as his beloved “children,” I didn’t have to type into doesthedogdie.com to know something awful was going to happen.
Great fun, and high on my list for favourite Vincent Price movies alongside House On Haunted Hill and The Masque Of The Red Death. Recommended.
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