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Theatre of Blood is one of the all-time classic Vincent Price movies, in my book. That, and the two Dr Phibes films (also out next month from Arrow) freaked me out as a child big-time.
As I found out during my brief time doing stand-up comedy, critics are harsh beasts. One young lad even wrote on a website – and I knew who it was as I’d seen them at the gig itself, “Dom Robinson is the opposite of funny”. Fortunately, for him, while I thought he was a prat of the first order, I had no desire to kill him.
Unfortunately, for the critics who lay into Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart, played with perfection by Vincent Price, he DOES want to kill them, and he’ll do it in the best way possible – one that cleverly reflects a death from a number of Shakespeare plays.
In fact, one of the characters who scared me the most in this is the guy with the glasses during my favourite dish (two words: “Poodle pie”). I think it’s the fact that you can’t see deep into his eyes, so he comes across as more weird than most. Or maybe it’s ELO’s Jeff Lynne after a heavy night?
In addition, Arthur Lowe is one of the critics who also loses his head, literally, but how can this great actor meet a violent and bloody death in a horror film when, after making my parents laugh in Dad’s Army, he also made my childhood by brilliantly and sarcastically voicing the Mr Men cartoons!
There’s also an awesome moment when Lionheart’s daughter, Edwina (Diana Rigg looking stunning), meets critic Peregrine Devlin (Ian Hendry) for the first time, resulting in an exchange which she partly delivers direct to the camera, her piercing eyes making it feel like she’s addressing the audience as part of a play; quite apt when those are what the plot centres around.
And of course, one of the critics he bumps off is Coral Browne, as Chloe Moon, who went on to be the real life ‘Mrs Price’ for the best part of 20 years.
It’s also amusing when Larding, prior to his death, goes to a wine-tasting evening and is invited by ‘Jeff Lynne’ to try the white, but the subtitles say “sip of wine”. Well, what else would he be drinking on a wine-tasting evening – Jagerbombs?!
And while Lionheart needs henchmen to help him out, we know he’s barmy from the off, as he hires an unpaid bunch of homeless meths drinkers to do his bidding. Bit of a schoolboy error, that one(!)
Theatre of Blood is also a great example of how you can pack the murders into a horror film without making it drag on forever like a modern film would, stretching it out to 142 minutes just for the sake of it.
Theatre of Blood is released on Blu-ray and Blu-ray Steelbook on May 19th 2014.
Go to page 2 for the presentation and the extras.
The film is presented in the original 1.66:1 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high defintion and, on the odd occasion, there’s a slight flicker to the print which feels a bit odd, but this is brief and not something that should put you off buying this release, especially when you consider that you’re watching a 41-year-old film with fantastic defintion and clarity that, on the face of it, doesn’t feel like that old a print.
Yes, there’s the odd minor defect here and there, but nothing you wouldn’t expect from a film of this age and, quite frankly, those are part of the charm, given its vintage.
For the record, I’m watching on a Panasonic 50″ Plasma TV with a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
Sound-wise, the film was made in mono but what it lacks in split-surround effects, it more than makes up with in atmosphere.
The extras on this disc are as follows, most of which are in HD:
- A Priceless Pot-boiler (11:46): Victoria Price, the daughter of the great man himself, discusses Theatre of Blood and how she’s watched this film possibly more than any of his others, before moving on to talk about his work in general.
- A Fearful Thespian (10:42): Film historian David Del Valle – who also looks a little like Price – about Vincent’s role in this film, and how no-one had a bad word to say about him… apart from some critics…
- Staged Reaction (9:21): An interview with Madeline Smith, who played young secretary Rosemary in the film and is still looking good today, he recollections starting off with how she had to be blonde to be in it, and so went to the hairdressers… without thinking that she could’ve just worn a wig. It looks like the quality of the actors in the film distracted her.
- A Harmony for Horror (17:37): Composer Michael J Lewis gives his thoughts on the film, as well as showing us his sticker, “Have you hugged your piano today?”, and it’s one of those moments that reminds me how I wish I hadn’t quit learning piano when I was young. He’s there to put more emotion and warmth into a scene when the actors feel they haven’t quite hit the mark.
Oddly, there’s some pixellation at the start of this extra, but it sorts itself out after that.
- Original trailer (2:32): The only non-HD extra, and it’s presented in old-style 4:3. It’s rather gruesome as it stitches together all the deaths!
And since it’s in 4:3, when it lists the names of the actors, most of them are cut off the sides of the screen! Ah, the good old days of cropped images(!)
- Booklet: Also included in the package is a 32-page booklet featuring a piece about the making of the film by Cleaver Patterson, accompanied with many pictures from the film, plus some original press book excerpts and the news that the transfer was taken from a new 35mm Interpositive, done on a Spirit Datacine, with the audio made from the restored mono optical soundtrack negative.
- Audio commentary: with the League of Gentlemen people, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Jeremy Dyson and Reece Shearsmith. How many all-time classics can boast them four on their extras? Not many, I’ll bet. In fact, I’ll presume none is the answer.
As you put the disc in, the menu bursts into life with clips from the film and a piece of the main theme. There are subtitles in English, but when it comes to the chaptering, I feel one should come every five minutes on average. Arrow, like many other distributors, go for a low 12 however long the film. I would like them to increase that number.
A limited edition Steelbook is also available, below.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
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Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 104 minutes
Year: 1973
Distributor: Arrow Films
Released: May 19th 2014
Chapters: 12
Cat.no: FCD887
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: 1.0 Dual mono
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.66:1
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Douglas Hickox
Producers: John Kohn and Stanley Mann
Screenplay: Anthony Greville-Bell (based on an idea by Stanley Mann and John Kohn)
Music: Michael J Lewis
Cast:
Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart: Vincent Price
Edwina Lionheart: Diana Rigg
Peregrine Devlin: Ian Hendry
Trevor Dickman: Harry Andrews
Miss Chloe Moon: Coral Browne
Oliver Larding: Robert Coote
Solomon Psaltery: Jack Hawkins
George William Maxwell: Michael Hordern
Horace Sprout: Arthur Lowe
Meredith Merridew: Robert Morley
Hector Snipe: Dennis Price
Inspector Boot: Milo O’Shea
Sergeant Dogge: Eric Sykes
Rosemary: Madeline Smith
Maisie Psaltery: Diana Dors
Mrs. Sprout: Joan Hickson
Mrs. Maxwell: Renée Asherson
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
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