Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Nigel P Down the main road that runs alongside the home of pompous local Civil Servant and critic George Maxwell (Michael Hordern) runs a delivery van – Shakespeare's Deliveries, of course. Maxwell is immediately a caricature of authority; self-important, arrogant and very easy to manipulate. His ego is massaged sufficiently by a call from the local police to help rid a doomed warehouse of a gang of meth drinkers and vagabonds. The first glimpse we see of the mighty Vincent Price is behind a heavy moustache and police uniform, as he ushers Maxwell towards the unsightly crew of grubby tramps. Clipping them with his umbrella and advising them to leave the vicinity immediately, Maxwell finds the atmosphere quickly turns sinister as bottles are broken and the sneers and gurgles of the incapacitated characters are directed towards him. The two policemen stand by as the vagrants rip him to shreds. An exaggerated establishment figure he may be, it is nevertheless very satisfying to see his pomposity pricked like a balloon as it slowly dawns on Maxwell he is beyond help.Maxwell is part of a group of similarly snotty art critics who have all savaged the career of hopeless Shakespearian ham Edward Lionheart (Price), who apparently killed himself as a result of their hostile reviews. Even his apparent suicide is an embarrassing over-the-top performance (the final goodbye to his critics is greeted by cruel sneers and jibes as, tortured by his own madness, he throws himself into the sea). Yet, he still lives, and with the aid of his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg, unconvincingly disguised as a male throughout – I mention that not as a criticism; she is an extension of her father's lack of subtlety after all), aims to kill every one of the group utilising scenes from Shakespeare's finest.And what a group they are. Among the many elaborate and memorable deaths, Horace Sprout (Arthur Lowe) is beheaded as he sleeps next to his wife. The maid comes in with the breakfast, screams as she sees the blood, which wakes Mrs Sprout (Joan Hickson), allowing the dismembered head to roll onto the floor, giving her convulsions. Later that morning, Peregrine Devlin (Ian Hendry) idly retrieves the milk bottle from the front step only to find Sprout's head wedged onto one of the bottles. Later, Robert Morley's camp dog-lover Meredith Merridew (and his beloved poodles) appears to win a celebrity competition in which he is treated to a painstakingly prepared delicacy, lovingly crafted by a disguised Lionheart and his crew. Naturally, Lionheart's chef is a ham with an awful accent, casually plucking hairs from Merridew's dinner. That he is eating his own dogs may not be a huge surprise, but the revelation is horrifying and utterly repellent ("Pity. He didn't have the stomach for it").It is difficult to name a favourite film from Vincent Price's incredible career. For my money it comes down to his restrained performance as the cruel Matthew Hopkins in 'Witchfinder General (1968)', and this, the opposite extreme and a gift of a part for Price's finely honed excesses. Often caked in the grotesquery of theatrical make-up, his playing of OTT Lionheart allows him every opportunity to give the largest of performances, whilst always remaining in character. And yet such is Lionheart's self-belief and misplaced dignity, he becomes far more than a hopeless ham: he is a truly tragic, misunderstood figure, so engulfed in his theatricality that he is little else without it. His loyal daughter adds to this awful nobility, as do his audience of the meth-drinkers we saw at the start (they pulled him from the stagnant waters after his elaborate suicide). They applaud his over-acting in return for the coins he throws benignly toward them. Douglas Kickox's tremendous direction adds further colour to this, closing his cameras tightly on Lionheart's performances, barely containing them, and then zooming out slowly to find it being paraded in the isolation of an abandoned and ramshackle theatre. What an incredible creation Lionheart is.With a cast including further veteran stalwarts as Joan Hickson, Arthur Lowe, Jack Hawkins, Dennis Price and Diana Dors, this is as great a horror film as Lionheart perceives himself. The finale is spectacularly sliced grand-guignol, with Rigg imploring the band of stoned vagrants to help her doomed father before being killed herself, leaving him trapped, totally deranged and beyond hope, in his burning theatre. This time, there is no mockery or sneering at his final performance. Hendry's admiration for him is so grudging, however, it makes us wish he too had been one of the victims. An outstanding film.

Hitchcoc This role was the perfect vehicle for Vincent Price. He was truly one of the greatest actors of American cinema. For some reason, he never got the credit due him and he labored in B-horror movies. This is one of them, but it calls for a masterful performance by its lead. When Price, who only does Shakespeare's plays, is not given an acting award, he decides to do away with himself by drowning. He does not succeed and decides the next best thing would be to start killing all the movie critics. He does this with Panache, using scenes from Shakespeare as the vehicle for doing these guys in. Of course, Price is utterly nuts, but what actor would you rather see as an insane killer than Vincent Price. It is indeed a bloodbath, but it is charming and funny as Price mugs for the camera, enjoying every moment.

oOoBarracuda My love affair with Vincent Price continues. I have been recommended Theatre of Blood from several sources that I trust and couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it. The 1973 film directed by Douglas Hickox stars Price as an embattled actor seeking revenge on the critics that have panned him his entire career. Often noted as one of Price's best horror roles, he proves the notion that no one can play Vincent Price as well as Vincent Price could.No one takes their acting as seriously as Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price). Completely engrossed in his life's work Lionheart was completely broken when he lost the critic's acting award after a season's worth of Shakespeare performances. Lionheart took his acting too seriously anyway, so being enveloped by the Bard's work did little to calm Lionheart's fire. He didn't think there was any way he could miss out on his "due" reward after giving such masterful Shakespearian performances. No one was more surprised than Lionheart when he lost the award prompting him to confront those critics that voted against him. Each of the critics makes a joke out of his appearance inciting Lionheart to jump from the room to his presumed death. When the critics that voted against Lionheart begin to turn up dead, many believe Lionheart, or perhaps his spirit is responsible for the murders. Can the puzzle be solved and the culprit be captured before each of the critics is murdered?Each of the killings somehow corresponding to the role Price's Lionheart played that the soon-to-be-murdered critic reviewed was cinematic genius to watch unfold. The camera angles in this film were more than I ever expected from a horror film. It's worth mentioning that horror films weren't always pure slashers as they predominately are now. Horror films used to be quite masterful and this film is a good reminder of that mastery. I've only seen a few Vincent Price films but I am thoroughly convinced that no one could have played Lionheart like Vincent Price. It requires the ham and willingness to overplay oneself that Vincent Price was known for and even acknowledged himself. Plus, any film that shows you Vincent Price in an afro is one that should be seen, even for that reason alone. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm still not "over" my discovery of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I noticed several similarities between the two. For instance, in Rocky Horror, Tim Curry plays a lead who is extremely disillusioned in his own powers and ability. Likewise, in Theatre of Blood, Lionheart is not nearly as gifted of an actor as he believes he is. Lionheart also has an assistant that that is very much like Riff Raff in Rocky Horror. Even the ending scene of the murderer ascending the wall saving the only person that's ever mattered to them is reminiscent of the ending of Rocky Horror. It is well documented that Rocky Horror pays homage to B-horror pictures of Universal, but with Theatre of Blood premiering just two years before Rocky Horror, it may have acted as an influence, as well. Theatre of Blood is a great watch, making me scared to fulfill my dream of being a movie critic which means that it perfectly succeeded as a film.

mark.waltz When an actor takes themselves as seriously as Vincent Price's Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart, the worst thing a critic can do is pan their performances or refer to him as the biggest ham since Porky Pig. In the case of "worst thing", that goes for the critics, not for Price, because after years of being rejected for London's top theater honors, he plots out a grand exit that would make Hamlet, King Lear, MacBeth and Othello applaud. You see, Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart does nothing but Shakespeare, and he overdoes it so much in the eyes of the critics, they have no choice but to condemn him. Confronting them at their annual committee meeting, Price curses them all out then makes his exit, through their skyscraper window to his supposed death.As time passes, several critics begin to meet their doom from extremely bizarre methods. The remaining begin to think there is some plot against them, and of course, they are right. If only they knew the truth, which is too funny in a macabre manner in which to describe here. This is a dark and funny grand guignol where the American born Price (still seeming very British, which I'm sure many of his fans thought he was anyway...) takes similar trails as he did in "Dr. Philbes", going from the medical profession into the theatrical. Decapitation, electrocution, suffocation and other brutal slayings, all done through Shakespeare's best plays, some grotesque, others hysterically funny, are presented in full bloody detail here, and are played with some of Britain's greatest character performers, including real-life future wife Coral Browne who really gives a hair raising performance here. Robert Morley gets a bit stuffed here too, and others such as Jack Hawkins and Michael Hordern have memorable demises as well. Milo O'Shea is properly confused as the detective, and Diana Rigg goes from lovely to looney as Price's grieving daughter. Think of this as "Sweeney Todd" on acid.