Théâtre de sang

Vincent Price is at his extravagant best in this splendidly black comedy in which some complacent critics receive a cunning come-uppance from the dreadful actor who they drove to suicide. Some brilliantly staged imaginative deaths are the icing on the cake, making this a bit like a very camp "Friday The 13th". But who wouldn't rather watch Vincent at his best than boring old Jason ?

Vincent Price plays Lionheart, an actor who specializes in Shakespeare. But he's been getting bad reviews, and did not receive the Critics Circle award. There's only one thing to do: kill off each of the critics in a style modeled after a Shakespearean death.

Although not a Phibes film, this is clearly in the same grouping as "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" and its sequel, coming only one year later, and following much the same formula: a man who was thought dead goes after those who wronged him in a methodical manner (here, Shakespeare) and with a female assistant. They also asked Robert Fuest to direct, clearly trying to make the picture as similar as possible.

There are some great scenes, and for me none more memorable than Price's disguise as Butch, the effeminate hair dresser. In general, the whole idea of hippie, homeless slaves (who seem to like big mustaches and afros) is just plain silly, but works in this case.

Price is alleged to have loved this role, and Diana Rigg (who plays his daughter) is said to find this her favorite role. I have to say I prefer "Phibes", but there's never a bad time for Vincent Price, especially when he's on killing spree.

"Reasonbran 234" (Nov 6 2001) takes out the award here for the most literate, apt and concise review of Theater of Blood. This WAS Vincent Price's finest screen moment and I recall clearly at the time, one particular UK critic who suggested "This brilliant film will probably require a generation before it can ever be held in the esteem to which it is entitled!"

Way too literate for mainstream horror fans' taste - it was so much more. Few had the theatrical flourish of Vincent Price and he was just so perfectly cast as the acting-legend-in-his-own-mind disfavored by a cross section of critics that may otherwise have steered his career on to the rocks. Taking "tragedy" to a new level, he REALLY silencies his critics once and for all, taking them out one by one in escalatingly appropriate Shakespearean circumstances.

Black black dialog with the Bard's turn of a phrase pervades the entire film. Yeah its gory - so's Macbeth! It is also one of the greatest horror comedies ever devised, with A-List acting credits.

Quite simply, NOT to be missed!

A very stylish comedy/thriller along the lines of "The Avengers," a popular TV series at the time. Vincent Price is an actor who has survived a suicide attempt and secretly takes revenge on half a dozen critics who savaged his performances in various plays of Shakespeare. With the aid of his daughter, Diana Rigg (who was Emma Peel in "The Avengers" and one of the mean daughters in Olivier's TV production of "King Lear"), seeks out his critics and offs them in ways appropriately derived from WS. It's murder allright. And WS could be very imaginative when it comes to that. I once wrote out a list of the violent acts that take place in "Titus Andronicus," the closest WS ever came to Grand Guignol, and it was as long and even more gruesome than a similar list I drew up for "Dirty Harry." "Titus" has one of the funniest stage directions I've ever seen -- "Enter messenger with hands." It doesn't mean the messenger HAS hands; it means the messenger is carrying a pair of someone else's amputated hands! At that, they had to tame the Bard down for this movie. Instead of Queen Tamara having to eat her own children baked in a pie, the gay critic played by Robert Morley is force fed (to death!) a Cornish pasty made from his two beloved poodles.

Back to this movie, though. What a cast! Vincent Price plays it for laughs, disguised as a gay hairdresser, a Scottish masseur, a French chef, and so forth. His half-hearted, mostly losing struggle with the various accents is enough to break anyone up. The others don't have as much screen time but they make the most of it -- Harry Andrews, Dennis Price, Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins, Coral Browne, Milo O'Shea. Diana Rigg is a sight to see, I should mention. Every movement is like flowing silk. Her figure is unimpeachable and her zygomatic arches should be left to the British Museum.

It's a well-done movie from start to finish. Vincent Price gets to do a lot of Shakespeare. He's no Olivier or Branaugh, but it's okay because the performance ought NOT to be very good. The cinematography is glossy and polished, the score unobtrusive. The actual look of the film is appealing -- the British now how to dress in a way that most Americans don't (but many urban Canadians do). And the writer should get some sort of special award himself. The bits in between the murders are almost as amusing as the story itself. We get to hear snippets of the reviews that torpedoed Price's career. One of them goes something like, "I was fortunate enough to fall asleep at the beginning of Lionheart's performance and awoke much refreshed, not having had to listen to this aging matinee idol's rantings and posturings." (Was the writer ripping off John Simon?) The story line is made clear, whether or not the viewer knows any of the plays. The correlations with the plays are made simply enough for an average reviewer to understand and appreciate the similarities. And the murders themselves are funny -- excuse me. One critic gets drowned in a butt of malmsy -- a barrel of wine -- and the police establish the exact vintage afterward.

I don't want to imply that this movie is a barrel of laughs. There is some physical comedy, including one of the sword fights from Romeo and Juliet, but most of the humor lies less in slapstick and jumping around than in situations and dialogue. Price and his assistant dressed in hospital scrubs, wearing surgical gloves, and setting a bedroom up as an operating room in order to saw off some guy's head. The parody is played straight. You will probably not double over with laughter but I found myself laughing aloud during some scenes. To give you some perspective, I didn't find "The Abominable Doctor Phibes" so hot. I recommend this flick. It is, as I say, stylish in every respect.

There's a lot of commentary on this film here; however, I want to draw attention to the use of dream structure in this movie. People that appeared normal to the victims at first are suddenly balding, idiotic savages. A man looks to a policeman for aid and the audience suddenly notices that his face is not entirely real. The experiences of the victim of Lionheart (Price's character in this movie) each resemble a dream suddenly turned nightmare. It was a very effective device for a horror movie.