Scream and Scream Again Dvd Talk
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Double Feature: THE Oblong Box |
 | The Ellipsoidal Box MGM Domicile Entertainment 1969 / Color / 1:78 anamorphic sixteen:9 / 91 m. / Double billed with Scream and Scream Again / Street Date August 27, 2002 / $fourteen.95 Starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Uta Levka, Sally Geeson, Alister Williamson, Peter Arne Cinematography John Coquillon Production Designer George Provis Motion-picture show Editor Max Bridegroom Original Music Harry Robertson Written by Lawrence Huntington Produced by Gordon Hessler, Louis M. Heyward Directed by Gordon Hessler |
Said to have been begun by the ill-fated Michael Reeves (Witchfinder Full general), The Oblong Box is a very handsomely mounted Gothic that has a fairly unusual story to keep it from resembling a Hammer simulated. Information technology too can boast good direction, convincing settings, and first-class acting. Just its thin morality play doesn't quite mobilize its throat cuttings and premature burials to accomplish any great Gothic heights.
The Oblong Box is not at all bad - it has interesting performances from Price and Lee, although they have no real scenes together. While there's a mystery afoot, the motivations of the unusually sane 'mad' hooded killer are fairly complex.
The story is basically a mix of the premature burial story with an undeveloped voodoo tale. Ever since the '50s, horror tales were exploiting the African revolts that relieved England of her 'white man's burden'. Hammer in particular used colonial guilt as a peg on which to hang stories of vengeance by vengeful cults and deities from the Third Globe. The Mummy is an obvious example, but the theme institute political expression in The Stranglers of Bombay earlier condign a staple in shockers similar The Reptile and Plague of the Zombies. The essential thought of the evil done past white men, coming back to haunt them in merry England, presented fables about racial tensions in a remote Gothic setting where political correctness could be maintained.
The actual mechanics of the body-snatching in The Oblong Box is good - neither the graverobbers nor the cops are silly-oaf comic relief (nicely negating a Hammer given), and the unfolding of the mystery is reasonably accomplished among all the skullduggery and mayhem.
(possible spoilers)
There are at to the lowest degree two weak ingredients, however. The African bending is unclear in that we can't tell if the killing of a young boy that starts the terror, is adventitious or not. The idea that the wrong brother paid the price for the crime is well laid-out, only since we never know how Julian runs his African plantation, or whether he deserves to suffer so, the connections never come home. If both brothers were rotten colonial exploiters, how more than innocent could Edward have been than Julian, anyway? Furthermore, too nailing him through his hands and mutilating his face, information technology's never stated what magic has been worked on poor Edward. When we finally see him, he honestly doesn't look that bad. And nosotros never really encounter Edward behaving in a deranged manner. He seems to have kept his absurd even while cached alive, which is more than you can say for Ray Milland. At the decision, the exotic African sickness nosotros thought was a smokescreen excuse for Edward'south imprisonment, appears to accept been real all along.
The story has a nice circle of abuse. The duplicitous Julian thinks he's paid off the crooked lawyer Trench to snatch a body, simply Trench kills somebody instead. His helpers are paid. The no-nonsense real bodysnatcher might equally well accept a marriage menu, he'southward so professional. Information technology's interesting that he alone of the cast has the sense to know when enough is enough. Dr. Neuhart pays the graverobber, and is given a 'research grant' by his murdering houseguest. And it'south difficult to take also seriously the African Justice angle, when the local witchdoctor-practitioner, North'Galo, is constantly trading knockout pills and deadly blowdart killings for cold cash.
The exploitation content varies. In that location's fiddling or no gore in the very fake throat-slashings, simply the $.25 of nudity aren't every bit dumb as the displays in typical Hammer output. A fairly irrelevant setpiece takes place in a brothel, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Edward seems to be too resolute a revenger to be sidetracked past the prostitute Heidi (Uta Levka, also from Scream and Scream Again); if we're expected to believe he'south gained a heart and is searching for the maid Sally (Sally Geeson), the script should accept given him the opportunity to institute more of a relationship with her.
The story dishes out some just desserts merely doesn't requite us the satisfaction of seeing everyone learn much from the events. Vincent Toll only gets to proceed on heart-searching, wondering what his newly-transmitted affliction volition exercise to him. Well-nigh everyone else is carved upward. Witchfinder Full general's Hilary Dwyer does a overnice chore of brightening the bear witness, and Price's servant is nicely played by Michael Balfour (memorable as MacBeth's central henchman a couple of years afterwards). None of the supporting players tin can exist faulted, and those rewarded with reasonably-adult parts, like Peter Arne equally Trench, do excellent piece of work.
If The Oblong Box had found a spark of its ain, or had explored its characters a bit more than, as with The Tomb of Ligeia or Witchfinder Full general, information technology might have get a pocket-size classic.
MGM's copy of The Oblong Box is very handsome indeed, and in widescreen looks much ameliorate than it did flat on AMC. The celebrated John Coquillon shot both of these Gordon Hessler films, and with its bonny interiors, this is by far the meliorate-looking of the two. For those who merely recollect the theatrical release, it deleted 1 conversation between Price and Hilary Dwyer, rearranged some scenes, and of grade censored the nudity. This original cutting is the same as what's always been on home video, so what'south hither won't be a revelation for most fans (as Murders in the Rue Morgue might be: its cable version is a rarely-seen original cutting).
The and then-and then trailer lacks a narration rails, which accounts for its periodic repose sections. Trailer materials aren't vaulted or protected with every bit much care as they should be, which is why we encounter so many of them textless or sans voiceover: the only surviving elements are often ones prepare bated for international export utilize.
| | Scream and Scream Once again MGM Dwelling Amusement 1969 / color / ane:78 anamorphic sixteen:nine / 95 m. / Double billed with The Oblong Box / Street Date Baronial 27, 2002 / $14.95 Starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alfred Marks, Christopher Matthews, Judy Huxtable, Yutte Stensgaard, Anthony Newlands, Michael Gothard Cinematography John Coquillon Production Design Bill Constable Movie Editor Peter Elliott Original Music David Whitaker Written by Christopher Wicking from a novel by Peter Saxon Produced by Louis Yard. Heyward, Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky Directed past Gordon Hessler |
Scream and Scream Once again is always interesting, even if it's non very good. What reads like a unique blend of crossed genres, plays more like a massive story chopped down to fit a television upkeep.
As is obvious from the synopsis, Scream and Scream Again is a complicated web of spies, police procedural, and Frankenstein-similar medical experiments. Part of its notoriety comes from rave coverage in Phil Hardy's film encyclopedias (it rates writeups in both the Horror and the Science Fiction volumes) and the enthusiastic approval of Fritz Lang, who virtually this fourth dimension was quoted every bit admiring this film, 2001, a Infinite Odyssey, and Jesus Franco's Succubus. 1 Scream and Scream Again has a lot in common with Lang'due south groundbreaking Mabuse and spy films, at least on its surface. But it'south likewise humorless and unexciting.
Horror fan expectations are immediately foiled when the show limits its three major stars to a few brusk minutes of screen fourth dimension, as relatively minor players. They take nigh no scenes together. Peter Cushing's role should take been billed as a cameo, and Christopher Lee's is so devoid of context, even his formidable presence makes little impression. We come across Lee only three or four times, and in each brief appearance he could near exist a different character. Vincent Price has somewhat more to do, but he'south an obvious mad doctor from the showtime, which drains all the suspense (and bluntly, any freshness) from the medical horror subplot.
The major characters are played by relative unknowns. Main among the villains is Marshall Jones' Ruritanian spy Konratz, who has a lot of screen time but no personality; when he'southward offscreen, we tend to forget what he looks similar. Dedicated police force detective Bellaver has the most developed graphic symbol, and with nobody else to hang on to, nosotros resent his elimination before the finale. Equally it turns out, like too much in Scream and Scream Again, he'due south practically irrelevant to the story.
Often, a reviewer will pronounce a complicated moving picture every bit incoherent simply because he didn't care enough to pay attention to the details. That'due south not the case with Scream and Scream Again; what may have started every bit a peachy concept remains a dislocated mess, even after a second shut viewing. A script-writing grade might find this film a better subject for study than a truly good film.
What we've got hither is a poorly structured script, in which characters never develop and connections don't connect. It's like opposite ellipsis - the cardinal fabric is missing and what'due south left is the flat and anticipated stuff that should have been skipped. Fourth dimension is wasted with the capture and torture of refugee Stensgaard, a digression that has no identify in the plot and tells us naught nosotros don't already know about Konratz. In fact, all we see of Konratz' mysterious foreign land is a frontier gate in a divided city, a green field, and several bars offices. Is this just a disguised East Berlin, or some new Fascist land?
The long pursuit of killer Gothard eventually leads usa to Toll, but the constabulary aren't very suspicious of the haughty doc, even before they're warned off the instance. When we find that the nurse who drugs the amputee, is the prowler who steals back Gothard's severed hand for Cost, in that location's no thrill, as we've already guessed the connections. Of course we're interested in discovering why the jogger is losing a limb per day, merely we've figured out what's happening for ourselves long before the answer is officially revealed in Dr. Browning's freezer. Finally, the bulk of the film is a standard law drama like one we'd see on goggle box, with padded car chases and discotheque action. The step between scenes is fast enough, just too many of the scenes are flat and predictable stuff - filler instead of key content.
In that location'south some involvement when pathologist Sorel and lady cop Sylvia go sleuthing on their own, but it comes to nothing when she's gear up as a standard damsel in distress, and he serves as a pair of ears to whom an unmotivated Dr. Browning tin explain his research. When Konratz and then Fremont arrive to wrap upwards the show, information technology's like they've come from a different movie. The finish is just more predictable mad-doctor fighting in the mad lab.
The prove ends up as a mediocre police investigation movie, intercut with an unconvincing and under-developed spy story. They dovetail into a cartoonish mad-doctor plot that wandered in from The Frozen Dead. The styles don't mesh.
When Lee drives away at the end, nosotros notwithstanding know too trivial of this incoherent story. Are Sorel and Sylvia to be elminated for knowing too much? Is this medical conspiracy separate from the government or part of it? Is Konratz the 'foreign' agent for the conspiracy, or just a superman gone wild in a dissimilar way than serial killer Keith? What does the conspiracy want, anyway? A master race? Political command by substituting synthetic people for politicians? How did Keith go loose, or did Browning but ready him free? Why is Keith a killer? Why is he a vampire? Is Konratz a vampire equally well? How can Fremont back Browning into the acid bathroom just by staring at him? Is Fremont a superman likewise? Not simply is the unfolding of this story non very exciting, it's frustratingly unenlightening - nosotros know less when we finish than when we started. Nosotros don't feel the same exhilaration, every bit after a complicated thriller like The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.
MGM'south DVD of Scream and Scream Again looks simply dandy. The image is far brighter than the old VHS transfers, and the xvi:9 framing gives the compositions some needed focus. Happily, the music rail has been returned to the original cues - this was nonetheless some other of Orion'south substitution soundtrack victims. The trailer is not bad, but it laughably mis-identifies Marshall Jones as Peter Cushing (!!!) in one ID shot. Information technology also has an alternating take of Michael Gothard's superhuman climbing of the quarry wall not used in the characteristic proper, probably because it was besides funny-looking.
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Oblong Box rates:
Movie: Practiced
Video: Excellent
Audio: Good
Supplements: Trailer
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: August viii, 2002
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Off-white, and Poor, Scream and Scream Once more rates:
Picture: Off-white +
Video: Splendid
Sound: Skillful
Supplements: Trailer
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: August viii, 2002
Footnote:
1. We had a visit from Lang in 1972 at UCLA, where he looked tired only mentally abrupt. He said that from 1966 on his vision was so poor that he only got the 'gist' of what was happening on-screen in 2001, but it was enough to impress him. Equally he was probably legally bullheaded in 1972, I wonder to what degree he was able to really see the films he praised.
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