A tribute to Vincent Price
Pit and Pendulum, Raven, Other Movie Mischief Mark Sterling Career
May 1, 2009
Vincent Price began as a character actor in Hollywood, but found he could score leading roles when the screenplay involved madness and the macabre.
After hitting it big in House of Wax in the early 1950s, the rest was a snarky monster mash of fearsome fun. His career trajectory remained on a scary road that dead-ended at ghoulish Gothic castles and mansions. Most notable were director/producer Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe-inspired films in the 1960s, including House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum and The Raven, followed by wicked, nasty revenge films in the 1970s.
His Poe characters often would be in a homicidal rage one moment, then in a corner with a devilish grin the next. Many of them were tortured souls haunted by a lost love or ghastly creatures from experiments gone awry. He often played it so the audience felt for the guy, while feeling he should be in a strait-jacket nonetheless.
Vincent Price? Think Crazy, Kooky, Mischievously Spooky Uncle
He was that rich, eccentric, crazy uncle who never left his dark, dank, cobweb-filled home. Only this uncle had deep, dark, ghastly secrets that left him walking musty halls day and night, with a sense of regret hanging over him like a pall. A tribute short by director and ardent Price fan Tim Burton, narrated by Price, captures the vibe frighteningly well, using an imaginative boy as a plot device to celebrate the Vincent Price/Poe paradigm with relish -- and a slice or two of ham.
Oh sure, the audience wanted to know why the Poe characters were so depressed and haunted, but then again, the audience also knew that whatever the deep, dark secret was, it wasn't pretty.
Through it all, though, no matter how nasty the character, or scared, or creepy, Price always added a layer of mischief and snark that told the audience, "I know this overheated, ghoulish melodrama is a lot of hooey, but the world is a madhouse, and I am your mischievous host."
Revenge Tale Theater of Blood Was a Dish Served With a Side of Ham
Even as he grew more weary of the whole thing in the '70s, he still gave it his all in the Dr. Phibes revenge movies and what many view as his highest of high-camp pictures, Theater of Blood, in which he plays a hammy, Shakespearean drama queen of an actor who violently avenges perceived slights from theater critics who don't appreciate him.
And yet, he always brought 100 percent effort to the table, no matter how low-budget or low-quality the project was. Price was a pro, and he respected his fans enough to never phone it in, but this hard work always came with a sense of wit and winking camp, and that's what has charmed his fans. He was making fun of his creepy, menacing characters as early as the mid-60s in the teen beach movies of American International, which also produced Corman's Poe movies. He even spoofed his menacing characters in TV shows like Batman and the Brady Bunch.
In a mid-1980s interview, he talked about his attitude toward his craft: "The best of those movies that I did were the ones that made fun of themselves ... They didn´t take themselves seriously. Roger Corman, for instance, when we did The Raven -- 'The Raven' was the title of a poem. There is no plot. You can´t make a movie about 'The Raven'!
Price also sheds light on the undercurrent of winks and giggles in his Poe characters: "When they decided to use me for a series of Poe pictures, I sat down and I read Edgar Allan Poe, and I found out something which I suppose in the back of my mind I´d been told at some time, but I really didn´t realize: that about 70 percent of Poe´s work is satiric ... there are a great many of Poe´s poems that involve horror, but which also have a comic twist at the end ... And this, I decided, should be added to Poe. If I am going to do a Poe picture, I must add that essential twist of Poe´s character."
Actor Cooked Up More Than Horror Classics
Actor's sense of Price's playful acting style may also come from his passions off the set, which included collecting fine art and gourmet cooking. He admitted once that he did many low-budget horror pictures overseas so he could travel to Europe on studios' dimes and seek out artwork for his collection.
With such playful calculations behind these acting jobs, it makes one wonder how he ever kept a straight face on the set.
You can't put a price on a life full of this much fun.
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