The towering presence, the distinct voice, and a maniacal laugh like no other…Vincent Price was the consumate master of terror and one of a small cadre of actors best known for the mark they made on the horror genre (Peter Lorre, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi being the others). I don’t remember exactly when I saw my first Vincent Price movie as a child but I do remember that the experience changed my attitude about my middle name…Vincent…from one of dislike to one of pride. In rediscovering the films of Vincent Price as an adult, thanks in large part to the excellent MGM Midnight Movies collection, I have become a huge fan.

Today marks the 12th anniversary of the death of Vincent Price. Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri in May of 1911 and died October 25th, 1993 of lung cancer. In honor of this anniversary I’d like to discuss a few of my favorite Vincent Price films, but first a little history. Despite his macabre legacy, Vincent Price did not begin his career as an actor.

Vincent Price actually began his creative pursuits in the art world. He obtained degrees in Art History and English at Yale University, taught school for a year, and then went to London to receive a Master of Fine Arts. While in London Price got a taste for the theatre and began performing small roles on stage. This eventually led Price to Broadway as the leading man in the production of Victoria Regina opposite Helen Hayes. Vincent Price’s knowledge of and love of art never left him. In 1951 he founded the Vincent Price Gallery at East Los Angeles College and in later years during the filming of various horror films overseas he was able to procure pieces throughout Europe.

In the late 1950’s Vincent Price began what became a steady stream of now classic horror films. His place as a master of the genre was firmly established by his 1960 role as Roderick Usher in Roger Corman’s interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

This was Corman’s first Poe film. It was shot in 15 days with a budget of $200,000- a much longer shooting schedule and more costly film than Corman was used to. Despite the tendency for many horror films of the day playing to limited audiences this film ended up being one of the top 5 box office hits of 1960. It is by far my favorite Vincent Price movie and the sense of dread and suspense hold up as well today as they did when the film was made. It led to other Corman/Price collaborations one of the best of which is their second film, The Pit and The Pendulum.

This great double feature disk set contains two fantastic Price flicks. The first, Comedy of Terrors, is a black comedy featuring four Masters of the Macabre: Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. Vincent Price plays Waldo Trumbull. Together with his assistant (Peter Lorre) they have run Price’s father-in-law’s (Karloff) funeral home business into the ground. When their landlord (Rathbone) begins to hound them for payment the two set out to increase the need for their services the entrepreneurial way…by resorting to murder. The film showcases the marvelous comedic talent of all four actors. The Raven is based loosely on the tale by Edgar Allan Poe and stars Price, Lorre, and Karloff as wizards mixed up in a duel for magical supremacy. Both comical and suspenseful The Raven also stars a very young Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest film roles. Both films are great fun.

House on Haunted Hill is a William Castle directed film that employed many gimmicks that soon became common place in haunted house thrillers: blood dripping from the ceilings, severed heads, sudden skeletal appearances, eerie organ music. In this film Price is married to a greedy gold-digger who decides she wants a Halloween party for her friends. Price invites 5 guests, gives them each hand guns as party favors, and offers $10,000 to whoever will spend the night in his ‘haunted’ house. The movie is very tame by today’s standards but is enjoyable for not only the performance of Price but also the nostalgic look back at horror in a simpler age. One of the great things that theatres used to do in the past was employ gimmicks to scare audience goers. In the case of House on Haunted Hill the gimmick was Emergo…simply a skeleton on a guide wire that would emerge over viewers heads, appearing as if it came from the scream. While admittedly hokey sounding I imagine it would be quite a shock if you weren’t expecting it. (Another similar Castle gimmick was employed during the original theatrical run of Price’s film The Tingler, this time through the use of Percepto. Random seats were rigged with small motors that would come on during various scenes of the film giving the audience the perception that The Tingler was attacking them. I wish they did silly stuff like that today.)

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, produced in 1965, is one of the more fun films in Vincent Price’s carreer. A spoof on Price’s earlier horror films, spy thrillers, and the beach blanket movies this film also stars Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman (Dobie Gillis) and the beautiful Susan Hart…along with a bevy of “sultry, bikini-clad sex sirens”. Dr. Goldfoot (Price) builds an army of female robots, dressed in bikini’s of course, who are programmed to seduce the world’s wealthiest men into signing over their fortunes. After quick marriages said men are then to meet an untimely demise, leaving their fortunes to their beautiful wives…thus securing them for Dr. Goldfoot’s nefarious purposes. This is a very funny movie not the least because of dialogue that had to be considered very racy for 1965. Though tame by today’s standards the sexual innuendos are quite funny. Watching this film you can see where the ideas for a great deal of the first Austin Powers film came from. There are great cameos in this film as well from stars of the day including a very funny one of Annette Funicello. Great fun, I highly recommend it.

There are so many other great Price films: The Bat, The Fly, House of Wax, Tales of Terror, Haunted Palace, The Last Man on Earth, The Abominable Dr. Phibes…the list goes on and on.
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Tim Burton’s first film is an homage to the great Vincent Price. As unlikely as it may seem Burton’s first job was working for Walt Disney. It will come as no surprise that he had difficulty fitting in and could not adjust to the Disney style of drawing. Burton was on the verge of leaving Disney when he was given the opportunity to make a six minute short film based on a children’s story he had written. The story was about a little boy, Vincent, who immersed himself in Edgar Allan Poe and wanted desperately to become Vincent Price. The story was given to Price in the hopes that he would narrate and he heartily agreed, saying afterwards that it “was the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality–better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard”. Once Price was onboard the film was greenlighted. Vincent was shot with the combination of 2-D animation and the 3-D stop motion animation that would later make Burton famous with the film The Nightmare Before Christmas. I have not been able to find a downloadable version of the film but it is available as an extra on the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD. It is wonderful and well worth watching. You can read more about it here, including the poem/story that Price narrates over the animation. (The torrent link is still active on that site. You have to go to www.bittorrent.com to download the software and then download the Vincent Torrent file. It takes awhile but once done you can view in as an .avi in Real Player)
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Vincent Price was a terrific actor whose legacy goes far beyond his fantastic horror films. His art gallery and donations of art collections to various other galleries live on as memories of his artistic talent. And somewhere in the archives are episodes of a regular cooking show that Price hosted later in life…something I didn’t even know about until I started researching this post. I enjoy all the great masters of classic horror but have always held Price to be the best. Vincent, today you are remembered.