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Friday, August 2, 2013

The Oblong Box (1969)

Starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, Uta Levka, Sally Geeson
Directed by Gordon Hessler
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A wealthy landowner keeps his brother, maddened after his face is mutilated by African natives, locked in his room, but the man schemes with others to fake his death and escape.

Vincent Price's return to the world of Edgar Allan Poe, after making several Poe films for producer Roger Corman earlier in the decade, is quite different from those earlier films, with Price essentially playing a supporting character, and the angst and sense of dread all but gone from this adaptation.  The focus here is more centered on murder and revenge, with the new freedoms of 1969 allowing for flashes of gore and nudity.  Consequently, it doesn't really feel like an Edgar Allan Poe film until the ironic twist at the climax, but it's still a quality effort nevertheless, with good performances from Price and his fellow actors.

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