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Original Zone 2 3xDVD box set.
Limited Edition German Box set, containing 3 DVD's. Also contained in the box is a 20-page booklet (in German) on Poe and his works.
Disc 1: The Oblong Box.
Starring: Vincent Price & Christopher Lee.
Widescreen / Dolby digital 2.0 / 92 minutes.
Langage: German and English.
Special Features: Bio-and Filmographies of Price, Lee and Uta Levka. OriginalUSA trailer, German Trailer, Interview with Uta Levka, Slideshow.
Just as Karloff, Lugosi and Chaney were the horror actors of the 1930s and 1940s, the 1960s belonged to the trinity of Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. While Lee and Cushing worked together often, collaborations with Price were much less frequent. This DVD offers such a rare collaboration. Price plays a wealthy gentleman who has just returned from his African plantation, where his brother was hideously deformed as part of a native ritual. The brother, confined to Price's house, fakes his death and is buried alive, only to wind up in the custody of some grave robbers, who sell him to Lee, a doctor who hides him. The brother's quest for revenge occupies the rest of the movie.
Disc 2: The Premature Buriel.
Starring: Ray Millard & Hazel Court.
Widescreen / Dolby digital 2.0 / 78 minutes.
Language: German and English.
Special Features: Roger Corman interview(producer & director), Original USA trailer, Image Gallery, Bio- and Filmographies.
Emily Gault arrives at the Carrell mansion determined to rekindle an old relationship with Guy Carrell, despite the disapproval of his sister, Kate. Guy overcomes his all-consuming fear of being buried alive long enough to marry Emily but soon becomes obsessed again, building a crypt designed to guarantee that he will not fall prey to his most dreaded nightmare. Trying to prove that he has been cured of his phobia, he opens his father's tomb and is shocked into a catatonic state. His worst fears are realized as he is lowered into a grave and covered over, apparently never to learn that the treachery of someone very dear to him was directly responsible for his predicament.
Disc 3: The Haunted Palace.
Starring: Vincent Price, Debra Paget & Lon Chaney Jnr.
Widescreen / Dolby Digital 2.0 / 84 minutes.
Language: German and English.
Special Features: original USA trailer, German TV and Video trailers, Image Galleries, Film and Biographies.
You can tell from the opening titles that The Haunted Palace will be unusually lavish for a Corman movie, even a "Poe adaption" (this nominally combines Poe with a Lovecraft-based plot.) The music is good, some of the best of any horror film of the 60's. And the credits play over actual footage, not just swirling paint. The sets and design are good, far better than the norm for AIP. The script is a solid one, from Charles Beaumont, who was likely hamstrung by circumstance in a few places, but nonetheless spins an effective and detailed if somewhat familiar tale. And the cast delivers: Price is his usual fantastic, craven, hammy self. The Juniors (Lon Chaney and Elisha Cook) are mostly wasted, but then again with a few notable exceptions (Spider-Baby, House on Haunted Hill) they always were after the 40's; it's just good to see them working. And Debra Paget is simply stunning, with any acting ability being a definite but superfluous bonus to the proceedings. The plot has to do with a warlock (Price) being burned but cursing the townfolk and swearing his return and revenge. Years later, the warlock's good-hearted descendant (also Price) returns to the village to claim the warlock's mansion. He finds a town in waste, frightened villagers who give birth to hideous mutations, and of course, some lingering resentment. How long will it be before Price is possessed by his ancestor through the evil painting over the mantel? As you know, not too long. Price then continues his ancestor's evil work of sacrifice and trying to conjure up an ancient monster from the pit in his basement. You've likely seen it before, though maybe not in a movie from the 60's, and it's punched over with relish and skill here, not to mention some genuine gruesomeness, and will be very enjoyable to genre fans. And did I mention the music is good? Sure, the ending lacks clarity, if not conviction (What exactly happened to the monster?), but overall HP may just be the best adaptation of Lovecraft material out there, watered-down as it is.
