Tuesday 24 November 2015

Yours To Own! | The Vincent Price London Legacy Tour Poster by Graham Humphreys

 From UK's celebrated quad-father, Graham Humphreys (Evil Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street) comes this limited edition tour poster, signed by both Graham and Victoria Price. Only 100 were printed for the Vincent Price London Legacy Tour, and only a handful now remain. So get yours while stocks last!

****PLEASE NOT ALL STOCK IS NOW SOLD OUT***


   POSTER SPECS • Size: A2 (594x420mm) • Printed on 200GSM silk, 4/0 colour

Friday 20 November 2015

Twice-Told Tales gets a Kino Lorber Blu-ray release

A Terrifying Trilogy of Passion, Poison and Possession! 

It's spine-tingling terror in triplicate virtuoso of horror. Vincent Price dials up the depravity in this spellbinding trilogy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's chilling classics!

Dripping with demented genius, poisonous plants, oozing blood and a corpse in a wedding gown, Twice Told Tales spins three gripping, diabolical nightmares of madness, mayhem and murder most foul.

Price stars in all three stories, including Dr Heidegger's Experiment, about a scientist who finds the fountain of youth... and lives to regret it; Rappaccini's Daughter, the twisted tale of a demented father whose love for his daughter turns poisonous; and The House of the Seven Gables, the ghostly legend of an ancient cursed family who lived for power... and died for greed.


Out on Blu-ray and DVD (Region A, in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio) from Kino Lorber on 1 December 2015.

Special Features
• Audio Commentary by Film Historians Richard Harland Smith and Perry Martin
• Trailers From Hell with Mick Garris
• Trailers for Twice Told Tales, Tales of Terror and Black Sabbath

UK fans might be interested to know that Final Cut Entertainment also put out a new DVD release of this title back in May 2015, although the only extras included were a stills gallery.



Thursday 19 November 2015

Scream Factory's The Vincent Price Collection III Artwork Revealed

Just released is the artwork (again by illustrator Joel Robinson) for Scream Factory's THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION III Blu-ray box-set.

The titles in this collection will be Master of the World (1961), Tower of London (1962), Diary of a Madman (1963), Cry of the Banshee (1970) and An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe (1970).

While detailed specs and extras are yet to be revealed, word has it that Scream will be releasing both versions of Cry of the Banshee (which I covered in Issue 14 of We Belong Dead). Now if only someone in the UK could do the same.


Pre-order now @ https://www.shoutfactory.com/film/film-horror/the-vincent-price-collection-iii and receive a limited 18” x 24” poster of the artwork that you see pictured here.

Monday 16 November 2015

Ennis Brown and the House on Haunted Hill


One of my favourite sites about weird and curious places is Atlas Obscura; and its always a joy to find a Vincent Price link. In mapping six of Hollywood's finest horror houses, their Cartography of Horror article made Frank Lloyd Wright's 1924 gem, The Ennis Brown, their No1 horror abode.


Located in Los Feliz Hills, the house's exterior was famously used in the opening of William Castle's Emergo gimmick frightener House on Haunted Hill (1959), in which Vincent Price's millionaire Frederick Loren threw a ghost party for his adulterous wife (Carol Omhart).


If you want to read more and find out what the other five houses are (then click here), otherwise here's the colourised version of the movie to watch (again) now:


Wednesday 11 November 2015

Abertoir 2015 | The International Horror Festival of Wales celebrates the legacy of Vincent Price

Over the next six days, I'm in Aberystwyth in south east Wales for Abertoir, which turns 10 this year. And with Vincent Price as its patron saint, the legacy of the iconic actor is being celebrated big time with screenings of the Dr Phibes films and Scream and Scream Again (on blu-ray), plus Victoria Price returns to give a presentation on her dad's legacy, while I'll be presenting a talk on the UK-made horror flicks he made between 1963 and 1983.

But the big treat is an exhibition of film posters and memorabilia, all from my own collection, which currently graces the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Here's two very short video tours for your viewing pleasure.




The Vincent Price London Legacy Tour | Thanks for making it so special

Thanks to everyone for making the first-ever Vincent Price London Legacy Tour such a success and thanks to Victoria Price for being such a trouper joining us in the celebrations which included her fantastic presentation at Barts Pathology Museum, breakfast at Harrods to celebrate the UK launch of the 50th anniversary of her parent's Treasury of Great Recipes, and an all-day trip to Lavenham in Suffolk where we visited the town square and Guildhall where Witchfinder General was filmed, as well Kentwell Hall for an informative tour of the magnificent Tudor mansion (off season) which was led by the Hall's owner Mr Philips.

Lots of people have been asking if we could do this tour again and the answer is 'Yes!' I plan to organise another event next year, which will include one night in Burys St Edmunds (where the cast and crew of Witchfinder originall stayed) and a visit to Orford Castle, plus all the other locations used in the film. If you are interested then register your interest by emailing peter@thesoundofvincentprice.com

Now here's some pics from our last couple of events.






Friday 6 November 2015

The Vincent Price London Legacy is in full swing!

Just taking a breather between all the fabulous events we are staging here in London this celebrating the UK legacy of Vincent Price, with the help of his daughter Victoria, and a group of wonderful friends and fans.

Its such a blast, I thought I'd share this snaps: first up our tour of Kensal Green Cemetery (which appeared in Theatre of Blood) and Grim's Dyke Hotel in Harrow (where Cry of the Banshee, amongst other classic British horrors, was filmed). Last night we also got a blazing performance by Animat of The Last Man on Earth, where Victoria gave a fantastic introduction, which will be a warm up to tonight's big presentation at Barts Pathology Museum.

Tomorrow we're celebrating the UK launch of the 50th anniversary reprint of A Treasury of Great Recipes at Harrods, with a private tour of the Food Halls and breakfast (there's a couple of tickets left, so grab them before day's end - CLICK HERE)

Check what's happening on Twitter: #‎Londonlegacytour2015‬





Tuesday 3 November 2015

Catch Vincent Price as The Last Man on Earth live in London!


On Thursday 5 November, Victoria Price will introduce a special live performance of Animat's blistering electronic score to the classic sci-fi The Last Man on Earth, at The Islington in north London, kicking off at 7pm. Tickets still available so grab them here.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-last-man-on-earth-live-score-with-animat-tickets-16979208269


To celebrate the event, here are 10 things you might not know about the 1960s sci-fi classic.  

1) It was written by the legendary author Richard Matheson The film is based on the American writer’s first novel, I Am Legend, for which he got a $3000 advance from Gold Medal Books. Published in 1954, its paranoid post-apocalyptic scenario struck a chord with a Middle America in the grips of McCarthyism. The first modern vampire novel and this first film version also proved a huge influence on George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. It was later filmed as The Omega Man with Charlton Heston in 1971 and as I Am Legend starring Will Smith in 2007.

Last Man on Earth (1964)  

2) It could have been a Hammer film called The Night Creatures Following the success of The Quatermass Experiment (aka The Creeping Unknown) in 1955, Hammer Films paid Matheson $10,000 to adapt his novel for the British studio, with Val Guest lined up to direct. However, the British censors turned the script down fearing it would be too graphic. Hammer, however, kept the title rights and later used it for their 1962 period adventure Captain Clegg.

 Last Man on Earth (1964)  

3) B-movie producer Robert L Lippert brought it to the screen Lippert wanted to film Matheson’s script in 1959 under the title Naked Terror. But ended up securing a co-production deal with Produzioni La Regina in Rome for parent company 20th Century Fox who retitled it The Last Man on Earth. Like Hammer, Lippert ended up using his title for a 1961 documentary about Zulu tribal practices, narrated by… Vincent Price. Matheson, however, was upset by the rewrites and ended up taking his name off the credits and using a psedonym, Swanson. Lippert was also responsible for Hammer's 1954 noir thriller House Across the Lake (check out my review here).



Last Man on Earth (1964)

 4) It gave Vincent Price a long holiday in Rome At the end of his first contract with AIP (which had preventing him from undertaking any other horror roles), Price scored a three-picture back-to-back deal in Italy in 1961. So, while filming the swashbuckling pirate adventure Rage of the Buccaneers and the sword and sandals intrigue Queen of the Nile, he and wife Mary got a long stay in one of their favourite cities ‘digging around’ the ruins and art troves. The Last Man on Earth was filmed in January 1963 (according to Lucy Chase Williams in The Complete Films of Vincent Price).

 Last Man on Earth (1964)  

5) Price gives one of his most underrated performances As the soiled suited 50-year-old scientist Robert Morgan, Price might be light years away from the Matheson’s 30-something everyman factory worker hero (Robert Neville) in the novel, but he lends his shabby sophisticate a subtle sense of restrained dignity that emphasizes Morgan’s displacement in the film’s zombie vampire infested wasteland.

 Last Man on Earth (1964)  

6) It was shot in the dead of winter The film’s eerie post-apocalyptic look was achieved by the film’s cinematographer Franco Delli Colli shooting in the early hours and Vincent Price hated it. ‘I never was so cold in my life as I was in that picture. I had a driver, and I used to tip him a big sum to keep the car running so I could change my clothes in the backseat’, recalled the actor at the 1990 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors.

  Last Man on Earth (1964)  

7) It was filmed at the legendary Titanus Studios The film is supposed to be set in Los Angeles, but the landscape is unmistakably the outskirts of Rome. That’s because it was shot entirely on location and at the Titanus Studios. The 100-year-old family run studio established by Gustavo Lombardo is as much a part of world cinema history as the famed Cinecittà, and has been home to peplum and classics like Visconti’s The Leopard. Today it serves as a television production facility and was recently honoured at the Locarno Film Festival. There's even a museum dedicated the studio in Torino (check it out here).



The Last Man on Earth (1964)  

8) Vincent Price visits the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in the EUR district of Rome An icon of Fascist architecture, the Square Colosseum, as its known, was constructed in 1935 by Mussolini for his planned 1942 world exhibition, and was intended as a large scale image of how urban Italy might have looked had his fascist regime not fallen. The iconic building can also be seen in films like Federico Fellini’s Boccaccio 70 episode, Peter Greenaway’s Belly of an Architect, and the 2005 sci-fi Equilibrium. From 2015, it will serve as the new HQ for the fashion label Fendi.


The Last Man on Earth (1964)  

9) The Paul Sawtell soundtrack is pretty cool, too! The film is highly praised for its moody soundtrack, which is quite collectable now, and is by Paul Sawtell, who did heaps of 1950s sci-fi movies, including the two Fly movies starring Vincent Price, as well as the theme tune to TV’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which Vinnie once guest starred. Order it out (here).



Last Man on Earth (1964)  

10) It’s in the public domain… There are lots of bad prints streaming on YouTube and cropping up in many a DVD collection, but I've found the best looking one so far. There's even a colourised version available (but I prefer the original black and white). So? What are you waiting for?