All Rise...

Judge Patrick Bromley is tPresident of the Vincent Van Ghoul fan club.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of The Bela Lugosi Collection (published September 26th, 2005), Dr. Phibes Rises Again (published March 7th, 2001), House On Haunted Hill (1958) (published September 13th, 2005), House On Haunted Hill (1999) (published April 21st, 2000), The Raven (2012) (Blu-ray) (published November 5th, 2012), RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill (published May 22nd, 2009), Vincent Price Double Feature (published December 23rd, 2004), and Vincent Price: MGM Scream Legends Collections (published October 8th, 2007) are also available.

The Charge

Get ready for seven chilling tales starring the master of horror Vincent Price!

Opening Statement

My beloved Scream Factory has been in the process of transferring a number of classic Vincent Price films to Blu-ray, including most of the movies he made for Roger Corman and AIP in the '60s. Following the stellar release of last year's The Vincent Price Collection, Scream Factory has gathered seven more titles—including the rest of the Price/Corman Poe adaptations—and packaged them together as The Vincent Price Collection II. It's the perfect set of movies to watch this Halloween season.

Facts of the Case

Here are the seven movies included as part of The Vincent Price Collection II:

The Raven (1963)
The only comedy of the Roger Corman Poe cycle, with Price playing the wizard Erasmus Craven, who pines away in his castle day after day, lamenting the loss of his wife Lenore. Craven is visited by a raven who turns out to Bedlo (Peter Lorre, M), a wizard who was transformed in a duel by evil magician Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff, Frankenstein). The two sorcerers team up to confront Scarabus in a showdown of comical magic. Jack Nicholson also stars as Bedlo's son.

The Comedy of Terrors (1964)
Another horror comedy uniting Price, Lorre, and Karloff, this time adding Basil Rathbone to the mix. Price plays Trumbull, a scheming undertaker, and Lorre his Igor-like assistant Felix Gillie, who happens to be in love with Trumbull's wife Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson, Death Race 2000). When business starts drying up, Trumbull comes up with a plan to keep afloat—by committing his own murders.

The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
The final film in Corman's Poe cycle is one of his most underrated, casting Vincent Price as Verden Fell, another mournful widower who is afflicted with a bizarre vision problem. When Verden remarries and moves his new wife into his mansion, he begins to be haunted by the spirit of his dead wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd, Head Office, in a dual role as both Price's first and new wife).

The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The first screen adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend casts Price as Dr. Robert Morgan, the titular last man on Earth, who is the only survivor of a strange plague that has transformed the world's population into vampires. He spends his nights hiding and his days killing the undead until he discovers he might not be the last human alive after all.

Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)
This sequel to 1971's The Abominable Dr. Phibes finds Price returning as the title character, a mute and disfigured doctor mourning the loss of his wife (yes, again) and seeking revenge on those he feels are responsible for her death. In the sequel, he plans to resurrect his wife by taking her to the River of Life in Egypt, which also inspires an Egyptian theme in his latest string of murders. He's also put into direct competition with a group of thieves led by Darrus Biederbeck (Robert Quarry, Count Yorga, Vampire), who wants to find the River of Life for his own purposes.

The Return of the Fly (1959)
Picking up some years after the original The Fly, the sequel finds Phillippe (Brett Halsey), the little boy from the first movie, now grown and seeking to recreate his father's experiments. Based on the title, you can guess that sooner a later a fly enters the picture. Vincent Price reprises his role as Francois, brother of the late scientist from the first movie and uncle to Phillippe, who refuses to participate in these new experiments.

House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Arguably the best movie ever directed by the legendary William Castle, House on Haunted Hill casts Price as rich eccentric Frederick Loren, who invites a group of strangers to earn $10,000 by spending (and surviving) one night in a haunted house. As you can imagine, they all get more than they bargained for.

The Evidence

As a lover of all horror from modern to classic, there are few genre figures I adore more than Vincent Price. Alongside icons like Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, Price is a guarantee that there will be one thing in any movie in which he stars worth watching. While he didn't always have the best quality control—he made a lot of movies—he never approached any of his roles half-heartedly. You'll never catch Vincent Price giving a bad performance—at least, not one he didn't give on purpose.

The Vincent Price Collection II kicks off with The Raven, a silly lark of a film and the only outright comedy of the Roger Corman Poe cycle. After filming "The Black Cat" segment of the horror anthology Tales of Terror earlier the same year, Corman realized that a feature-length comedy could be made with stars Price and Peter Lorre. Richard Matheson wrote a script that barely has anything to do with Poe's poem, and even that got thrown largely out the window once Lorre was on set improvising most of his role. The real appeal of the film—aside from the gothic production design and sense of atmosphere (there are few things I find more comforting than Corman's Poe movies; I can't quite put my finger on it, but even the way they sound is like a warm blanket to me)—is watching Price, Lorre, Boris Karloff and even Jack Nicholson in an early role clown around for 90 minutes. The film is draggier than it ought to be, particularly for a comedy, but that seems true of a number of Corman's Poe adaptations. They often have to stretch themselves to reach feature length. Luckily, a lot of the best stuff—namely the magic duel between Price and Karloff—is saved for the end, making the wait worth it. I would have a hard time defending The Raven as an objectively "good" movie, but I love it.

It's paired on Disc One with another horror comedy, 1964's The Comedy of Terrors. Porting over much of The Raven's cast—Price, Lorre and Karloff—and adding a very funny Basil Rathbone, it's more of a functional narrative than The Raven but loses some of that movie's goofy charm. Cat People's Jacques Tourneur directs with a real flair for pitch black comedy and Vincent Price, who was relegated to straight man in The Raven, gets to play a really nasty villain. It's all fairly broad and barely counts as horror, but it's hard not to have fun when this many icons are clearly enjoying themselves. The running gag with Rathbone is particularly inspired.

On the next disc is The Tomb of Ligeia, the last of Corman's Poe adaptations and one of my favorites. A number of the Poe movies feel very similar to one another: Vincent Price is tortured and distressed, usually over a lost love, leading to tragic results. Even with the sameness, it never feels like Price nor Corman is phoning it in—there's passion and integrity in all of the Poe cycle (least of all The Raven, but that trades it in for fun). Tomb of Ligeia boasts a great Price performance and the usual helping of gothic atmosphere. There's a dream sequence in the middle that, despite Corman's increasing reliance on the trope, is effectively nightmarish and the movie earns its tragic denouement. It's not the best of the Poe cycle—that would be The Masque of the Red Death or maybe The Pit and the Pendulum (both of which, incidentally, are available on the first Vincent Price Collection)—but I'd put it in the top three.

The second feature on the disc is The Last Man on Earth, the first (and I still think best) screen adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Matheson co-wrote the screenplay for the mostly Italian production, but was dissatisfied with the results and it's easy to see why; the stark black and white photography and an especially committed Vincent Price performance help carry the movie past its rough spots, of which there are several. It's largely a one-man show by Price (at least until around the halfway point), and as a fan of the actor that's never a bad thing. It's the kind of movie that feels cheap and a little rough, but works rather well in its best moments. It would play a big part in influencing George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, which alone justifies its existence. But there's a lot of creepy style on display, and while I won't be returning to it as often as some of the other titles in the Vincent Price Collection II, I'm glad it's included.

Disc Three contains Dr. Phibes Rises Again!, the sequel to 1971's The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Despite the limited use of Vincent Price, who plays a disfigured mute who can only speak by holding a little device up to his throat, I'm a huge fan of the original Phibes; the sequel, not so much. The pop psychedelic production design is once again impressive and the use of bright colors throughout makes this the best-looking film in the set, but the sequel is never quite able to recapture the magic of the first film. There's fun to be had and Price once again completely commits to what should, on paper, be a role that's impossible to play. That's his special talent—he imbues every ridiculous role with a sense of pathos and dignity. He makes every movie in which appears better.

Even Price's participation can't really save The Return of the Fly, the sequel to the classic The Fly released just one year earlier. The first movie succeeded despite casting Price in just a supporting role thanks to its clever premise, its widescreen, Technicolor compositions and the fact that it embraced its own sense of tragedy. The sequel does none of those things well. Trading color photography for fairly drab (but passable) black and white, following a completely uninteresting lead character (just barely; way too much of the running time is devoted to a secondary character) and confining Vincent Price to a bed for a large chunk of the movie are among the sequel's sins. It's watchable once but has little to no repeat value. The Return of the Fly is the weakest film in the collection, and the fact that it features the least amount of Vincent Price can't be a coincidence.

Finally, there's the great House on Haunted Hill, directed by William Castle, one of the great showmen of cinema known for his elaborate marketing and exhibition gimmicks (like putting buzzers in theater seats to give audience members a well-timed jolt or posting actresses to play nurses in theater lobbies and have moviegoers sign "death releases"). House on Haunted Hill gives Price one of his very best roles and he sinks into with relish—his scenes with Carol Ohmart, playing the wife he can't stand and who can't stand him—crackle with life. Whereas a lot of haunted house movies go for the moody, suggestive slow burn, House on Haunted Hill cuts fast and loose with energetic personality and jump scares. It's a terrific B-movie in the best sense of the phrase, and Price is an utter joy to watch. After years of being mistreated with terrible public domain releases, it's nice to see this one finally get the proper HD treatment.

All seven movies on The Vincent Price Collection II look better than they ever have. Spread out over four discs (the first three are double features; House on Haunted Hill gets its own), all seven movies receive full 1080p HD transfers, most in 2.35:1 widescreen (Dr. Phibes is in 1.85 and House on Haunted Hill in 1.78). The color transfers on four of the movies are great, bringing out the best in the rich palettes used in most of Price's Poe-themed '60s output. Not surprisingly, Dr. Phibes Rises Again! probably looks the best because it's the most stylized; the bright colors and psychedelic production design pop off the screen. Return of the Fly, Last Man on Earth and House on Haunted Hill are all in black and white, with the latter two titles—which have largely been mistreated in the past—looking the best they ever have. Contrast is strong and signs of print age are kept to a minimum. All of the titles receive lossless 2.0 mono audio tracks, which do a good job of presenting the dialogue clearly while remaining faithful to the period. Any larger surround remix would have been overkill.

Then there are the bonus features, which are delightful. Several new commentaries have been recorded specifically for this release: historian Steven Haberman speaks over The Raven and The House on Haunted Hill, both of which are terrific (but especially the latter), filled with information but also candid observations about the films. Vincent Price expert David Del Valle moderates two new tracks, one for The Last Man on Earth (where he's joined by author Derek Botelho) and one for The Return of the Fly, for which he's joined by star Brett Halsey. Elizabeth Shepherd, star of The Tomb of Ligeia, is joined by historian Roy Frumkes on a new commentary over that film, which is paired with Roger Corman's original commentary ported over from the DVD. Also carried over from the original DVD releases are a series of "Richard Matheson Storyteller" featurettes on a handful of films, as well as some still galleries, trailers and trailers on select titles. Three films, The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors and Tomb of Ligeia all feature short video introductions that Price shot for PBS in the '80s; he shares a little bit of information about the movies, does some shtick and is his basic charming self. They're fun.

On the fourth disc in the collection are several featurettes ported over from the MGM Vincent Price boxed set, including "Vincent Price: Renaissance Man," "The Art of Fear" and "Working with Vincent Price." The only new featurette is a short piece called "Introductory Price: Undertaking the Vincent Price Gothic Horrors," which focuses on the production of those PBS introductions Price taped, a few of which are included on this collection.

Closing Statement

The best thing about the titles included in The Vincent Price Collection II is that they're not just good showcases for their star—they're all good movies, made better by Price's participation. Scream Factory continues to do excellent work with their transfers and are always sure to provide good bonus features, making this collection a must-have for fans of classic horror and one of the genre's greatest icons. If there's a down side, it's only that I'm still missing a few of my favorite Vincent Price movies on Blu-ray, including Tales of Terror and Theatre of Blood. Hopefully, Scream Factory has plans for a third volume next year.

The Verdict

Bring on Volume Three!

Give us your feedback!

Did we give The Vincent Price Collection II (Blu-ray) a fair trial? yes / no

What's "fair"? Whether positive or negative, our reviews should be unbiased, informative, and critique the material on its own merits.

Share This Review

Follow DVD Verdict

Other Reviews You Might Enjoy

• Beg!
• Airplane II: The Sequel
• Hellraiser: Hellworld
• Zombiegeddon