#MONSTERMONDAY: VINCENT PRICE DR BROWNING WITH GIFS AND STILLS GALLERY

#MONSTERMONDAY: 'A serial killer who drains his victims' blood is on the loose in London; the police follow him to a house owned by an eccentric scientist'.

REALLY? I HAVE LIVED SO LONG without really understanding what on earth, the film #SCREAMANDSCREAMAGAIN is really about, I don't care much, if I ever understand it. It has never effected my enjoyment of the film, which probably down to two things: the performance of Alfred Marks as Detective Supt. Bellaver and Vincent Price as the weird Dr. Browning. 

BUT TODAY it's Vincent's Dr Browning that we are shinning our spot light onto. Who OR what is this guy? Ok, he has a title, he's a Doctor who whose clinic specializes in limb and organ transplantation... can I hear alarm bells? As we witness in the film, patient limbs have a habit of parting and walking off, and not by themselves. I have read theories that Browning is also, an alien? Whatever he is, Price plays him with a 'now you see me, now you don't' wink which keeps us guessing. Price also went down on record in later years that, the character may have been hard to pin down, because he had no idea either, what Browning OR the film was really about. It's not hard to believe, when it seems the film appears to have THREE individual plots running at the same time. 

ONE IS REMINDED of Cushing's 'Doctors Wear Scarlet' / 'Incense For The Damned' / 'Blood Suckers' movie from 1970. Here the budget pot ran dry during the production,causing filming to halt in the spring of 1969, resuming some months on.New plot strands had to written, as actors had moved on and the results were a mess! 

I HAVE EVEN READ a theory where, in order to proceed with the film, and  get a theatrical release, footage from a completely unrelated film, was glued onto the existing scenes . .  how-else could you account for such a jumbled non coherent story? BUT this isn't the case here, SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN was adapted from the novel by Peter Saxon, The Disoriented Man. Peter Saxon being a 'house pseudonym' used by various authors in the 1960s and 1970s. .  So, I guess there isn't one man to blame then? 

EVEN SO, the great Fritz Lang is reported to have had an appreciation of the film, it's a pity he isn't still around to enlighten us about the plot! But hey, Plot? Smot! Who needs it when you have Vincent Price firing on all cylinders? Dr Browning is a fascinating creation, and the reason why we have installed him in our #MonsterMonday archive. Price created, by accident maybe, another villain armed with a scalpel, out to do harm and to be feared. He is a bounder and a sly one at that. He's quick, but not quick enough to escape Christopher Lee's 'Fremont ' entering from the shadows and seeing him off in such an acidic fashion. Does DR BROWNING make YOUR MONSTER list?

If our #MONSTERMONDAY feature has whetted your appetite, and you didn't enter our PCAS COMPETITION LAST YEAR  (ABOVE) and don't own a copy  of  'SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN. HAVE NO FEAR! Twilight Time who generously sponsored our PCAS competiton have a terrific BLU RAY release, complete with EXTRAS! Just click and ORDER RIGHT HERE! 

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 The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA.

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DETAILS: Kind of a horror movie, kind of an espionage film, and in some sense a piece of science fiction, Scream and Scream Again (1970) features turns by three icons of the horror genre: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing.  All are involved in a wild “plot” connecting Great Britain to some unnamed totalitarian state where torture, murder, and out-of-control “experiments” are the order of the day. Directed by Gordon Hessler from a screenplay by Christopher Wicking, with cinematography by the worthy John Coquillon.

Starring: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Judy Huxtable, Alfred Marks, Michael Gothard. Directed By: Gordon Hessler. Written By: Christopher Wicking. Score By: David Whitaker. Language: English.Video: 1080p High Definition / 1.85:1 / Color. Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA.  Subtitles: English SDH. Theatrical Release: 1970. Runtime: 94 Minutes. Rating: R (Some Violence and Brief Nudity) Region Code: Region Free (A/B/C)

Special Features: Isolated Score Track / Audio Commentary with Film Historians David Del Valle and Tim Sullivan / Gentleman Gothic: Gordon Hessler at AIP / An Interview with Uta Levka / Still Gallery / Radio Spot / Original Theatrical Trailer

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IF WALLS COULD TALK! THE AMICUS FILMS OF PETER CUSHING: PART THREE

When Cushing, Lee and Subotsky reunited for The House That Dripped Blood (1970), it was in the more familiar context of the horror anthology. The script was again penned by Robert Bloch and it offered an uncommonly consistent array of stories linked together by an interesting mystery device. A skeptical police inspector (John Bennett) is looking into the disappearance of horror star Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee), whose last known residence was the creepy house of the title.

In the course of his investigation, he is told of some other bizarre occurrences that unfolded in and around that house: horror novelist Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott) is driven to madness when it appears that his “fictitious” strangler, Dominick (Tom Addams), has taken on a life of his own; retired stock broker Philip (Cushing) becomes obsessed with the figure of Salome at a nearby wax museum; chilly widower John Reid (Lee) dishes out cruel punishments to his little girl, Jane (Chloe Franks), but it could be that it’s the little girl who is really in charge; and lastly, we see how Paul Henderson may have met his fate while appearing in a low budget horror film at nearby Shepperton Studios.

Director Peter Duffel made his feature debut with this film and he did a magnificent job of it: the individual stories are well paced and executed, while the linking segments keep the suspense factor high until the very end.  Unlike most anthologies, there really is no weak link, though many viewers complain that the Cushing segment doesn’t quite fit the overall theme of the picture; there’s some truth to this, but as an exercise in melancholy mood, it’s hard to fault.

The entire cast is in good form: Cushing’s off-screen suffering over the declining health of his beloved wife, Helen, manifests itself in his character’s sense of loss and regret, Lee is splendid as the aloof father who isn’t quite what he appears to be, Elliott is his usual brilliant and neurotic self as the horror novelist on the verge of a breakdown and Pertwee is a delight as the hammy horror star.

Not surprisingly, Vincent Price was originally offered the latter’s role, but AIP wasn’t involved in the financing and refused to allow their top horror star to go and appear in a film for the “competition.”  Price was reportedly furious over this and dragged his displeasure with him on to the set of his next AIP assignment, Gordon Hessler’s stylish but confused occult thriller The Cry of the Banshee (1970).

 

Duffel was appalled by the film’s brazenly exploitative title, but co-producer Max J. Rosenberg correctly maintained that it would pack audiences in.  The end result was another hit for the company; it arguably remains their finest anthology and one of the great, albeit unsung, examples of subtle, low key horror.

The Amicus Films Of Peter Cushing Is written by Troy Howarth
with artwork and images by Marcus Brooks

Part Four Coming Soon: I, Monster.