eShop USA > DVD > Vincent Price: MGM Scream Legends Collection (The Abominable Dr. Phibes / Tales of Terror / Theater of Blood / Madhouse / Witchfinder General / Dr. Phibes Rises Again / Twice Told Tales)
Vincent Price: MGM Scream Legends Collection (The Abominable Dr. Phibes / Tales of Terror / Theater of Blood / Madhouse / Witchfinder General / Dr. Phibes Rises Again / Twice Told Tales)
List Price: $39.98Our Price: $31.99 You Save: $7.99 (20%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Save $10.00 when you spend $50.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout.
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
EAN: 0027616087805
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Item Dimensions: 100
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Languages: English (Original Language),
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
MPN: MGMDM108780D
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 11, 2007
Running Time: 675 minutes
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: April 05, 1973
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:
Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 10/16/2007
The high baroque period of Vincent Price's career is well represented with this box, which offers seven horror-minded feature films and some supporting extras. If there were ever any doubt that Price was in on the joke, this collection would dispel it: in most of these movies he's having a ball, cheerfully sending up his own image--although the set also boasts perhaps his finest straight performance.
Thanks to the previous likes of House of Wax and The Fly, Price had his horror cred well established, which is perhaps why he's already winking at the idea in the earliest movie here, 1962's Tales of Terror. The movie certainly has an impeccable horror pedigree: three stories by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Richard Matheson, and directed by Roger Corman. Price stars in all three, making a slow start with "Morella," then clicking into gear with Peter Lorre in a broadly comic "The Black Cat," and winding up with great liquefying make-up (and Basil Rathbone) in "The Case of M. Valdemar." The 1963 Twice Told Tales borrows Corman's triptych set-up with three Nathaniel Hawthorne stories, but the results are fairly dull. The best of the trio is the first story, in which Price and Sebastian Cabot sip a youth potion, with regrettable results.
Witchfinder General (re-edited and known for years in the U.S. as The Conqueror Worm) is the gem of the collection, a truly harrowing film for which Price eschewed any hint of camp. He plays a 17th-century witchfinder, and the film pulls no punches in pointing out the sadism of his job (and the way religious paranoia is linked to misogyny). It's the best and final work by the promising director Michael Reeves, who died in 1969 from a drug overdose; he was only 24 when he made this film.
From there, the set skips into Price's 1970s silly season. The Abominable Dr. Phibes was a surprise hit in 1971, and it's easy to see the appeal: Price goes over the top in his portrayal of a Phantom of the Opera type who exacts revenge by invoking the Old Testament plagues. Joseph Cotten and Terry-Thomas are in the cast. Dr. Phibes Rises Again isn't quite as madly focused--this time the doctor is in Egypt, looking for a way to revive his late wife--but the tongue-in-cheek spirit prevails.
Those films paved the way for a similar but more inspired outing, and a movie Price spoke of as a personal favorite: Theater of Blood, a deliciously wicked thing about a ham actor who murders his critics. Not only does Price have a high old time reciting Shakespeare, he gets to knock off some wonderful victims: Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins, and Price's future wife Coral Browne among them. Diana Rigg is a welcome bonus. Madhouse rounds out the disc, an actively bad movie along the same lines; Price plays a horror-movie actor whose personal instability mirrors his film persona. The picture is ham-handed in every way, though it's good to see Peter Cushing toe-to-toe with Price. Also in the set: a Disc of Horrors, with an hour's worth of featurettes on the man. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Vincent Price DVD Collection Review
Includes Price's best, as well as other, less known. The cost was minimal for value received. Only Anthony Hopkins has since paralleled Price's evil-insanity portrayal.
Rating:  - Great Films by Horrors Greatest. Disc Breakdown Below.
This box set is a great add to any film lover's collection. The set is also great for those who are interested in Price's work but have yet to see much of it. I suggest watching the films by date. The last two films in the set are the most autobiographical of Price particularly Madhouse which has flash backs within the movie of actual Vincent Price films some of which you will have seen if you go in order by date. Although I feel Witchfinder General stands as a unique Price film and could be ... Read More
Rating: - Great Movies, but * BEWARE * of MGM Disc - Cutting Error !
Vincent Price is at his best in these shows; that is, those that were viewable in this packaged assortment. While the movies presented here are certainly 5 stars, MGM did NOT cut the DVD's for The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again! I purchased two different copies of these DVD's : One from Amazon - the one this review is written for - and another - also produced by MGM - at a DVD store where I live. In both cases, the Dr. Phibes movies were NOT transferred to the DVD during the MGM ... Read More
Rating: - PRICE-LESS
Each generation has their heroes of horror. The first circled around names like Karloff and Lugosi. Today's generation revels in names like Jason, Michael and Pinhead. And during the sixties? We grew up with Vincent Price.
MGM has just released a DVD box set of several classics by actor Vincent Price, known for his well toned voice and sinister yet dashing looks. Most horror fans loved him for the Roger Corman directed Edgar Allan Poe films that he did. But the films represented here ... Read More
Rating: - The King Of The House Of Usher
Johnny Depp has said that aside from his budding friendship with Tim Burton the main reason he did Edward Scissorhands was for the chance to work with the legendary Vincent Price in what turned out to be his last film appearance. He was that kind of actor. On screen he commanded the screen like no other horror star of his generation with the possible exception of Boris Karloff. He reveled in his roles. And he rose indomitably (pardon the pun) to the occasion again and again. From the forties ... Read More
Related Categories:
| |
 |
