The Oblong Box — The Oblong Box( Blu Ray)
The Oblong Box is a late 60’s horror/period mystery that has it all. Voodoo, a lord with a chained-up demented brother, a premature burial, various dodgy dealings, body snatchers, a deranged slashing madman in a crimson hood, and a generally schlocky gothic horror air. It also features two key horror stars Vincent Price & Christopher Lee, and a good shifting pace. Here from the BFI is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a new interview with Vincent Price's daughter, and a good selection of archive extras.
From the year 1969, The Oblong Box( Dance, Mephisto) was an English production made by American International Pictures. Been filmed between Shepperton Studios & a large country house set in woodland in Lyne, Chertsey. It claims to be based on an 1844 short story by Edgar Allan Poe- it really isn’t- as the original story regards a sea journey, and this film is very much set on dry land.
The film was directed by Gordon Hessler- a Belin-born Dutch/ English director. Between the mid-60s and early 1990s, he had nineteen features to his name, as well as a similar amount of TV credits. Feature lengths take in the supernatural thriller The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die (1965). Serial killer mystery/ medical thriller/ totalitarian drama mesh-up Scream A Scream Again (1970), adventure fantasy The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (1973), and ninja action film Pray for Death (1985).
The film opens with pre-credits of what is meant to be an African jungle- where a group of natives are aggressively chanting/ shaking speers, as a white man is nailed up, and a goat is killed with lots of over-red blood- brought into the scene is a fearful Sir Julian Markham( Price )- before we drop into the painted/ drawn credits of large eyeballs & ranting faces.
As we get into the film we’re back in the UK at the forest-set mansion of Sir Julian- upstairs on the top floor there is a racket going on, as see a door broken through by a hand. We then go POV, as the unseen figure is chained to the wall- we find out this is Julian’s brother Edward, who has come back from Africa demented and changed.
As the film unfolds we get to meet a Voodoo priest in the UK, who is brewing up a potion to make someone seem dead. Dr. J. Neuhartt( Lee) a seemingly respectable medical man, is been brought dug-up corpses from the graveyard. And a mysterious crimson hood figure, who is stalking about London slashing folk-up. Blended into this we moments of Sir Julian walking & romancing his bride-to-be Elizabeth(Hilary Heath) in the English countryside.
The film runs at around the one hour and thirty-six minutes mark- with the whole thing having a decidedly shifting pace to it. Both Prince & Lee are hamming things up, with the former getting the most screen time. I wouldn’t say there is much here creepy, it’s more about the schlocky & demented- with the whole film really being a blend of horror and period set mystery drama.
Moving onto this new Blu-Ray release, we get an HD scan of the film- this looks very nicely clean and crisp, with the colours giving good depth/ clarity. On the new extra side, we have The Immortal Mr Price (16.53) which is an onscreen interview with Victoria Price- the daughter of Vincent. She opens by talking about how her father loved anything connected with Poe. We find out she is now sixty- born when her mother was forty-four, and her father was fifty- when she was born it was one of the busiest times in Vincent’s career- as he was doing the Poe films and buying art for Sears. She talks about how his favourite thing was when comedy & horror met, and how he loved working on British films. She talks about how The Oblong Box was filmed around the Christmas period, and it was a wonderful time as they hired out a house with her spending time with her parents, when normally she was looked after by nannies. She talks about how her father loved going to Portobello Road when in London to buy art. We find out that Christopher Lee and her father had the same birthday, and both were highly knowledgeable- her father on art, and Lee on military history. A most interesting interview.
On the archive side of things, we have a 2015 audio commentary from film historian Steve Haberman. The Bells (15 mins): from 1913 Edgar Allan Poe’s poignant poem underpins this silent film rarity, which tells a melodramatic tale of love and death. Prelude (7 mins): from 1927 Rachmaninov’s wonderfully disturbing ‘Prelude in C-sharp minor’ sets the tone for a silent, nightmarish reverie on Poe’s The Premature Burial. The Pit ( 27 mins): from 1962 a strange and experimental gothic short, adapted from Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum. Roger Corman on Edgar Allan Poe (9 mins): a 2013 interview with legendary director and producer discusses his Poe adaptations, including The Pit and the Pendulum and The Masque of the Red Death. With an Image gallery featuring original stills/ promotional materials, and a theatrical trailer.
The finished release comes with an Illustrated booklet with essays by Peter Fuller and Benjamin Halligan: notes on the special features and credits.
The Oblong Box is a wonderful eventful and pacy mix of horror/ period mystery tropes, and it’s great to see the two horror legends of Price & Lee on the same screen. This new release from the BFI features a great HD scan of the film, an interesting new interview with Prices’ daughter, and a good selection of archive extras.