VINCENT PRICE
I LIKE WHAT I SEE
BY TIM LUCAS
In recent years, fantastique collectors with the ability to play Blu-ray discs from different
countries have found themselves increasingly in- volved in tugs-of-war between US and UK labels that acquire the same desired titles and proceed to package them with different bonus content. An out- standing case in point involves a quartet of differ- ent releases from Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) in the States and Arrow Video in the UK, all top-lining the debonair dean of delirium, Vincent Price.
Scream Factory’s THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION started the ball rolling shortly before Hal- loween 2013. Produced by Cliff MacMillan, this four-disc Blu-ray exclusive consists of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, PIT AND THE PEN- DULUM, THE HAUNTED PALACE and THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (all directed by
Roger Corman) and two other key auteur pieces from Price’s later career, Michael Reeves’ WITCHFINDER GENERAL and Robert Fuest’s THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES. Each of the six films in the NTSC Region A set is complemented with audio commentaries by such Price luminaries as directors Corman and Fuest, biographer Lucy Chase Williams (joined by writer Richard Heft), authors David Del Valle, Tom Weaver, Steve Haberman, Marcus Hearn, and Justin Humphreys, with addi- tional choice Priceiana and welcome input from the actor’s daughter and biographer, Victoria Price. Also included is a 24-page illustrated booklet containing a 10-page essay by Del Valle, incorporating quotes from his own interviews with Price (audio included elsewhere in the set) and his co-stars Barbara Steele, Cathie Merchant and Caroline Munro. The following June, Arrow Video made their opening statement in this area with THE COM- PLETE DR. PHIBES, produced by Anthony Nield. This elegantly designed, two-disc set, another Blu- ray exclusive, cut to the heart of the matter by
Vincent Price revives himself for a date with ancient destiny in Robert Fuest’s DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN.
packaging THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES and its sequel DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN together with three audio commentaries (two of them uniquely commissioned) and a deluxe 100-page illustrated booklet of (mostly) never-before-published appre- ciations and critical essays. Making its collector’s appeal all the more exquisite, the Region B release is limited to 3000 copies.
Scream Factory returned later in 2014, again near Halloween, with THE VINCENT PRICE COL- LECTION II, the offerings of which allowed the other
shoe to drop for the Poe and Phibes series (THE RAVEN and THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN) while adding AIP’s Richard Matheson-scripted THE COMEDY OF TERRORS, 20th Century Fox’s THE RETURN OF THE FLY and the BD debuts of two now-public-domain titles, William Castle’s HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and Sidney Salkow’s THE LAST MAN ON EARTH. Frankly speaking, less than half of the set’s mate- rial was really first-rate, and its reaching for public domain material lent an unfortunate “left-over” pa- tina to what should have been uniformly fresh and exciting contents. A number of the previous con- tributors returned with commentaries, though Williams, Heft, and Weaver sat this one out. That same year, Arrow released stand-alone re-
leases of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER and PIT AND THE PENDULUM. In December 2014, these were followed with a box set to trump them all: SIX GOTHIC TALES, produced by Anthony Nield
THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION 1960-1971, Scream Factory, $79.98, BD-A
THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION II 1958-1972, Scream Factory, $79.98, BD-A
SIX GOTHIC TALES 1960-1965, Arrow Video, 507m, £69.99, BD-B
THE COMPLETE DR. PHIBES 1971-1972, Arrow Video, OOP, BD-B
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