series MYSTERY and are a marvelous addition to the sets. Curiously, no mention is made that AIP- TV had already produced a very similar set of vid- eotaped wrap-arounds, also with Price, to accompany their own syndicated package of these same films—including the shot-on-video, one-man- show “special” AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE—in 1970. Unlike the Iowa material, these were seen nation-wide on independent stations around the country at a time when Price was still actively making films for AIP. It’s strange that these weren’t offered to the Iowa station in the first place. That said, as rarely-seen examples of Price’s profession- alism and sense of craft, these Iowa wrap-arounds (which average 3.5m apiece) are welcome and valuable additions to the sets.
Also exclusive to the Scream Factory set: Price biographer Lucy Chase Williams offers what is billed as a “Vincent Price retrospective commentary,” which uses the main feature as background to the larger story of Price’s career and “life well-lived.” Though it runs only 32m, the well-spoken Williams guides us confidently from Price’s St. Louis origins to the dawning of his interests in the arts with his allow- ance-funded purchase of a Rembrandt etching, through the more mainstream highlights of his dis- tinguished career to the zenith of his one-man Os- car Wilde performance DIVERSIONS AND DELIGHTS. Throughout the piece, which is illustrated onscreen with a few changing images, Price’s own words are spoken by impressionist Pitor Michael, who rolls his R’s a bit floridly but generally affords a reasonable facsimile. His reading of Price’s introduction to the pamphlet that accompanied a public exhibit of art works from his own home is the sort of thing that sticks with the listener, a perfect illustration of Price’s talents as a writer and his attention to joyful detail in his own life. While this segment seems some- what miscast as an audio commentary (it’s more of an audio lecture), it makes rewarding listening. There is also an engrossing audio interview with Price (41m 5s) conducted by David Del Valle, which covers Price’s career up to the point of his William Castle films in the late 1950s. The interview is dated 1988, which is odd since it covers some of the same ground as Del Valle’s 1987 on-camera interview with the actor that was issued on DVD as VINCENT PRICE: THE SINISTER IMAGE. What is particularly pleasing about this track is that Price isn’t as con- cerned here with appearances, or the distractions of working to camera, which frees him up to answer the questions informally and candidly, conveying a good sense of the friendliness between the two men. It’s like being a fly on the wall as they converse around a kitchen table. There is also a lengthy theatrical trailer
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(3m 32s) and a stills and poster gallery including a number of lovely and seldom-reproduced color portraits taken on the USHER set.
In addition to the Corman commentary, Arrow’s extras are headlined by “Legend To Legend” (26m 47s), a relaxed conversation between Corman and his protegé-made-good Joe Dante, who speaks at length about the film as a turning point in horror (26m 47s); David Cairns’ video essay “Fragments of the House of Usher” (10m 47s), an appreciation of USHER and a comparative study of its value as adaptation; “The House is the Monster!” (32m 59s), an interview with AMERICAN GOTHIC author Jonathan Rigby, who knowledgeably enthuses about the film and remarks on its place in horror cinema history; an archival video interview with an elderly Price (11m 46s), radiating old Hollywood as he talks from the patio of his home on Swallow Way, while lovingly showing off a maquette of his Rattigan character from Disney’s THE GREAT MOUSE DE- TECTIVE (“It’s like my Oscar,” he muses); and a somewhat more concise theatrical trailer (2m 30s.) All in all, both USHER presentations boast con- siderable strengths. Scream Factory scores a mean- ingful hit with the addition of the Overture, and both transfers look grand on a big screen, though Arrow’s has the more luxuriant bit rate and, in terms of depth and keener background detail, superior mas- tering. The extras are highly competitive in quality, but also highly complementary, even to the extent of providing two different trailers.
PIT AND THE PENDULUM 1961, Scream Factory, 80m 33s Arrow Video, 80m 32s
In the second of the Corman-Matheson Poe pictures, Francis Barnard (John Kerr) travels sul-
lenly to the castle on the Spanish coastline, de- termined to learn the cause of his sister Elizabeth’s recent death from her unresponsive husband Nicholas (Vincent Price). As before, the story be- hind the mystery involves the revelation of a pre- mature burial, and leads to the climactic horror of a presumed-dead woman (Barbara Steele, fresh from her success in AIP’s BLACK SUNDAY) claw- ing her way out of her coffin with bloodied hands, as the Price character suffers a complete psychologi- cal break—in this case, assuming the personality of his dead father, a chief torturer of the Spanish In- quisition. If PIT AND THE PENDULUM is a bit too
over-the-top to be the best of the Poe films, it un- questionably represents the very height of the franchise’s formula and stands out as one of the most beloved, purely entertaining horror films of its era.
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