'THEATER OF BLOOD'.....ACERBIC CRITICS PAY A VIOLENT PRICE.......VINCENT....

Theater Of Blood (1973)    This movie did for Vincent Price what "The Nutty Professor" did for Jerry Lewis......

            Furnished him with a perfectly customized vehicle that served as a witty, knowing, summing up of his entire career as well as offering the opportunity of a bravura performance.....in the role of a lifetime.

            Jerry Lewis and Vincent Prince, the pushy, aggressive clown and the theatrical horror ham, were inexhaustible Hollywood workhorses, pumping out film after film in their respective genres.........with their movies embraced by their fans, but condescendingly dismissed by most film critics....

             If "The Nutty Professor" is considered Lewis's supreme autobiographical masterwork, we'd say the same holds true for Price in "Theater Of Blood".....(even if he himself didn't direct or write it)

             Playing Edward Lionheart, a vainglorious Shakespearean over-actor, Price dives into the role like Henry VIII tearing through a seven course meal.

            Lionheart, a legend-in-his-own-mind oblivious to his limited talent, has been driven to suicide by the fully deserved, withering reviews given his performances by a coterie of London drama critics......(the incredible line-up of Ian Hendry, Michael Hordern, Harry Andrews, Coral Browne, Robert Coote, Robert Morley, Dennis Price and Arthur Lowe..)

            He's rescued by a motley crew of homeless waterfront bums........and with this wretched gang and his faithful daughter Edwina, (Diana Rigg), Lionheart exacts hilarious, gory vengeance on the critics who mocked him.

           Price has the time of his life putting on mini-Shakespeare showcases as he and Rigg slaughter each critic with famous blood-soaked deaths taken directly from each of the Bard's plays......(perhaps the best being Robert Morley's "Titus Andronicus" demise.....force fed the cooked remains of his two beloved pet poodles.....)

            Each of these elaborately staged,sick and witty murders allow Price and Rigg to don all manner of outrageous costumes, identities and accents. You can sense the actors barely containing their glee as each Shakespearean skit climaxes with the agonized death of a theater critic.

           For any maligned actor, this movie might seem like the fondest wish come true......

            We've never seen anything quite like it......a literate, polished classy film that flings buckets of blood and mutilated internal organs with such happy abandon.  (And as a movie-score lover, we don't dare want to miss mentioning Michael J. Lewis's gorgeous symphonic score....)

            No wonder Price considered it (as does Rigg) one the best efforts in their filmographies......

           And so does the BQ..........this one's an exquisite, not-to-be-missed gem.......for us, Vincent Price's Edward Lionheart remains as immortal an icon as Jerry Lewis's Professor Kelp......and we proudly confer 5 blood-dripping stars(*****).....a true FIND OF FINDS.