The Oblong Box

England 1865. Two brothers share the same house but one has the freedom to walk about, the other is confined to an upstairs room, shackled. He has “fits” which come and go. With the help of a disreputable barrister (Peter Arne as Trench), the fitful brother fakes his death and is soon confined to a coffin. Said coffin is quickly buried. Happy is the brother (Vincent Price as Julian) who can now marry a much younger woman (Hilary Dwyer as Elizabeth). He is finally free of the thankless duty of caring for his “disabled” brother (played by one actor, voiced by another). All was expected to end well for Julian and his new bride but for some pesky grave robbers who dug up the not quite dead brother, bringing him to a ghoulish doctor (Christopher Lee) for experiments. The poor doctor soon finds himself blackmailed into housing a homicidal maniac. This cantankerous plot also involves a certain amount of revenge murders and an inside/out voodoo curse.The original script was written so that Vincent Price could play twins, making the curse aspect of the story more understandable. But, that was scrapped in favor of what ended up on the screen. Price’s role was scaled down in favor of the wronged brother. Poor Christopher Lee got stuck with a bit part that didn’t allow him to do much of anything. Still, it is a fun little thriller of sorts. I bought it for my Vincent Price collection.

A little long but an evening with Lee and Price is really never long enough! Gordon Hessler is like Freddie Francis an unsung hero of the horror genre. He worked miracle with very little.In this tale we have both actors in the movie but never sharing a scene. Too bad but you take what you can get. The story is convoluted and the revenge plot does not really play out well. But it moves at a good pace and you do have two of the best actors doing their what they did best which is to be above the material.The style of the film works and Price/Lee fans will not be disappointed. DVD has a good transfer and extras are good.

Under rated horror film classic. Inexplicably, some critics have panned what may be among Vincent Price and Christopher Lee's best films; with, Hammer Studios. Moreover, the respective villains that populate the story line are both sufficiently menacing and somewhat unpredictable. Furthermore, the film culminates with an unexpected plot twist and perfect down beat ending; with, Vincent Price's character becoming the victim of the zombie curse originally and inadvertently placed upon his brother. Also, the shock effect of the protagonist (i.e., Vincent Price's character) with a progressively decaying face and gradual, but obviously inescapable, descent into madness is unforgettable. While, the fiancee of Price's character reacts with horror and revulsion upon intially seeing him; after, Price's character has been bitten and infected by his zombified brother serves to graphically punctuates the film's perfect down beat ending. Essentially, there's no happy ending for any of the protagonists and retribution is the fate of both the just and the unjust. This film defies traditional cinematic horror film rules and both the good and the bad fail to escape the dark and evil forces that pervade the film. In essence, one of the pervasive themes of the movie is that evil an inescapable entity that is no respecter of persons; regardless, of the respective character of it's victims whether righteous or wicked.

This review is for the blu-ray version released by Kino Lorber.The transfer is decent, however I still find the picture to be dark in areas and sometimes unclear. This is probably because of how the movie was filmed and not because of a poor transfer. Still I always enjoy an upgrade in picture even if it's not perfect.I'll take what I can get.This is the type of movie that probably should have been packaged together with another movie. $20 for two classic movies or $10 per movie sounds about right. It would be better as part of a package much the may the Vincent Price Collections that have recently been made available. But then again, fans of these types of movies are probably going to buy them anyway so it's probably a smart decision by Kino Lorber even if it isn't a great value. I did wait awhile before purchasing to see if the price would go down within a few months of release as some of these releases of older movies on blu-ray have.The movie itself is just OK. The plot is decent and Christoper Lee is not used a whole lot. He is definitely second fiddle to Vincent Price in this movie and plays a supporting role rather than that of a co-star.The movies is about an owner of an African plantation who is wrongfully accused of a crime his brother committed and is horribly disfigured by a native witch doctor. His brother (Vincent Price) keeps him locked away out of sight in his attic for the remainder of his life. The deformed brother plots to escape by being buried alive. The plot goes awry and the deformed brother seeks revenge on just about everybody...A big complaint is the appearance of the deformed brother. The movie builds up his appearance as if he is so horribly disfigured that nobody could stand to look at his face. When his face is finally revealed it is quite a disappointment. While disfigured, he is not nearly so bad as you were led to believe.If you are a big fan of the genre go ahead and upgrade but you might wait and see if you can get a used copy cheaper down the road.Recommended for fans of 60's horror, Vincent Price. Not so much for Christopher Lee fans and fans of the Edgar Allen Poe written stories.

Again bought for my son who loves all these old price/lee films/ this one is no exceptions and he has watched 3 times already

Enjoy the movie, arrived in excellent condition on time, happy with purchase.

creepy movie

Vincent Price is always good

Truth is that this isn't the best horror - but the story is a little different than the usual gothic horrors. Horrifically transfigured by an African witch doctor, and driven a little mad as a result, Sir Edward has been keep hidden away - locked and chained by his seemingly well-meaning brother (Vincent Price). Sir Edward manages his escape with the help of several untrustworthy lackeys ... then starts to wreak havoc. Along the way we meet an experimental doctor (Christopher Lee) who's engaged grave robbers to provide him with fresh corpses - who gets blackmailed by Sir Edward. It's quite a fun movie for what it is - and all cast members seem to give a fine performance (even if Christopher Lee's character is much quieter and more reserved than the characters we're used to see him play).Bluray quality is fine - with a nice clean transfer, clear audio, subtitles, and a commentary if you're into such things. I think there may be a few little extras on the disk given that this is a "Special Edition" but truth is that I didn't look ... as I've usually just there for the movie itself. Colour balance on the video seems a little cool but still very watchable, and maybe that was just the choice of the film stock used at the time.