The trinity of producer Louis (Deke) M. Heyward, writer Christopher Wicking, and director Gordon Hessler, under the auspices of American International, were responsible for a series of 4 British horror movies from 1969-1971. 3 of these were marketed as Edgar Allan Poe movies. Their approach to the Gothic horror film reflects the cynical attitudes expressed in popular media after the pivotal year of 1968.
The first of these, THE OBLONG BOX, was the follow-up to the highly successful WITCHFINDER GENERAL . It was directed by the highly regarded young director Michael Reeves who was then tapped to do BOX. The prospect of making a horror film with an anti-Colonial theme would have appealed to Reeves but his death in 1969 at the age of only 25 prevented that although the concept was his.
The story of two 19th century brothers, one of whom is horribly disfigured by African witchcraft sounds intriguing and thanks to Wicking’s revisionist script coupled with Hessler’s stylish direction, it is. Vincent Price returns to his theatrical style of acting and it’s appropriate with the movie’s Gothic approach. Gothic horror fans will enjoy THE OBLONG BOX but present day horror fans will find it way too slow and too literary.
Price is joined once again by Hillary Dwyer, his WITCHFINDER GENERAL co-star. This time around she is his wife rather than his victim. Genre veteran Peter Arne plays a shady family lawyer while another genre veteran,Rupert Davies, who was also in WITCHFINDER, portrays a local artist. Christopher Lee’s role as a doctor involved with grave robbers is small but significant. The photography is lush and the period costumes and settings are well rendered.
I first saw THE OBLONG BOX at a drive-in theater in Chattanooga in 1971. I was a big fan of the Roger Corman Poe pictures and this was the first non-Corman Poe film that I had seen. Made in 1969, BOX had taken advantage of the dissolution of the old movie Production Code and was more explicitly violent That and the aforementioned cynical attitude left me with mixed feelings concerning it. Now I can enjoy it as a Gothic horror movie from an earlier time featuring old friends Price and Lee who share the same birthday, May 27th.
The Capsule Critic 