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Cry of the Banshee / Murders in the Rue MorgueRating:
Release Date: 15 April, 2003 Retail Price: $14.95 OUR Price: $12.99 You SAVE: $1.96! Cast: Complete Cast (10 total) |
Cry of the Banshee / Murders in the Rue Morgue Reviews
A new definiton of horror
Two wretched `horror' movies from director Gordon Hessler. Unfortunately, Hessler appears in a pair of short intro-interviews preceding each movie, and he seems like a nice elderly gentleman with a sincere love of movies. Mentions Ninotchka and Casablanca in glowing terms. It's not fun to come down hard on a nice person, but these are really a pair of not-so-great movies.
CRY OF THE BANSHEE just manages an "It's alright" three stars. The always reliable Vincent Price stars as a nasty 18th century lord of a ribald court who spends his time branding witches - comely witches, if truth be told - with an H for heretic. Naturally, the comely suspected witches have to have their blouses ripped down the front for the branding. That is unless they're to be flogged. Then their blouses are ripped down the back. Lord Vincent, decked out like Henry VIII, is distantly opposed by Witch Oona, a mature nature child with a coven of comely witches and a basketful of dolls to stick pins into. The dolls look suspiciously like members of Lord Vincent's family, who begin to fall victim to this werewolf-like thing when the Man - Lord Vincent - starts making life tough for the hippies... er, witches. Price is restrained but, as usual, seems to be enjoying himself in the carpet-chewing scenes. The thrills, chills, and scares are undermined by a limp plot and a tightly focused, pastel hued look that subverts any attempt at eerie mystery. This silly, simple and harmless movie probably should have let Price cut loose, and added someone like a Marty Feldman for him to play off of.
MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. I felt as embarrassed watching this thing as Jason Robards looks in the lead role of a theater director intimately linked to sudden spat of acid-in-the-face murders occurring in late-18th century Paris. Loud and bright (after this one I'm convinced you can't make a good horror movie using bright primary colors, and tone down the Sousa bands) MURDERS barely merits one stars. The `twist' in this is the premonitory visions experienced by Robards actress wife, played by German actress Christine Kaufmann. Herbert Lom plays the mask-wearing meanie causing all the problems. What a waste of talent! Kaufmann's premonition gimmick work alright, but so what? They don't push the plot ahead an inch, and they slowly reveal mysteries we've already figured out. Absolutely zero chills experienced at the end, although confusion abounds. Worse, and what caused me to rate this so low, was that this is an awful movie wasting the considerable talents of three major talents. Five, if you're a fan of Michael Dunn and Lilli Palmer. Robards was a strong actor who could deliver up to and above the level of the material. It's nice to note, after his career bottomed out to this depth in 1971, that Robards would later win two Academy award, for Julia and All the President's Men. Of course, that doesn't help this movie much; the suspense level is nil-minus-one, the plot is relatively confusing, and the look is too loud and too bright. Only recommended for those who are curious to seen their favs in an off-beat (for them) movie. Other than that no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Fun sort of
The weird thing about this movie version of the classic story "Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe, is that it really isn't the story of Murders in the Rue Morgue at all. Actually, this movie is a weird version of Phantom of the Opera in which the show being performed and sabatoged - instead of an Opera - is a play of "Murders in the Rue Morgue"! All the classic Phantom elements are here. The former great performer who once had his face destroyed by acid is thought dead by everyone, but actually is alive, and lurks about the building wearing a mask, obsessing over the show's lead actress, and occasionally murdering other actors surrounding her. The only difference here is, when he wants to kill people, this film's Phantom dons the gorilla costume from the "Rue Morgue" play. In other words, he pretends to be the actor playing the part of the gorilla and kills people for real. So... all of the classic "Rue Morgue" imagery from the original short story and the earlier Bela Lugosi film version is here: you do get to see a crazy-looking, murderous gorilla fondling and carrying around a sexy, dazed girl in a flimsy white dress. You do get to see a head chopped off and an axe buried in the evil monkey's back. Except... none of the "Rue Morgue" stuff is supposed to be "Real" within the context of the story, it's all supposed to be part of the play being performed. So you see it, but in a way there is a sense of disappointment to it. If the same over-the-top images in this film had been used to actually tell the story of "Rue Morgue", I would have loved this flick. But the way it is presented, I was left feeling like, "I just watched a movie in which nothing actually happened. The killer ape (the best part of the original story) wasn't real!" In some strange way this sucked all the fun out of it! The only "real" stuff that is supposed to be happening in this film are the Phantom murders. One of these, early in the film, is really great, when the Phantom pours acid on the face of a hot chick in black lingerie. But I have to admit, I was a little disappointed and consider the title of this movie to be a case of false advertising. I just think all horror fans need to be aware of this aspect of the film so they know what they are getting before they buy it!
More Customer Reviews (8 total)
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