WORTH THE PRICE

By Susan King

From The Los Angeles Times, 10.30.1997

What better way to celebrate Halloween than watching some frightening flicks starring the "Master of Menace" himself, Vincent Price. With his mellifluous voice and commanding presence, Price made everyone's heart beat a little faster in such horror flicks as House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill. The majority of his scariest flicks are available on video.

Price, who was born in 1911 and died in 1993, wasn't anything like his screen image. The son of a wealthy candy manufacturer, he received a degree in art history and English from Yale and a master's in fine art from London University.

An art collector and an expert on culinary arts, Price spoofed his scary image on the '60s series "Batman" as the villain Egghead. He was the charming host for eight seasons on PBS' "Mystery!" series and provided the narration for Michael Jackson's landmark "Thriller" tune.

After working primarily as a character actor in such films as Wilson and Laura, Price made the leap to horror films in the nifty 1953 thriller House of Wax, which was originally released in 3-D. He plays an insane, revengeful sculptor who rebuilds his beloved fire-ravaged wax museum by murdering people and then transforming his victims into wax figures. Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones and Charles Buchinsky, who is now better known as Charles Bronson, also star.

James Clavell ("Shogun") wrote the screenplay to the 1958 camp delight The Fly. Al Hedison, later known as David, plays a young scientist who has his matter mixed with that of a fly after an experiment with his disintegration machine goes horribly awry. Price has the straight role of Hedison's concerned brother who puts his younger sibling out of his misery.

Keep the lights off for 1958's thrill-a-thon The House on Haunted Hill. William Castle directed this delicious horror flick in which Price plays a malevolent rich guy who invites a group of people to a mansion with a murderous past and offers them $10,000 to spend the night.

Price and director Roger Corman teamed up in the 1960s for eight films based on Edgar Allan Poe stories. Their first collaboration was The House of Usher from 1960, a splendidly spooky tale of madness and revenge.

Equally fun is their 1961 The Pit and the Pendulum. Price plays a macabre madman who thinks he's his father--the most bloodthirsty torturer of the Spanish Inquisition. John Kerr and Barbara Steele also star.

In 1963's The Raven, Price teams up with horror-meisters Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre in a silly but watchable story of two rival sorcerers battling for supremacy. A young Jack Nicholson also stars.

One of the best Price/Corman projects is 1964's Mask of the Red Death, a highly stylized adaptation of Poe's work with Price having a field day as the evil Prince Prospero. Photographed by Nicolas Roeg.

For fans of really bad movies there's the low-budget turkey Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, from 1965. Price plays a mad scientist with dreams of taking over the world who uses beautiful female robots to woo the wealthy and powerful. Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello also star. The Supremes sing the title tune.

Price is perfectly cast in 1971's over-the-top The Abominable Dr. Phibes. He plays an evil genius who is disfigured in an auto accident that also kills his wife. Because he believes the surgical team allowed his wife to die, he decides to murder each member of the team.

The actor has a field day in the marvelously entertaining, albeit gory, black comedy Theatre of Blood, from 1973. Price plays a rather hammy Shakespearean actor, Edward Lionheart, who is sick of the savage blows from his critics. So with the help of his daughter (Diana Rigg), he murders the critics, re-creating the Bard's famous death scenes.

Director Tim Burton was a huge fan of Price's and in 1990, Burton cast him in Edward Scissorhands. Price gives a charming performance as an elderly inventor who dies before he gets to attach hands to his creation (Johnny Depp).