Vincent Price is rightly noted for his fine speaking voice and suave, polished presence through which he can convey eerie graduations of a sinister motivating force.

—ROGER CORMAN

My voice has sort of been my trademark and I don’t know why, because to me, I sound like everybody else in America. My brother, who wasn’t in the theater at all, had exactly the same voice I had.

—VINCENT PRICE

Introduction by Lawrence French

The following interview with Vincent Price was transcribed and edited from the radio show, THE GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO, that was first broadcast on the Hartford, CT radio station WTIC, in November of 1972 . Many years ago I got an audio tape of this broadcast from a collector, but it only included excerpts from Price’s answers. It was also, unfortunately, after CFQ published it’s special Vincent Price issue in 1989, so I couldn’t include any quotes from this interview in our special Price issue! But, even in it’s truncated form, I felt it was Vincent Price at his best, talking expansively about what he himself called his “favorite entertainment medium: Radio.”

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Here is some astounding news. Although METROPOLIS has recently been restored by the Munich Film Museum, many of the lost scenes from the 3 hour version that premiered in Berlin in 1927 were still missing. Now, even more of the missing scenes have been found in South America. A report from the German newspaper Die Zeit outlining the details of this sensational discovery (along with some unrestored shots from the missing scenes), can be found here. Continue Reading »

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9 X 9: When Andrew Stanton first joined Pixar he was only the fledgling company’s ninth employee. Now, 18 years on, Stanton has delivered us Pixar’s ninth movie, WALL•E (Short for: Waste Allocation Load Lifter•Earth-Class.) Not so surprisingly, given Pixar’s track record, WALL•E is already being hailed as another animation “masterpiece.”

Below the fold are some of Andrew Stanton’s thoughts on the film (provided by Disney’s head of communications, Howard E. Green), which I have combined with an interview I conducted with Stanton at the time MONSTERS, INC. was first released. Continue Reading »

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“Let’s not get too serious about this film. It’s just supposed to be a fun movie, but the idea of assassinating one person to save thousands is very interesting…”—Angelina Jolie

By Lawrence French

As the summer movie-going season enters full swing, you sometimes feel a bit jaded by the plethora of action pictures that make their dominance so overwhelming felt at multiplex theaters until the fall. Which is why it is quite astonishing that this summer’s third major comic book movie adaptation, WANTED, delivers the goods in such a big way. It is an absolutely superb fantasy adventure that has the kind of vividly staged action sequences that made THE FUGITIVE such a thrill-ride! And because WANTED is a science-fiction fantasy, it can go even further than THE FUGITIVE in stretching it’s action scenes beyond the normal boundaries of audience acceptance. Plus, given the unique way Russian director Timur Bekmambetov has filmed these scenes, the result is a real adrenalin-fueled rush which leaves audiences totally spellbound. Thankfully, the movie avoids the fatal mistake of overloading us with too many thrills, so viewers have sufficient time to catch their breath between the action set pieces. Continue Reading »

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Given the dreadful critical reception that greeted Universal’s 2003 attempt at bringing the HULK to the screen, one has to admire the studio’s willingness to pretty much forget about maintaining continuity with their misguided first effort and simply start over. As a result, this new version of THE INCREDIBLE HULK is sure to be far better received by critics, and will undoubtedly exceed the previous HULK’s box-office take of $132 million. Screenwriter Zak Penn (X2) has wisely relegated the origin story to an inventive visual recap quickly told behind the opening credits, freeing director Louis Leterrier (TRANSPORTER) to begin telling his story without getting bogged down with unneeded exposition. As the film opens, we first discover Bruce Banner toiling by day as an anonymous worker in a Rio de Janeiro bottling factory. By night, he studies Portuguese, attempts to discover a herbal cure for his gamma infected cells, or simply watches re-runs of THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE’S FATHER. Continue Reading »

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Actually, while George Lucas, Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg and all the other stars of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL were holding court at Cannes, in the south of France, I was watching their new film at San Francisco’s legendary Castro theater – the same theater where I’ve seen Mr. Lucas as a special guest several times. So while Mr. Lucas didn’t turn up in his home town this week, I’ve seen him often here. I’ve also been fortunate to attend the first preview screenings Lucas held for both INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, which Lucas insisted be held in San Francisco. Continue Reading »

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Legend says that a crystal skull was once stolen from a mystical lost city of gold in the Amazon jungles of Peru. It is supposedly guarded by the living dead, and it is said, that whoever returns the mystic skull to the Temple of Akator, will be given control over its powers.

Today at the Cannes film festival, the world press will get it’s first glimpse of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. However, advance internet reviews have already spread like wildire, causing a minor sensation with their largely negative assesments. Perhaps most importantly, The New York Times deemed the bad early reviews worthy enough for a feature story.

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The story incorporates exotic locations, lost cities, and mad ambitions, pitting power-crazed villains against well-matched rivals.”The thing to keep in mind abut this film is that it is only a movie,” says Steven Spielberg. “It takes all the license of an exotic entertainment that aims to thrill and scare and strike one with a sense of wonder.”

—from advance publicity for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981).

There is little doubt that George Lucas’s and Steven Spielberg’s first RAIDERS film in 19 years, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, is the most anticipated film of the summer.

So in advance of it’s nationwide opening on May 22, here with the help of the studio press notes, are a few thoughts about the fourth Indiana Jones film. Continue Reading »

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As noted by Steve, below, it’s quite apparent that Jack Pierce should have a star on the walk of fame, and it should be as close to Boris Karloff’s star as possible. I’m also sure Universal will be happy to spend the $5,000 or so that is needed to make this happen, once they realize that Jack Pierce created the make-up for both Henry Hull in THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON, as well as Lon Chaney’s make-up for THE WOLF MAN. The sad fact is, probably nobody at Universal even knows who Jack Pierce is these days… but I’m sure once someone like Rick Baker says to them, “You know, when THE WOLF MAN opens, why don’t we give the man who created the first THE WOLF MAN make-up for Universal, Jack Pierce, a star on Hollywood Blvd” then it may actually happen! Especially, if it can be tied in with the opening of Universal’s new WOLF MAN movie!

Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that if Boris Karloff, one of the original founders of the Screen Actors Guild, were still around, he would certainly be asking Universal to put up the small amount of money needed to honor his good friend Jack Pierce, and asking them to give Mr. Pierce a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Here are some of Boris Karloff’s own comments about the masterful make-ups Jack Pierce created for him, from the long interview Karloff did for Canadian radio:

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Tony Stark, the millionaire playboy, as incarnated by bad boy actor Robert Downey, roars into theaters today, with the kind of adrenalin rush Stark gets from racing his shiny new Audi A8 down the Pacific Coast Highway from his super-cool cliffside mansion. As the first of this summer’s big comic book adaptations, Iron Man is certainly a nice way to kick off the season: with a big - and also quite an intelligent - bang!

Perhaps what is most amazing about the film is the rather clever way it transcends the limitations of it’s comic book origins, as well as it’s own rather predictable script. If read on it’s own, the storyline would seem to be full of events and situations which any avid comic book reader could easily see coming. For instance, the opening scene, where Tony Stark is being transported through the Afghan desert by a convoy of U.S. Army Hummers. As Stark nonchalantly sips his Scotch on the rocks, we know the convoy is going to be hit by enemy forces. Continue Reading »

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Here, from the vast CFQ archives are Vincent Price’s “Thoughts about the horror films that made him famous.” It’s a piece I wrote for the fabulous double issue of Cinefantastique, from January, 1989 on the career of “Horror’s crown prince,” Mr. Vincent Price.

Of course, earlier today, Steve B. posted the sad news about the passing of Hazel Court, who died of a heart attack at her California home outside of Lake Tahoe. Ms. Court, starred with Vincent Price in two of Corman’s best Poe films, THE RAVEN and THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, and appeared with Ray Milland in a third Corman-Poe film, THE PREMATURE BURIAL.

So I feel it’s only fitting I should append this short comment Mr. Price made about Hazel Court before his more detailed memories of working on the Poe movies:

VINCENT PRICE: Hazel Court was a dear, sweet lady. She was in The Raven which was one of my favorite films, mainly because of the cast… they were all divine people.

Click here to read the article Price on Poe: Thoughts on the Horror that Made Him Famous.

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Given the apparent lack of faith Dreamworks felt about the critical reaction they might get for The Ruins, they decided not to screen the movie for the press until 10:00 p.m. on Thursday night, thus making (what they presumably felt would be mostly bad reviews), impossible to appear in Friday morning’s newspapers.

Perhaps they were using some clever reverse psychology, since if critics went to the film expecting to see another bad horror movie, and then actually saw something they might be mildly impressed with, they might be more forgiving in their eventual reviews.

If that is the case, I for one, found The Ruins to be quite a notch above the usual “Young couples on a vacation in paradise that goes to hell film.” It is really quite superior to movies like The Descent and Turistas which have preceded it, and possibly even influenced it. Continue Reading »

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The new issue of Video Watchdog (#138) due out today features a long round table discussion between three top genre directors: Roger Corman, Daniel Haller and Joe Dante, with myself acting as moderator. The idea behind this get together was to talk in some detail about Corman’s work with Richard Matheson for Visions of Death, a book I edited that contains Matheson’s two screenplays for House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum (now available from The Gauntlet Press).

You can see a preview at the Video Watchdog website here.

Joe Dante will also be hosting a screening of Roger Corman’s Tomb of Ligeia, along with The Secret Invasion on April 16 and 17 at the newly renovated NEW BEVERLY CINEMA in Hollywood. If his schedule permits, Roger Corman will also be on hand to talk about the making of Tomb of Ligeia.

In the meanwhile, here is a short excerpt of our discussion about Tomb of Ligeia:

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One of the great joys about writing for Cinefantastique, was to find that actors like Elijah Wood and directors like Peter Jackson actually enjoyed talking to you! It was thanks to the very good reputation CFQ enjoyed in the biz. So we never had very much difficulty in convincing most fantasy filmmakers to speak with us (with the major exceptions of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.) It was more a case of convincing the studio publicists, who would rather get exposure in The New York Times than in CFQ.

But a young actor like Elijah Wood, was quite happy to talk in detail about his work on Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers to CFQ, so here is part one of my long interview with the amazing Hobbit at the center of the Lord of the Rings saga, Mr. Frodo Baggins… Continue Reading »

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While watching the extended DVD version of LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING the other night, I was once again enthralled by the magnificence of the production, and thought back to several of the interviews I had done on the movie that never made it into CFQ’s December 2003 issue on the film.

Director Peter Jackson had grown up in New Zealand as an avid reader of CFQ, so I had virtually unlimited access to anyone I wanted to speak with about the making of the picture. Unfortunately, by that time, Cinefantastique founder-publisher-editor Fred Clarke was no longer at the helm of the magazine, so what would have certainly been a deluxe double issue if Fred had been in control, containing comprehensive material on the first fantasy film to ever win a best picture Oscar (and ten others), ended up cut down the  to a mere 15 pages!

So here I present a more detailed look at my interview with conceptual artist Alan Lee, as he talks about all the fabulous design work that went into creating the fantasy worlds on view in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Continue Reading »

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