Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- A Stranger in the Woods 2024

- Underground 2023

- A Nashville Wish 2024

- molkipolki 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take Two 2024

- Return to the Theatre of Terror 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take One 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Oblong Box
Im Todesgriff der Roten Maske / Dance, Mephisto

USA, UK 1969
produced by
Gordon Hessler, Louis M. Heyward for AIP
directed by Gordon Hessler
starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Alister Williams, Peter Arne, Maxwell Shaw, Rupert Davies, Uta Levka, Sally Geeson, Harry Baird, Hilary Dwyer (= Hilary Heath), Carl Rigg, Godfrey James, James Mellor, John Barrie, Ivor Dean, Danny Daniels, Hira Talfrey, John Wentworth, Betty Woolfe, Martin Terry, Anne Clune, Jackie Noble, Ann Barrass, Jan Rossini
screenplay by Lawrence Huntington, additional dialogue by Christopher Wicking, based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe

AIP's Poe-cycle

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

Related stuff

you might want!!!

(commissions earned)


When in Africa, Edward's (Alister Williamson) face was horribly disfigured in some native revenge-ritual, but before the natives could do even worse to him, he was saved by his brother Julian (Vincent Price) & brought back to England. However, the experience has turned him into a raging madman, so julien has to lock him away in a room ...

But even in his demented state, Edward is apparently not without friends, & he persuades 2 of them, Trench (Peter Arne) & Norton (Carl Rigg), to get him out ... & soon enough they find a witchdoctor (Harry Baird) who can put him into a state of suspended animation, so as to leave the house as a corpse & later be revived by his friends. Good idea, it seems, however Julian immediately nails the ugly corpse of his brother shut in a coffin, & orders Trench & Norton to get him another body, to present to the public as his dead brother. So the 2 of them, with their witchdoctor (for some reason), do a litle killing to get their hands on a fresh cadaver, & then rather inexplicably forget all about Edward - more correctly, they suddenly don't care anymore ("it can't be helped, oh well").

However, the local physician Neuhart (Christopher Lee) is always in need of fresh corpses, & soon has Edward dug up by his regular graverobbers. Only when he looks onto his new corpse, he finds out the corpse is not dead at all, & terribly ugly, too. But the corpse, Edward, immediately hides his face behind a red mask, &, as he knows about the doctor's graverobbing practices, he blackmails him into giving him food & lodging, while he wants to set out on his revenge spree. Soon enough he has killed Norton too, then though he falls in love with Neuhart's maid Sally (Sally Geeson) & forgets all about his revenge. When neuhart though learns about their relationship, he fires Sally (but it eludes me why). who in a totally unnecessary plottwist soon finds employment with Julien & his newly married wife Elizabeth (Hilary Dwyer).

Heartbroken, Edward seeks solace with a prostitute (Uta Levka), but when she & her pimp want to trick him out of all his money, he murders her ... then he murders Trench, after he has given him the adress of the witchdoctor ... but the witchdoctor fails to cure him, however he tells him that the natives were not actually meaning to have their revenge on him but his brother Julian, who has killed a child while in Africa - it's just the same last names that had Edward suffer in his brother's stead.

Then of course Edward murders doctor Neuhart, before going after his brother ... but ultimately Julian can shoot Edward, but when he leans over his brother's dieing body, Edward bites him ...

& soon enough, Julian's face turns as disfigured as Edward's was ...

 

There are actually very few films that are as lost for a proper diretion as this one is: It starts out as a jungle-horror-voodoo-adventure, then turns into some kind of monster movie, then a bit of graverobbing is thrown into the mix, including the usual ruthless doctor (Christopher Lee here) who doesn't care too much about where his bodies come from, then it turns into a revenge plot, suddenly though it's a sympathetic look about a disfigured man who tries to come to terms with reality, before suddenly it's about a mad serial killer. Now don't get me wrong, I was always one for mixing the genres, & i have seen even wilder mixes that do work, this one however doesn't. Amidst all his tasty ingredients, someone seems to have forgotten to add a coherent plot, & without that, the movie simply falls apart & becomes, especially considering the competent cast, a major disappointment.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Oblong Box
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Oblong Box here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Oblong Box at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!