’ Tis the season to blast “ Thriller ” and orgy - watch allyour best-loved chilling flick . Naturally , the mind drifts to one of the greatest talent the genre ever knew : Vincent Price . The role player had a retentive , wide-ranging life history — he was also an art expert and a cookery book author!—but here are our favorite spooky and offbeat highlighting .
1) “Thriller”
If you grew up in the 1980s , chance are one of your first introduction to Price was through Michael Jackson ’s ubiquitous strike , in all likelihood the most successful soda water song about undead freak ever recorded . The turning point video ( direct byAn American Werewolf in London’sJohn Landis ) added iconic zombie choreography to the song , but a immense part of “ Thriller”—the matter that really elevates the melody from catchy toe - phone tapper to mini horror heroic — is Price ’s recital ( which the end credits drolly term a “ rap ” ) . It start out , of course of action , with “ Darkness come down across the land … ” and eventually ends with one of the role player ’s signature mirthful - yet - pearl - chilling laughs .
2) The Invisible Man Returns
The 1940 continuation to the 1933Universal Horrorclassic is only loosely tied to the H.G. Wells - inspired original , but plain it revolves around a familiar patch gadget . In one of his earliest horror character , a 29 - yr - old cost plays a man who ’s injected with an invisibility serum after he ’s wrong accused of murder . Can he receive the real killer before the notoriously unstable blood serum makes him go demented ? The thing about starring as an invisible man is that you ’re not really on the screen that much — but damage ’s purr is so unmistakable that he makes a big mental picture even as a disembodied voice , just as he did decade later with “ Thriller . ”
3) House of Wax
This 1953 smash hit — the first giving studio apartment film to bereleased in coloring 3D — raise Price from a drawing string of second banana tree part to being one of Hollywood ’s most popular baddie . He star as acclaimed turn - of - the - century wax sculptor Professor Jarrod who ’s lock away in a bitter feud with his greedy business partner . Things take a very blue crook when the spouse tries to kill Jarrod and burn their museum down . The sculptor emerges from the incident a changed man , make eerie exhibits that showcase thing like … the cryptical “ felo-de-se ” of his former business pardner . Jarrod also has a newfangled technique for making his human figures , which involves dipping the freshly murdered bodies of his enemy in molten wax . Did I mention this movie is in luridly colored 3D ? Fun fact : in 2005 , Jaume Collet - Serra ( of theupcoming Jungle Cruise ) made his directorial debut with a House of Wax remake , a film whose exclusive defining equipment characteristic is that it co - starred Paris Hilton at the height of her Simple Life fame .
4) The Mad Magician
A year after House of Wax , Price — proudly placard as “ That House of Wax Man”—played another 3D fiend , a magician who ’s found some success inventing tricks for other performers , but is determined to asterisk in his own show as “ the Great Gallico . ” His flair for illusion also help oneself him in the veridical world , where he ’s fond of pose his enemies . Those unfortunate psyche include a way more famous rival magician , as well as a pesky man of affairs in possession of an ironclad contract bridge that yield him ownership of Gallico ’s most stupendous tricks . ( Not help matters : the same businessman is also woo Gallico ’s gold - digging former wife , played by a pre - Green Acres Eva Gabor . ) Naturally , one of Gallico ’s good “ illusion ” involves a buzz saw and the very existent decapitation of a very deserving victim — which leads to a gruesomely peculiar scuffle when the promontory incidentally goes absent .
5) The Fly
intimately three decades before David Cronenberg teleportedJeff Goldbluminto the chronological record of dead body horror , Price star in a less oozy version of George Langelaan ’s sci - fi short story . In this version , Price plays the brother of the sick - fated scientist , the latter a family man who keep his experiments in his basement . ( That explain why his married woman has to get involved when he accidentally swaps some important body part with those of a housefly . ) Most of the picture takes place in flashback , with terms ’s eccentric get word the tale of how his brother judge to overthrow the process to no avail , before enlisting help to commit self-destruction . However , terms does lend moral support when the police detective investigating this strange case determine to slosh the web - trapped fly that contains the brother ’s other contribution ( admit his head)—death by stone being , presumptively , way more pleasant than being gobble alive by a monolithic spider .
6) William Castle collaborations: The Tingler and House on Haunted Hill
In 1959 , Mary Leontyne Price star in two revulsion movies guide by William Castle — both of which became illustrious more forCastle ’s selling gimmicksthan for anything else ( though House on Haunted Hill would , age afterward , bewoefully remake ) . In The Tingler , Price is a scientist who discovers a creepy-crawly - crawly parasite that feeds on reverence , which sire complicated when the matter gets loose in a theater full of panic-stricken patrons . There ’s a tangential execution plot , too , but The Tingler ’s most - remembered scene is the one where Price ’s theatrical role urges everyone in the dramatics to scream so that the Tingler wo n’t be capable to single out any shrieking victims . It ’s very meta . And back in the day , sealed theatre were set with special seats that would hum at the good moment — all part of Castle ’s grand programme to scare the pant off America . ( Literally , that ’s the form of address of hishighly enjoyable autobiography . ) House on Haunted Hill ’s gimmick was a little less elaborate , involving skeletons vanish out above the hearing at a all-important point , but Price is an buttery joy as a rich guy rope who throw off a haunted - house party that turns into a twisting murder mystery along the way .
7) Roger Corman collaborations: Edgar Allan Poe
Director and producer Roger Corman ’s influence in Hollywood can not be amplify ( or summed up terribly concisely ) , but his partnership with Price began with American International Pictures ’ 1960 ’s House of Usher , adjust from Edgar Allan Poe by Richard Matheson . ( As it happened , Price would later star in The Last Man on Earth , the first adaptation of Matheson ’s novel I Am Legend . ) Corman and Price lead on to make Pit and the Pendulum , anthology film Tales of Terror , The Raven , The Masque of the Red Death , The Haunted Palace , and The Tomb of Ligeia . Price would remain consort with Poe for the quietus of his calling , and he was a genuine fan ; in 1970 , he filmed the AIP - grow “ An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe,”a dramatic indication of four Poe stories , and in 1975 he madea much - publicized sojourn to the Poe Museumin Richmond , Virginia .
8) Batman TV show
OF COURSE VINCENT Leontyne Price WAS AN awing COMIC - BOOK VILLAIN . The character Egghead was very fond of using eggs - form artillery ( to match his head ) and speaking in egg - themed punning . He appeared in several episodes and , as it pass , did really have a huge brain under that giant bald noodle . Here ’s validation : At one point he actuallyfigured out that Batman and Bruce Wayne were the same mortal !
9) Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
A San Francisco - set 1965 sci - fi funniness star Price as the flamboyantly wacky creator of a bikini - clad robot army ? A James Bond spoof that would later be burlesque itself by the Austin Powers movies ? Why do you ask any more plot than that ? Director Norman Taurog slotted this loosey - gooselike romp among the many Elvis Presley vehicles he helmed throughout the 1960s , which somehow seems kind of perfect .
10) Witchfinder General
Price bring the corrupt title case in this 1968 period drama ( which variety of works even if you ’re seeing it under its Poe - evoking alternate title , The Conqueror Worm ) , which was cheer by a real witch Orion who unleashed a reign of terror during the English Civil War . It ’s not realllllyy a horror movie , other than the universal revulsion of torture , but it was considered an unusually violent and sadistic motion picture for the time . Price play his character without a whisper of camp — his fictional character is exceptionally roughshod and comes across as gross evil . Witchfinder General , which went on to inspire more than one heavy metal band , gained additional tragic mystique when its 25 - class - honest-to-god director , Michael Reeves , died of an accidental overdose soon after its release .
11) The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Rushing to be by his wife ’s side after she fail in the operating room , a concert organist crash his railcar and is declared dead . But Dr. Phibes is in secret alive — albeit hideously marred under a mask that looks just like Mary Leontyne Price ’s face under heavy make - up — and hungry for jurist . Since he also happens to be a divinity expert , he references the 10 Biblical pestilence of Egypt as a playbook for exacting revenge against his married woman ’s medical squad . Yes , this include locusts and rats and all kinds of other foul stuff . If this all sounds fairly idiotic , it is , and the 1971 moving-picture show knows it , which makes it that much more gratifying — as does the photographic film ’s lush production design and ( it goes without enjoin ) Price ’s intrust performance . No wonderment it ’s become a cult classic .
12) Theatre of Blood
For many years I assume Price was British , found on his not - quite - identifiable accent . Actually , he was endure in St. Louis , Missouri — but he did start acting while he was a student in London . Deliciously delivery - smuggled 1973 drollery Theatre of Blood brings Price back to his roots as a right Shakespearian player named Edward Lionheart , though it also made excellent purpose of Price ’s partiality for macabre cloth . fairish monition : Theatre of blood line also has some definite similarities with Dr. Phibes . After a with child humiliation , Lionheart attempts suicide — then take reward of the fact that everyone assumes he ’s deadened by taking revenge on all the critics that gave him big reappraisal throughout his career . And when I say “ revenge , ” I mean “ stalks them and kills them in hideously grim ways that pay homage to Shakespeare ’s plays . ” It ’s camp and awesome , and Mary Leontyne Price is obviously feature a blast , quote the Bard and drown his foes in barrel of wine-colored . As an bring bonus , Game of Thrones ’ Diana Rigg co - stars as his devoted , complicit girl .
13) The Brady Bunch
If you glint over all the client - starring bits Price did in the seventies and eighties , you ’ll actualise he appeared on nearly every hit show : Columbo , The Carol Burnett Show , Get Smart , Mod Squad , The Love Boat , The Bionic Woman , and many more . But his involvement in the three - episode “ Hawaiian vacation ” arc that kicked off season four of The Brady Bunch always left the biggest impression on me . I can trace my fear of tarantulas and my passion of tiki drinks to those episodes , as well as my womb-to-tomb appreciation of Price . He pop up as creepy , cave - dwelling hermit Professor Hubert Whitehead , who terrify the Brady boys by briefly take them engrossed when they attempt to return a cursed tiki perfection to the “ sepulture grounds ” he ’s claimed as his turf . Frankly , he ’s creepy than anything else in the episodes — including that big - screwing spider .
14) Edward Scissorhands
Tim Burton ’s making love of Vincent Price famously commence when the succeeding director was just a child , and lead to the pair work together on Burton ’s 1982 stop - motion short Vincent , about a little son haunt with Edgar Allan Poe . ( Price provided the narration . ) In 1990 , Leontyne Price reunited with Burton for a small but very impactful role in goth fairytaleEdward Scissorhands : “ The artificer , ” the off-the-wall creator who builds the title reference but tragically croak before he can replace the young gentleman ’s scissor hands with real hands . The performance took on even more meaning after the movie ’s release , since it end up being the ailing actor ’s last important big - screen persona before his death in 1993 .
BatmanHorrorRoger CormanThe FlyThrillerTim BurtonVincent Price
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