Theatre Of Blood

The unforgettable Vincent Price hams it up big time and gives the performance of his career as Edward Lionhart, a veteran Shakespearian actor snubbed at the coveted ‘Critic’s Circle Awards’. The snub results in bloody murder, inspired by various Shakespeare plays, as one critic after another finds a truly tragic end.

One of the greatest ensemble casts ever had been assembled for this seminal British horror comedy from 1973, including Diana Rigg as Lionhart’s daughter Edwina, Robert Morley, Ian Hendry, Michael Hordern, Dennis Price, Harry Andrews, Coral Browne, and Diana Dors to name but a few.

When the much-desired Critic’s Circle Award goes to a brilliant newcomer, seasoned Shakespearean thespian Edward Lionhart, convinced that he would win, throws himself from the balcony of a penthouse in which assembled theatre critics celebrate and debate. Even then, Lionhart can’t resist going into dramatics and utters “To be or not to be” before flinging himself into the Thames. Believed to have drowned, his apparent suicide is briefly lamented and soon forgotten. However, Lionhart survives and is rescued and adopted by a bunch of meths-drinking vagrants dwelling in derelict buildings. There, Lionhart has ample time to plot his bloody revenge on all those critics who snubbed and humiliated him, suffice to say, he revels in his plan to dispatch them – all the while reciting some of his greatest lines in full costume.

From butchered by the aforementioned tramps (‘Julius Caesar’) to speared (‘Troilus and Cressida’), from having the heart (a pound of flesh) ripped out (‘The Merchant of Venice’), to drowned in a cask of wine (‘Richard III’), the murders are as grisly as they are hilariously macabre and Price excels in his role as the demented and bitter Lionhart – assisted by his equally demented daughter.
As Inspector Boot (Milo O’Shea) and Sergeant Dogge (Eric Sykes) are left clueless, it dawns on theatre critic Peregrine Devlin (Ian Hendry) that the murders have Lionhart written all over them, and that he might be alive after all… But even his theory can’t save fellow critic Meredith Merridew (Robert Morley) from being presented with… poodle pie (‘Titus Andronicus’), in one of the funniest and most demented scenes of the film. Mind you, the hair salon scene in which Coral Brown (the future Mrs. Price no less) finds a sizzling end when she gets electrocuted with special hair curlers is on a par with sick humour of baking a poodle pie…

And yet - with almost no critics left to kill, the curtain has to come down on Lionhart eventually. It does come down mercilessly in the movie’s Grand Guignol-inspired climax. Devlin, the one critic surviving Lionhart’s reign of bloody revenge, comments “…he was madly overacting as usual, but you must admit he did know how to make an exit.”

This Blu-ray and Blu-ray Steelbook release comes with killer SPECIAL FEATURES:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by MGM
• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary with The League of Gentlemen, Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith
• A Priceless Pot-boiler – Victoria Price discusses Theatre of Blood
• A Fearful Thespian – author and film historian David Del Valle discusses Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood
• Staged Reaction – Star Madeline Smith remembers Theatre of Blood
• A Harmony for Horror – Composer Michael J. Lewis remembers Theatre of Blood
• Original Trailer
• Reversible Sleeve featuring new writing on the film by critic Cleaver Patterson and a reproduction of the original press book material, illustrated with original archive stills