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The Tigon Collection
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The good stuff first; Witchfinder General is one of the very best British horror films , directed by Michael Reeves, whose only other significant film was the The Sorcerers & who died very young just after this was released. It is beautifully shot, has a wonderful score, & features a great performance by Vincent Price.
The other standout film is Blood on Satans Claw directed by Piers Haggard . Like Witchfinder General it makes excellent use of location shooting & its period setting, & has a superb score.
The other films dip substantially in terms of quality. The Haunted House of Horror is a mess, but thats not surprising considering the fact that the script was hacked about whilst the film was being shot & another director brought in to shoot clumsily edited additional scenes.
The Beast in the Cellar is a very tedious film about a mad chap locked up by his sisters who escapes to kill some squaddies. The direction is dull, the horror nonexistent, & the script is full of acres of excruciatingly dull expository dialogue; the final coffessional scene goes on forever & not even a skilled actress like Beryl Reid can do anything with it.
The Body Stealers is a witless sci-fi thriller about disappearing parachuters with a laughably low budget & wooden characters.
The Virgin Witch is probably the very worst of the bunch; a quality-free soft-core potboiler concerning witches in deepest Surrey which will leave the viewer numb with boredom. There are a few unintentionally funny lines but they are few & far between; the only other point of interest is that it appears to use the same country house location as Norman Warrens Satans Slave.
The DVDs are generally of very good quality; disappointingly the transfer for Witchfinder General is the same as for the previous single disc release. Extras for the lesser films are fairly thin , but there is an entertaining commentary on The Haunted House of Horror from the director Michael Armstrong who makes his opinions of the films producers crystal clear. Blood on Satans Claw also has a very amusing commentary from 3/4s of the cast of The League of Gentleman that strikes a good balance between affection for the film & some very funny peripheral observations about such things as Mr. Kiplings cakes & the mysterious attraction between Frank & Betty from Some Mothers Do ave em .
Overall, if you already have Witchfinder General & Blood on Satans Claw on single discs, then unless you are a horror film completist this collection is probably not worth your money. But if you dont have those, or like me you have a maniacal desire to own every single bit of British horror tat irrespective of quality then, for all its faults, this is a recommended purchase.
Flora Robson was a British actress renowned as one of the great character players & one of Britains theatrical grandes dames. She was born in South Shields, Durham, England & made her stage debut in 1921 at the age of 19. Lacking the glamorous looks of a leading lady, she specialised in character roles, notably that of Queen Elizabeth I in both Fire over England & The Sea Hawk. At the age of 32, Robson played the old Empress Elizabeth in Alexander Kordas Catherine the Great. After the war, demonstrating her range, she appeared in Holiday Camp, the first of a series of films which featured the very ordinary Huggett family; as the Mother Superior in Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburgers Black Narcissus ; as a magistrate in Goodtime Girl ; as a prospective Labour MP in Basil Deardens excellent Frieda ; & in Deardens costume melodrama, Saraband for Dead Lovers. It was her success in Hollywood that brought her recognition & in 1960 she was created a Dame of the British Empire. She died in Brighton.
Posters Of Black NarcissusEditors Choice: Black Narcissus, Fire Over England, View DVDology
Vincent Price was an American film actor. He is most well remembered for his roles in a series of low-budget horror films where his distinctive voice & serio-comic attitude were well used. Vincent Leonard Price Jr. was born in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was president of the National Candy Company. Price Jr. was educated at Yale & the Cortauld Institute, London in art history & fine art. He became interested in theater in the 1930s, appearing professionally on stage from 1935. He made his film debut in 1938 with Service de Luxe & established himself as a competent player, notably in Laura, directed by Otto Preminger. He acted as Joseph Smith, Jr. in the movie Brigham Young. In the 1950s he moved into horror films, enjoying the role in the successful curiosity The House of Wax, the first 3-D film to land in the years top ten at the North American box office.
Posters Of Alice CooperEditors Choice: Alice Cooper, Welcome To My Nightmare, Theatre Of Blood, Doctor Phibes Rises Again, Witchfinder General, House On Haunted Hill, Horror Triple, The Masque Of The Red Death, View DVDology