The Oblong Box (1969) – Film Review

Director: Gordon Hessler
Cast: Vincent Price, Alister Williamson, Christopher Lee
Certificate: 15
By Sarah Morgan
Premature burial and a masked figure… If you’ve read Edgar Allan Poe, you’ll know both feature prominently in his terrifying tales. They also feature in The Oblong Box, a 1969 chiller loosely based on Poe’s 1844 short story of the same name.
However, horror movie fans won’t necessarily be interested in seeing it because of that – but rather because it includes the first time genre legends, friends and birthday-mates Vincent Price and Christopher Lee shared the screen.
Price was, of course, no stranger to Poe adaptations, having appeared in Roger Corman’s hugely popular series of films based on the writer’s work earlier in the decade. AIP, the production company behind them, also backed The Oblong Box.
“Accomplished”
Having scored a success with Witchfinder General the previous year, AIP’s plan was to reteam Price with that film’s director Michael Reeves (the pair hadn’t gotten along on set but made up later) and several other members of the cast. However, when Reeves fell ill (he died shortly after Witchfinder’s release), Gordon Hessler took his place.
Hessler had cut his teeth working on Alfred Hitchcock’s TV series in Hollywood, and while he does a good job here, those who are aware of Reeves’s short but spectacular career are left with a sense of what might have been.
Nevertheless, The Oblong Box, which fuses those aforementioned Poe tropes with voodoo, is an accomplished production.
Price plays Julian Markham, a landowner in Victorian England who is hiding his brother Edward in an attic room. During a sojourn in Africa, Edward fell victim to an angry tribe who inflicted a terrible curse on him that has left him disfigured, both facially and mentally.
When his cohorts fail to restore him to health, Edward escapes, forcing an experimental surgeon to give him shelter between his murderous rampages. But it isn’t long before both brothers are left ruing the day they stepped onto the dark continent…
“Charismatic”
Apparently the siblings were originally going to be twins, both played by Price, which would have worked a treat. Instead, it’s Alister Williamson who tackles the role of Julian, although for the most part we don’t see him – his face is hidden under a red mask, apparently too hideous to be seen. When his features are finally revealed at the climax of the tale, it’s a bit of a letdown because he doesn’t actually look that bad and you’re left wondering what all the fuss was about.
That failing aside, this is a thoroughly entertaining romp, with a typically charismatic performance from Price. Lee is a little subdued as the surgeon (complete with terrible wig), but clearly both men enjoyed working with Hessler because they reteamed, along with screenwriter Christopher Wicking, a year later for Scream and Scream Again.
Watch out too for such familiar British actors as Rupert Davies, Hilary Dwyer (both of whom also appeared in Witchfinder General), Peter Arne and Sally Geeson in supporting roles.
As is often the case with BFI releases, there’s an abundance of special features on offer, including a touching new interview with Price’s daughter Victoria, archive footage of Corman discussing his Poe cycle of films and a selection of silent adaptations of Poe’s stories.
Special features:
- Presented in High Definition
- Audio commentary by film historian Steve Haberman (2015)
- The Immortal Mr Price (2024, 17 mins): Vincent Price’s daughter discusses her father’s career and his trips to England in the late 1960s
- The Bells (1913, 15 mins): Edgar Allan Poe’s poignant poem underpins this silent film rarity, which tells a melodramatic tale of love and death
- Prelude (1927, 7 mins): Rachmaninov’s wonderfully disturbing ‘Prelude in C-sharp minor’ sets the tone for a silent, nightmarish reverie on Poe’s The Premature Burial
- The Pit (1962, 27 mins): a strange and experimental gothic short, adapted from Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum
- Roger Corman on Edgar Allan Poe (2013, 9 mins): the legendary director and producer discusses his Poe adaptations, including The Pit and the Pendulum and The Masque of the Red Death
- Image gallery: original stills and promotional materials
- Theatrical trailer
- First pressing only - Illustrated booklet with essays by Peter Fuller and Benjamin Halligan: notes on the special features and credits
The Oblong Box is released on Blu-ray by the BFI