BY HANK REINEKE
Scream
and Scream Again (1970) is the second of three films horror
maestro Vincent Price would sign onto in his late-stage years of working for
American-International Pictures. This film,
a very peculiar one by many standards, was bracketed by two other British
horrors for A.I.P., The Oblong Box
(1969) and Cry of the Banshee
(1970). All three films of these films were
helmed by director Gordon Hessler, who also doubled as producer of these first
and third efforts.
From 1960 through 1964 A.I.P. enjoyed great success with
Roger Corman’s cycle of stylistic Gothic horrors. These films were similar in many ways, often featuring
a tortured and/or haunted Vincent Price in Corman’s somewhat liberal
adaptations of stories by the likes of literary horror masters Edgar Allan Poe
and H.P. Lovecraft. The successes of these films were mostly in the studio’s
rearview mirror by 1965. With the
ticket-buying public’s interest in Gothic horror and costume period pieces
clearly on the wane, A.I.P. was doing their best to exploit the talent and
drawing power of their most bankable contract star. Depending on who you ask, some argue that this
trio of British A.I.P. film projects (1960-1970)
ministered by Hessler and starring Price were satisfying only to a base of faithful
devotees.
Both Hessler’s The
Oblong Box and Cry of the Banshee
– not to mention Michael Reeve’s controversial Witchfinder General (1968) – were unrelentingly grim in the
presentation of their subject matter. They were all very good films, mind you – some consider the Reeves’ film
a masterpiece - but their dark and serious themes and depressing atmospherics simply
did not allow Price to bring his trademark mix of Devilish charm and menace to
his assigned characters. It wasn’t until
the releases of The Abominable Dr. Phibes
(A.I.P., 1971), Dr. Phibes Rises Again
(A.I.P., 1972) and Theatre of Blood
(United Artists, 1973), that the ship would be righted, all three capitalizing
on the veteran actor’s talent as a colorfully self-mocking, blood-letting, and black-humored
eccentric.
In Scream and
Scream Again, a modern day sci-fi thriller rather than a traditional
horror, Price again was burdened again in a humorless role as “Dr. Browning.†The not-so-good doctor is, in fact, a mad
scientist engaged in the creation of super-human “composites,†whiling away his
days in the laboratory of his stately manor house. Price is, sadly, wasted in a role that could
have been played by anyone. Then again
none of this film’s top billed players – Price, Christopher Lee and Peter
Cushing – were given much to do. If
Price’s is the principal star of this film, it’s simply by default. He merely enjoys the most screen time of the
three principals listed… but a bit more on that later.
Dr. Browning is not a terribly interesting character;
he’s too thinly drawn by screenwriter Christopher Wicking and we don’t see much
of him until the film’s closing minutes. The best of Vincent Price’s on-screen characterizations are the ones
where he seems relishing the role. One
is never really certain if Price even has any idea what is going on around him
in Scream and Scream Again. Director Hessler would more or less confirm
this in subsequent interviews, confiding to one writer that he thought Price
was not particularly fond of the three films he made under his direction. In the case of Scream and Scream Again, Hessler believed the actor “didn’t know
what he was doing in the picture; he thought it was all weird and strange.â€
If this was the case, Price was not alone in his
confusion. Co-star Christopher Lee (who
tragically only shares a brief single scene with Price) expressed similar sentiments. As Lee’s on screen time in this ninety-four
minute film (U.S. version) lasts little more than eight minutes or so in total,
he could more easily dismiss the film’s shortfalls as he wasn’t burdened with the
responsibility of carrying the picture. And for a film that teamed the three-biggest horror movie icons of the
1960s and 1970s for the first of only two full-length features together, it’s something
of a tragedy that poor Peter Cushing’s role is little more than a cameo. The scourge of missed opportunity is
ever-present throughout Hessler’s opus.
Scream
and Scream Again is credited as having been based on Peter
Saxon’s 1966 sci-fi-novel The
Disorientated Man. But, as with
seemingly everything relating to this is film, even that’s vague. In fact there was no actual Peter Saxon; the
name was a general pseudonym given to a stable of authors over-used and
underpaid by a certain British publisher of mass market sci-fi paperbacks. As I’ve never read Saxon’s novel, I cannot say
with any certainty if Hessler’s film is in any form a faithful, cinematic
reproduction of the source material. I
can attest that the director most assuredly captured the spirit of the book’s
title. In the final analysis, it could
be argued that Hessler’s multiple, shifting and confusing scenarios in Scream and Scream Again produced The Disorientated Viewer.
I won’t attempt to explain the film’s storyline
here. In short Hessler’s mosaic narrative
is a series of seemingly incongruous episodes bewilderingly stitched together. These threads do come together, somewhat
un-satisfyingly, in the end. It was an
unusual approach in telling this complex story cinematically but, in my
personal opinion, only occasionally successful. On the other hand, the film is never dull, just confusing in its structure. It can also be argued that for a film masquerading
as a police case or espionage caper, there’s no palpable sense of tension
building to a satisfying climax. Nonetheless,
many of the film’s scenes are memorable in standalone instances. Not particularly suspenseful, but memorable.
The mysterious villains of this film are adorned in both
business suits and ersatz-Nazi regalia. It’s never overtly explained if these schemers are jack-booted Communists
or Fascists, but they’re most certainly totalitarians. The bad guys are seemingly based out of some
unnamed East European nation. The
Stasi-like military helmets, the term “Comrade,†and a well- guarded checkpoint
suggest a hostile regime resembling that of Communist East Germany. But their interest in scientifically developing
an army of super-humans is… well, straight from the Nazi playbook.
Disappointingly, and as referenced earlier, the better
part of the film does not prominently feature Price, Lee, or Cushing despite
their shared star-billing. The film
mostly follows the violent doings (and ensuing police investigation) of a
renegade composite; a handsome but
murderous, synthetic flesh-eating Cyborg who drives a nifty red sports coupe. His modus operandi in choosing victims is by befriending
them at “The Busted Pot,†a swinging and noisy London nightclub. To tell more is to give things away. Should you require a more detailed synopsis
there are plenty of erudite and thoughtful treatises on Scream and Scream Again published in books, magazines, and on-line.
At the risk of being dismissed as a pedantic
train-spotter, the top-billed cast is sadly misused here and there’s really no
denying that even if you are an
admirer or defender of the film. Price
has only three scenes of consequence in the film. His top billing is justified primarily due to
his presence in a fifteen minute long – but only moderately suspenseful – sequence
near the film’s dénouement. Christopher
Lee has even less to do. His screen-time
is no more than eight minutes in total, if that. Even so, he still fares better than poor
Peter Cushing, whose lone scene clocks in only around the three minutes mark.
Scream
and Scream Again remains a film divisive to those who
consider themselves aficionados of British horror and Sci-fi. Personally, I would never count Hessler’s opus
as a favorite film nor even a particular guilty pleasure. Nonetheless, over the years I have the opportunity
to experience this film in a theatrical setting and have unreasonably sought
out copies on VHS, DVD, and Blu Ray. There is, I must admit, something undeniably intriguing about this film
that compels me to periodically return to it. Scream and Scream Again is the
cinematic equivalent of a challenging Rubik’s Cube. While I know I’ll never solve its intricate
mysteries, I can’t help but give the puzzle an occasional twist… no matter how
frustrating and futile the endeavor turns out to be.
Scream
and Scream Again was only recently issued by the Twilight
Time label in 2015 as a limited edition Blu Ray of 3,000 units (to learn more you
can revisit Mark Cerulli’s review in Cinema
Retro of that edition here):
It was surprising to learn that Kino Lorber Studio
Classics would be reissuing Scream and
Scream Again so soon following the TT release. Having not seen the Twilight Time edition, I
cannot compare the value of the transfers or the bountiful supplemental
materials and commentaries. I can report
that the Kino Lorber set features both the U.S. and UK cuts of the film (not a
great deal of difference between the two, but still nice to have), the film’s
original theatrical trailer and radio spots, and a thought-provoking commentary
track courtesy of horror film scholar Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog fame. The
film is something of a challenge, perhaps, but one worth taking up.
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