Vincent Price – The Sinister Image
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: B+ Main Program: B
If you
only know Vincent Price by voice from the ever-overrated Michael Jackson song Thriller and have not caught enough of
his films, you should go out of your way to catch Vincent Price – The Sinister Image (1993). The main program is an interview with the
legend that goes on for just over an hour, as conducted by film fan and
historian David Del Valle. His knowledge
of Price goes far beyond the Horror genre and this DVD goes far beyond the
interview.
This is
not to say Horror fans will be disappointed, because Del Valle has plenty of
goods on the genre that made Price unforgettable, but his career was massive
and as many stones are unturned as possible in the length of time given. There was nothing on his Bionic Woman appearance in all this, nor enough on The Great Mouse Detective, Leave Her To Heaven, nothing on the
1958 E.S.P. TV series, the 1947 Pantomime Quiz TV game show, his 1976 Muppet Show and shockingly nothing on
his many appearances on the 1960s TV series version of Batman as Egghead! That is a
big miss, especially for Del Valle, but maybe he can “dig up” something on it
later.
The
picture quality varies throughout, but is all full-frame. The main interview suffers simply because the
NTSC analog video Del Valle had on hand has not aged well, so it is below
average and sometimes hard to sit through.
On the extras, all the audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, including the
audio-only segments. The “Freedom To Get Lost” episode of the 1958
series Half Hour To Kill, a series
hosted and starring Price with a different story each week (i.e., an anthology
show), has a fine black and white print in fine shape and is the best image
quality on the DVD. A Shindig! (1965) series installment on
his Dr. Goldfoot films called “The Wild Weird World Of Dr. Goldfoot”
leaves the music behind, but now the go-go dancers are robot replicants. It is an interesting promo captured on a
kinescope, which is still better in picture quality than the main program, but
is also monochrome. The 200+ still photo
gallery has consistently good images, leaving a 44 minute audio-only interview
from 1988 and a half-hour installment of the radio drama Escape! This fine show from
1950 offers Price in “Three Skeleton Keys”
and is a highlight of this loaded disc.
Though
you can always go to a website for the information, a section on film, TV and
radio would have been nice. However,
this is a densely packed single DVD with many entertaining and informative
goodies that begin to do justice to one of the most distinct screen careers of
the 20th Century, so be sure to check out All Day Entertainment’s
great expansion of Vincent Price – The
Sinister Image and enjoy. I hope we
see more titles like these, because this is more than just a trailers
collection, but that would not have been a bad idea either.
- Nicholas Sheffo.
