With a Bit of Mayhem

There was a film I was made to watch once - never quite understood why. It was an awful, horrid film - terrifying, and I really couldn't recommend it. It was sick and twisted (interesting, but twisted, and not having enough to recommend it to surmount the twistedness....) and creepy.




The above picture is from The Abominable Dr. Phibes - I think. Well, it's the right character at least.

Anyway, the really, really, really terrifying, sick man that I had to watch in that film? Is played by Vincent Price.

But because I was rather young when I had to see it, I didn't notice the name, and so.... Vincent looked familiar, but I'd no idea why.

If it weren't such a horrid film, I'd watch it again. But as it was...  I'll stick to older films. Thank you.



I also figured out why his voice sounds so incredibly familiar. Not enough for me to figure it out on my own - I've always been rather horrid at voices - but enough to connect it after the fact.

He played Dathan's precurser that Moses kills in Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments.

See, how come no one tells me these things? How come no one sits down and tells me about the past? Why must we talk about modern actors, and modern effects, and modern films? They're really not worth it that often....

And why not appreciate the past? It would have been harder to bring the same effects about! It wasn't something that was just.... Well, "we don't cut it up the way they do in film. We play it all the way through."

And then - speaking of Price - John Carradine was also in the film.

He played Moses' brother Aaron and I never ever would have recognised him. He just like.....shrank and squished and....aged. I think that's the best way to put it.

I know him from that lovely movie I keep speaking of: House of Long Shadows  - if it's ever NOT coming up, I'll say, but then it would have come up and so the who thing would be pointless then.....


He's the one in the picture that hasn't shown up before - the older man standing beside Lee.

On a side not, I really miss being able to use references that people get - or at least knowing people that catch the references. It was fun....

But The Ten Commandments will never quite play through the same I think..... Rameses, and Bithia, and Baka, and Moses, and Aaron, and Rameses.....  They're recognisable now! I know them from elsewhere!

I wonder if he ever plays the.... Well, not villain. OR monster.

If anything, the older ones would be fun to watch just for him - he is a good actor.

I'd rewatched House of the Long Shadows the other day, and - although I watched it for Cushing first, he's really a lesser character. Price, on the other hand, is....  Well, constantly soliloquising as he termed it.

Rather pointlessly too - but! That's a different story.

I actually managed to find the Muppet Show episode with Vincent Price too! I do so enjoy those things....

In Order:

That really is a terrific joke - that of the hand.

We tend to do that quite a lot. I'm rather blind without my glasses, and am often teased when others signify a number with their fingers and ask how many they're holding up.

My rejoinder? Unless they've been getting into some business I know naught about and decimating the sparse population hereby, they can't possibly be holding up any fingers.....


However, although he is associated with Horror films, he started out as a character actor. And completely unsurprisingly, he's brilliant.

Service de Luxe came out in 1938, and is a romantic comedy.

Interestingly enough, I was musing over this with another. Romance generally annoys me.

This is an example of a romance that exists to frustrate and annoy me and basically ruins the idea for me.

It's the sort of romance where the couple dances around each other, keeping secrets with the inevitable ending that the other will feel betrayed and hurt regardless of any good reasons.

Maybe if the at least allowed the other to be reasonable? Or eradicated the need for secrets? Usually, the couple is quite intelligent and able to keep secrets and protect each other - if they weren't, I'd not watch them - so often times the secret doesn't need to be kept in the first place!!

And, of course, whenever the secret is uncovered, there's the hurt and the betrayal that ignores all reason. It infuriates me, and seems to be the most common type.

And then there's the romance like River and the Doctor and Amy and Rory, that works a LOT more like friendship or family - and that's perfect.

Which, alright, there's still secrets  - but it doesn't matter as much!

Because I don't see why it would. Secrets are necessary and natural to varying extents. Just because someone kept a secret from you because either you'd never ever believe it or because they want to keep you safe...How is that a betrayal of love??  If you can't understand that, then it probably isn't love.

Actually, it might just be that....  The whole 'the girl doesn't need to be protected by the guy. She can handle herself' thing that the majority of people apparently believe nowadays. maybe that's why? Because it seems the secret is always being kept from the girl, and she overreacts when she finds out. Because, of course, she can protect herself against anything.

Regardless, it's pointless, and they follow the same path, and can they please stop doing this with characters??

I suppose the only thing worse than the pointless secrets and 'betrayal' is the situation where the guy dates or courts the girl that all watchers know is evil and will cause countless problems for the good guys.

Anyway!

But then I watch things like Bringing Up Baby and Service de Luxe and White Christmas and Holiday Inn and especially Service for the Ladies of which their romantic plots are the prime example of everything that irks and annoys me.

So why is that different? Why could I rewatch those films again and again and have no problem with them?

Maybe it's the costumes? The language? Maybe it's the fact that you know how the story will end - that it's not drug out over five series....? Maybe it's the morals? The etiquette and standards? I've no idea....

Oh, look. Yet ANOTHER contradiction to myself. Lovely.

But it really was such a fun film. And 'tis on Youtube - lovely advantages to old films when they can be found, of course.....

Start watching this at 5:23

There weren't specific clips, but this was close enough....

I would have included the clip from earlier when Aubrey is pestering him and hanging on his arm while he's working - and he is quite tired of it and lifts her up to a high shelf. And then proceeds to leave her there.

"Can you get down?"

"Not unless you help me down."

"Good!"

"First, I see spots. Then there's a rushing in my ears, and then a roaring; and then I brain the nearest person over the head with this!"

Ah, my new favourite quote for when I'm interrupted.... 'Guess that reference...'

This one you basically can just watch all of the way through. Quite short and shows almost everything there at the end.

Watch Vincent through it - or watch it twice and watch only him the second time through. Quite fun.