This article originally appeared on CinemaRetro
BY MARK CERULLI
Like the old saying goes, “You can’t go home again.” Having seen Scream And Scream Again decades ago, I remembered it as being thrilling and suspenseful… now, 47 years (!) after its release, not so much. The story is a hodgepodge of sci-fi and social commentary as a brusque police inspector (Alfred Marks) and a curious doctor (Christopher Matthews) investigate the brutal deaths of several young women, eventually connecting them to a scientist (Vincent Price) who is creating synthetic humans using body parts from unwilling live donors. Christopher Lee is the head of British Intelligence, whose agency is – I think – secretly funding the experiments. A subplot with a sadistic official (Marshall Jones) from a fictional Eastern European nation (think East Berlin) in collusion with the Brits is also in the mix. (In an interview years later, even Vincent Price admitted he didn’t know what the film was really about!)
Ably directed by Gordon Hessler, who made a number of Price Edgar Allen Poe films including The Oblong Box; Scream And Scream Again is a time capsule of late 60s England: there are several nightclub scenes featuring the then-popular Welsh band Amen Corner singing away, with audience members gamely trying to look hip… one guesses the object here was to contemporize things: “Look Kids! No more stodgy castles!” Still, there is a lot to recommend the film – the opening sequence of a hapless jogger running through London, waking up several times to find more and more of his limbs being removed is as effective now as it was in 1970, and Hessler’s use of hand-held camera to put the audience IN the action was innovative for its time. Another standout sequence is a wonderful faceoff between a nattily dressed Lee and Jones in Trafalgar Square. (Jones’ knit pom-pom cap remains a bold wardrobe choice for a hulking villain!)
Both Price and Lee are at the top of their game and if you’re a Christopher Lee fan, there are many loving close-ups of his sneering visage. Unfortunately the wonderful Peter Cushing is used in only one scene – blink and he’s gone. According to filmmaking lore, Vincent Price insisted on doing his death scene (sinking into a vat of acid) himself. The harsh chemicals used in the fluid caused him serious sinus problems for years.
The Twilight Time DVD release is welcome for overcoming some longtime rights issues and returning the original music to the film. The colors are crisp in 1080p HD and the DVD is loaded with extras including a 23-minute documentary, Gentleman Gothic: Gordon Hessler At AIP, which features an interview with Hessler, who passed in 2014, as well as film historians discussing his work. There is also a still file, radio spot, original trailer (which erroneously identifies actor Marshall Jones as the iconic Peter Cushing!) and a subtitled interview with German actress Uta Levka, who played the impersonal “composite” nurse in the film and an illustrated booklet with liner notes by historian Julie Kirgo. It’s safe to say, this will forever be the definitive release of Scream and Scream Again!.
This is a region-free, limited edition of 3,000 units. Click here to order.
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