Cheap Cry of the Banshee / Murders in the Rue Morgue (DVD) (Gordon Hessler) Price

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Customer Reviews of Cry of the Banshee / Murders in the Rue Morgue

"Look, Father, an open tomb. Let's see what's inside."
Ahhh, American International Pictures, exploitation be thy name...here are two more tales, one with perennial AIP star Vincent Price, and the other without. Just a little background on these movies and others of their ilk...AIP would come up with an idea and a title for a movie, and then sell the concept before even one bit of film was shot, promising a specific release date. Once the idea sold, production was thrown into gear, and was required to be finished in a short amount of time, usually a few weeks. Throw in a well known star, i.e. Vincent Price, and the formula worked, even though the movies tended to be more or less cinematic pulp fiction (as director Hessler puts it), focusing on the more lurid and sensational aspects of the particular stories.

Cry of the Banshee (1970) certainly isn't one of the better films in the series of horror releases by AIP, but it did have its' merits. Having Vincent Price certainly made it watchable, despite a rather lame plot, in my opinion. One thing about Mr. Price is he always put forth a worthy effort, despite being saddled with less than desirable material and disliking being confined to a particular genre.

Price is Lord Edward Whitman, a cruel and sadistic English magistrate whose main goal seems to be to root out witchery, even if there is none to be found. Once convicted a suspected witch would be paraded around town, while being tied to the back of a cart and flogged for the amusement of all. After this the woman would be locked in a stockade and pelted with various bits of rotten vegetables, dirt clods, and horse apples. Trouble begins when Lord Edward and his group find a real coven of witchery practicing the 'old religion', proceed to wipe out half the group, but neglecting to kill the main witch, and thus raising her ire and a curse being placed on the Whitman house.

Soon, various members of the Whitman clan begin to fall prey to a monstrous beast, thought to be a mad dog, but instead being a more sinister creature. A hunt is put forth to destroy the mad dog plaguing the vicinity, and a beast is caught, but it does not stem the demise of the Whitmans. What is the true nature of the beast? Can it be stopped?

As I said before, this isn't one of the better efforts, but it's not all bad. Price is usually always fun to watch, despite the story losing focus a few times, getting mired in muddy plot contrivances. It does find its' way, and we are provided with a pretty good ending. There is more nudity in this film than I would have though, but the gore is played less for quantity and more for subtle restrain, which was much appreciated.

The second film here, Murders on the Rue Morgue (1971) stars Jason Robards as Cesar Charron, owner of a performing company with a startling secret. Also in the film are German actress Christine Kaufmann as Cesar's young wife Madeleine, Herbert Lom, from the Pink Panther movies, as Rene Marot, and Adolfo Celi, the main villain Largo in the James Bond movie Thunderball (1965), as police Inspector Vidocq.

The story involves a series of murders in Charron's performing company, murders caused by various members getting doused with vitriolic acid. Turns out all the people killed have a common denominator in their past, one which has recently re-surfaced, and is out for their blood. Will the past be uncovered before it kills again? What awful secret has came back to haunt the living?

While watching this movie, one may wonder why Price wasn't in it, as it seemed like a role tailor made for him. I believe his contract with AIP had expired prior to the making of this movie, and I suspect he probably out priced himself on purpose in an effort to move away from the genre. Hence the appearance of Robards, who looks utterly bored and fairly disappointed to be starring in a film of this caliber. Christine Kaufmann spent most of the movie with a far away look on her face, as if one who was in a stupor, but given the excessive number of dream sequences her character, along with the audience, had to endure, I probably had the same look by the end of the film. There is no mystery as to who the killer is, but the secret of why is the meat of the story. This is revealed slowly, and didn't provide any great shockers when finally exposed to the audience. Without Price to buoy the film, it tends to sink under its' own weight into a morass of boredom and predictability. The following line from the film sticks out in my mind, Rene Marot: As I once begged for your kisses, now you will beg for your death. Begging? Yeah, I was begging the end of the film to come quickly...

I will say the prints used in this release look really sharp and clear. MGM, not especially known for there special features on their Midnight Movies series, shocked me by not only including trailers for the films, but also including a interview for each movie with director Gordon Hessler. The pieces, while short (about 18 minutes for Cry of the Banshee and 10 minutes for Murders in the Rue Morgue), are really interesting an informative, with Hessler talking about his experiences in films, how he got started, and speaking specifically about each of the two films here. He does well illuminating many aspects of making films for AIP, and almost giving one a different, more softer critical eye on the movies based on the information Hessler provides. He's not making excuses for the quality of the work, by any means, but does offer much we may not have been aware of before.

Cookieman108

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Buy it for Rue Morgue.
Forget the exploitative Cry of the Banshee, Murders in the Rue Morgue is the gem in this package. Once again, the director/writer team of Hessler and Wicking explore the confusing boundaries of reality and the limitations of perception in a story that proceeds with a carefully controlled dream logic. More cohesive and less intentionally disjointed and jigsawish than the nightmarishly paranoid Scream and Scream Again, this is a fascinating, eerie, and classy horror film. Those who like it will want to check out Demons of the Mind, also written by Wicking for Hammer Films. Cry of the Banshee, a Hessler/Wicking collaboration from the previous year, is disappointing considering the artists involved.

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Good titles I'd suppose
I've never seen either of these films, but I would expect the titles for "Cry of the Banshee" to be pretty good since Terry Gilliam is the man who created them.

That's all I have to say about that.