Theatre of Blood
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Theatre of Blood is a 1973 horror film starring Vincent Price as vengeful actor Edward Lionheart and Diana Rigg as his daughter Edwina Lionheart. It was directed by Douglas Hickox.
Plot
Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price), who sees himself as a great Shakespearean actor, is in fact an extremely hammy and over-the-top actor. With the aid of his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg), Lionheart sets out to murder, one by one, a group of critics who had individually ridiculed his acting throughout his career, and ultimately declined to present him with the "Critic's Circle Award" for his acting in a season he believed to be his best, which had driven him to attempt suicide. The critics are played by a distinguished cast of British actors, including Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins, Michael Hordern, Arthur Lowe, Robert Morley and Dennis Price.
The manner of Lionheart's revenge on each critic is inspired by deaths of characters in the plays of Lionheart's last season of Shakespeare. The first victim is butchered by a group of tramps on the 15th of March, similar to the death of Julius Caesar. The next is speared and then dragged behind a horse, Hector's fate at the hands of Achilles in the Trojan war play, Troilus and Cressida. The Merchant of Venice is reworked so that Shylock gets his pound of flesh. Other murders include: a drowning in a butt of wine, based on the murder of the Duke of Clarence in Richard the Third; the wife of one critic awakens to find her husband decapitated, as Imogen awoke to find the headless body of Cloten in Cymbeline; quasi-cannibalism--the effeminate Meredith Merridew is tricked into eating his "babies" (his dogs) just as Queen Tamora was fed the flesh of her two sons, baked in a pie, in the climax of Titus Andronicus; one critic is tricked into believing his wife has been unfaithful, driving him to smother her in a jealous rage (like Othello); a female critic is electrocuted by hair curlers as Lionheart recites a passage in which Joan of Arc is burnt at the stake, "Spare for no fagots [bundles of sticks], let there be enough..." (from Henry VI, part 1). Many of the deaths are patterned to the weaknesses of the critics (e.g. the one drowned in wine is an alcoholic).
Somewhere in the middle of all this is an amusing "duel" scene, which features Lionheart and the chief critic Devlin bouncing around on trampolines while slashing at one another with rapiers, after the swordfight between Tybalt and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. Lionheart uses this appearance to establish that he did indeed survive his suicide attempt (and thereby get his daughter released from police custody). Lionheart spares Devlin, who has recognized him, and who as head of the Critic's Circle, he intends to save for last anyway.
The audience and sometime-participants in the mayhem are methylated spirit (violet-colored wood alcohol) drinking tramps, who have saved Lionheart from drowning after his attempt at suicide by leaping into the river. As the cheap but toxic methylated spirits have damaged their senses, Lionheart finds them easy to manipulate to help him take his vengeance on the critics. After the principal series of murders, one of these meths-drinkers is disguised as Lionheart to lure the police away while the remaining critic Devlin is kidnapped. Police capture the drunk and using the lure of hard alcohol, get him to divulge the whereabouts of Lionheart.
The film ends following Lionheart's attempt to force the remaining critic, Peregrine Devlin, to present him with the "coveted" Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor. Taking the blinding of the Duke of Gloucester in King Lear as inspiration, Lionheart has arranged a Rube Goldberg contraption containing two red-hot daggers, which are poised to blind the critic should he fail to see things Lionheart's way. Unlike all of the other critics, however, Devlin stands his ground despite the menace and refuses to change his original choice for the award. The slow-moving contraption is released; however, police sirens are heard outside and the device becomes stuck temporarily. Lionheart sets fire to the theater to thwart the police, who save Devlin just in the nick of time. The group of tramps who helped Lionheart turn on him and one kills Edwina, hitting her over the head with the award. Lionheart retreats, carrying Edwina's body to the roof and delivering Lear's final monologue. At that point the roof caves in and he dies.
This film is considered by many to be Vincent Price's greatest work, and it was a personal favourite of his, as he always wanted the chance to act in Shakespeare, but found himself being typecast due to his work in horror films. Before or after each death in the film, Lionheart recites passages of Shakespeare, giving Price a chance to show his acting ability. It must have been satisfying to be able to deliver choice bits, including: Hamlet's famous fifth soliloquy ("To be, or not to be, that is the question..."); Marc Antony's self-serving eulogy for Caesar from Julius Caesar ("Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears..."); "Now is the winter of our discontent..." from the beginning of Richard the Third; and finally, raving as the mad King Lear at the loss of his faithful daughter.
Some of these sequences take place in an abandoned theatre that Lionheart has used as his hideout, which is where the title of the film originates (it was originally to be called Much ado about murder). Some disliked the ending though, as Price made Lionheart such a sympathetic character, especially compared to the critics.
Some critics have commented that the film is simply a rehash of the Abominable Dr. Phibes, in which Price's character also systematically killed a group of people in a pattern method, following the ten curses on the Pharaoh of Egypt, from the Old Testament. One undeniable similarity is the highly campy tone and the depiction in both films of the police force as somewhat comical and incompetent. However, the screenwriting of Theatre of Blood is clearly superior, and less unbelievable. For example, Dr. Phibes has a ridiculous skull-face from his automobile accident and drinks through the back of his throat; he has a silent but beautiful female accomplice Vulnavia about whom nothing is explained; and he has a life-size mechanical orchestra; some of the murders, such as the death by locusts, are rather absurd. Theatre of Blood comes off much better, chiefly by the clever usage throughout of passages inspired by the plays of one of the greatest playwrights of all time, just one example being the chest trick from Cymbeline.
The film has been recently adapted to the stage, with Jim Broadbent playing Edward Lionheart and Rachael Stirling, Diana Rigg's daughter, playing her mother's role of Edwina. The play differs from the film as the critics are from the major British newspapers (examples including The Guardian and the Times), and it is all set within an abandoned theatre. The play is also set in the seventies rather than contemporary times, and makes fun of the politics of theatre at that time. Another change is the reduction in the number of deaths. The killings based on Othello and Cymbeline have been omitted, presumably because they would have to take place outside the theatre due to their impact on secondary characters.
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