Edgar Allan Poe wrote an essay called "The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale". He believed in maintaining one mood and seeking one effect in prose designed to be read in an hour. If this 1969 British film had shared anything more than a title with Poe's 1844 short story (which takes place on a ship), it might have benefited from fewer characters, fewer incidents, less back story, and as a result, less diffusion of that single effect that a good horror story strives for.
This is a well-crafted film, good looking and enjoyable. Vincent Price is always a treat. There's just too much going on with too many characters, none of whom are really given the chance to take hold with us or resonate.
The best sequence involves the man in the red hood (around whom the story attempts to revolve) being bullied into a crazily debauched pub, with interesting results, but even here, we don't have enough time to develop any real emotional color. Things just keep happening as the plot hurtles forward from place to place and character to character. The three leads share very little screen time and relate to each other minimally.
The long, rambling plot synopsis for this film on Wikipedia makes for a pretty good exercise in trouble-spotting, and the fact that I felt the need to seek it out after viewing simply underscores the point. A bit less might have given us room for a lot more.
I'm sure I'll give "The Oblong Box" another try in a few years- it's far from a waste of time. But as of now it doesn't crack my top ten Vincent Price movies in which someone is buried alive.
This is a well-crafted film, good looking and enjoyable. Vincent Price is always a treat. There's just too much going on with too many characters, none of whom are really given the chance to take hold with us or resonate.
The best sequence involves the man in the red hood (around whom the story attempts to revolve) being bullied into a crazily debauched pub, with interesting results, but even here, we don't have enough time to develop any real emotional color. Things just keep happening as the plot hurtles forward from place to place and character to character. The three leads share very little screen time and relate to each other minimally.
The long, rambling plot synopsis for this film on Wikipedia makes for a pretty good exercise in trouble-spotting, and the fact that I felt the need to seek it out after viewing simply underscores the point. A bit less might have given us room for a lot more.
I'm sure I'll give "The Oblong Box" another try in a few years- it's far from a waste of time. But as of now it doesn't crack my top ten Vincent Price movies in which someone is buried alive.