Cast:
"Midnight Mess" segment: Daniel Massey (Harold Rogers), Anna Massey (Donna Rogers), Michael Pratt (Clive), Erik Chitty (Old Waiter), and Jerold Wells (Waiter)
"The Neat Job" segment: Terry-Thomas (Arthur Critchit), Glynis Johns (Eleanor Critchit), Marianne Stone (Jane), and John Forbes-Robertson (Wilson)
"This Trick’ll Kill You" segment: Curd Jürgens (Sebastian), Dawn Addams (Inez), Jasmina Hilton (Indian Girl), and Ishaq Bux (Fakir)
"Bargain in Death" segment: Michael Craig (Maitland), Edward Judd (Alex), Robin Nedwell (Tom
Geoffrey Davies (Jerry), and Arthur Mullard (Gravedigger)
"Drawn and Quartered" segment: Tom Baker (Moore), Denholm Elliott (Diltant), Terence Alexander (Fenton Breedley), and John Witty (Arthur Gaskill) Directed by Roy Ward Baker (#1742 - The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and #2106 - Scars of Dracula)
Review:
You might remember that EC Comics was behind the Tales from the Crypt series of horror anthology comics. As created by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines (with a good deal of art by Johnny Craig), it ran from 1950 to 1955. But there were two other horror comics that ran alongside it with The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror. Of course, the comic book industry was the target of certain people thinking about the harmful effects of children (read: losers) that saw the eventual demise of the horror comics, but the legacy lived on with film anthologies that shared the name of the comics. Milton Subotsky of Amicus Productions had gotten his partner Max Rosenberg to get the rights to Crypt because he was a big fan of the comics, and this soon led to Tales from the Crypt (1972), which cribbed from two Crypt stories, two Haunt stories, and one Vault story ("...And All Through the House"). It was the fourth of seven anthology horror films made by Amicus, which they did first in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965); Vault, released as the penultimate one (From Beyond the Grave [1974] closed it out), is the only of the group without Peter Cushing in it. Funny enough, with this film that shares the name of Vault, all but one story is cribbed from stories originally seen in Crypt (with the exception of "The Neat Job", which came from Shock SuspenStories). Keen eyes will note a shot is seen of a character reading a book that shows a cover of the Crypt film (well, what film wouldn't be complete without a novelization). Subotsky co-produced the film and also wrote for it.
I would say that the film is probably on par with Crypt, which has its own degree of recognizable faces to go with quick wonky ideas for horror (which may or may not be a bit more amusing when compared to the previous effort) that may or may not be up your alley. Each of the stories, when one considers the moments spent after each story that set the next one up (the main setup of all is five characters meeting in a sub-basement), each last for varying lengths. The first story is "Midnight Mess", runs for roughly 17 minutes. The fact that it features two actual siblings for actors to go with a reveal of just what goes on with a weird town...oh hell, it is full of vampires, complete with the use of a jugular vein for a specific purpose. I was fine with it, but obviously it is the climax that makes a pretty decent punchline more than anything in particular. One wishes for four longer stories rather than five short ones. "The Neat Job" is about 15 minutes long that goes with a setup of cleanups and neurosis that, well, I think you can see where it could go when you have a specific comedic type in Terry-Thomas. It is very, uh, predictable. "This Trick’ll Kill You" is about 15 minutes and involves magicians trying to get that one great trick in their sleeves, even if it involves murder. I enjoyed it just fine, mostly because Jurgens makes a quality cad to make the pursuit and result all the more involving, particularly with that final moment in a ceiling. "Bargain in Death" is the shortest story at roughly 11 minutes, which namely involves a mostly quiet Craig awaiting the chance to rise from the grave after coming up with an insurance fraud scheme, but things go awry with the setup of arising from the dig. Easily the least memorable. "Drawn and Quartered", combined with the denouement, is the longest story at 25 minutes. This is the fun one, although it is probably the most obvious because it sees a man get the power of voodoo in his painting hand. Baker (a year away from being most famous with his role as The Doctor on Doctor Who) has a strange quality to him that is unnerving in the ideal sense, and the revenge aspect of the story is at its most obvious and amusing. Of course, the ending is as contrived as one can think when you need to protect a painting of yourself, but, well, you get the idea, they are short stories with macabre ends for each lead actor because obviously the ending has to be similar to the one from the previous film about storytellers and the dead. As a whole, it is a step down from before in Amicus, lacking great star power or a real spine tingler story to really make the results worth it. Folks who like to complete their run through anthology or 70s Brit stuff might find something useful here, but it would only be as filler rather than as a classic.
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.
Next up: Island of Lost Souls.
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