Vincent Price: The Master Remembered

One of horror's great icons, Vincent Price, passed away from lung cancer 20 years ago today. In his honor, our film today is William Castle's House on Haunted Hill, and we offers a bit of Vincent Price trivia.

House on Haunted Hill is a favorite here at Fright Film Spectacular. Back before the days of all-night infomercials, you could usually catch a good horror flick in the wee hours on channel 17. I used to stay up or set my alarm to get up, so I could sneak out to the den to watch classics from the 30s, 40s and 50s, often starring the late, great Vincent Price. Movies like Haunted Hill, The Fly and House of Wax gave me nightmares when I was a kid, but I watched them anyway.

House on Haunted Hill packed a lot of scares into an hour and 15 minutes. Creepy old crones, hangings, shootings, floating skeletons, a huge vat of acid and a lot of screams, the movie was a hit when it came out in 1959, which was a big year for Price. He starred in six movies that year, including other horror classics like The Bat, The Tingler and The Return of the Fly.

In House on Haunted Hill, Price stars as a millionaire who challenges five people to spend the night in the house. Survivors will be paid $10,000. But the most dangerous things in the house may not be ghosts. It is a five-star classic.

And now, some trivia:

• Castle was known for theatrical gimmicks. In House on Haunted Hill, he rigged some theaters to have a skeleton emerge and float over the crowd during a key scene in the film.
• He and Price didn't stop there. In The Tingler, a movie about feeling a tingling sensation when in the grips of a parasite that feeds on fear, Castle rigged movie seats to deliver a buzzing shock to scare movie-goers.
• In addition to Castle, Price worked extensively with Roger Corman. The duo made quite a few films together based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe, including House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum and The Mask of the Red Death.
• Price also starred in the vampire movie Last Man on Earth, based on the Richard Matheson book I Am Legend. It was remade in 2007 starring Will Smith.
• Price was born into a wealthy family,and studied at Yale and in London. But despite his distinctive accent, he was an American, born in St. Louis.
• Price also made many TV appearances. He played the villain Egghead on Batman, and made a guest appearance on The Brady Bunch on the Hawaiian episode.
• Music fans may recognize Price's voice and maniacal laughter on the Michael Jackson song Thriller.
• Price's last film appearance was in Edward Scissorhands.

We miss you, Vincent Price. Thanks for all the entertainment.