The Oblong Box

Vincent Price - Sir Julian Markham
Christopher Lee - Dr. J. Newharrt
Rupert Davies - Joshua Kemp
Uta Levka - Heidi
Sally Geeson - Sally Baxter
Alister Williamson - Sir Edward Markham
Peter Arne - Samuel Trench
Hilary Heath - Elizabeth Markham
Maxwell Shaw - Tom Hackett
Carl Rigg - Mark Norton
Harry Baird - N'Galo
Michael Balfour - Ruddock
Colin Jeavons - Village Doctor

AIP’s next project envisaged for Michael Reeves after Witchfinder General found the British and American producers once again mining Edgar Allan Poe's seemingly inexhaustible literary supply for the low-key The Premature Burial. The depressive Reeves was rumoured to be dismayed by Huntington's script and the decision to shoot at Shepperton rather than his proposed Ireland, and subsequently backed out of the project. However, when Reeves subsequently committed suicide during production the project had to be placed in the hands of a new director. Gordon Hessler stepped in and redrafted the screenplay in association with Christopher Wicking. The script wasn't very good so Hessler developed character and added to the narrative by padding out the story with an imperial exploitation subtext. Of the cast, Vincent Price is well used to hamming up such dialogue in clichéd horrors but Christopher Lee is sadly wasted in a bewigged role. The acting honours are taken by Williamson’s crimson-hooded avenger, who cuts a well-spoken but genuinely menacing figure.

1865. Having been grotesquely disfigured in an African voodoo ceremony, Sir Edward Markham (Alister Williamson) is kept shackled in the attic by his guilt-ridden brother, Julian (Vincent Price). To escape, Sir Edward feigns death but his collaborators, Trench (Peter Arne) and Norton (Carl Rigg), fail to dig him up as arranged. Instead, he is delivered by body snatchers to the unsuspecting Dr Newharrt (Christopher Lee in the oblong box of the title, and, concealing his face behind a crimson hood, embarks on a vengeful killing spree in payment for certain "urgent debts".

Youthful conspirator Norton is the first to go whilst en-route to Dover, his throat bisected by Sir Edward's knife as he falls back into a stationary coach. Next up is London prostitute Heidi, who attempts to mug the masked Edward in the upstairs room of a tavern. The duplicitous Trench is also murdered in Sir Edward's trademark style. He then travels to the Starbuck Inn at fog-shrouded Shoreham to see if witchdoctor N'Galo can alleviate his dermatological curse.