Christopher Lee "Charlemagne: By The Sword And The Cross" [2010] Album Review

 

"Charlemagne: By The Sword And The Cross" is a an album by Christopher Lee, which was released on March 15th, 2010. I was able to listen to this on Spotify. 

Christopher Lee was, of course, a very famous actor, most known for his role as Dracula in multiple Hammer Horror Films. What some people may be surprised to know though, is that Lee was a classically trained singer, that like Heavy Metal. Though some sources state that he got into Metal after being included on some of the works by "Rhapsody of Fire", an article from Rolling Stone states that Lee liked Black Sabbath as early as their first album. I'm inclined to believe that he liked Metal for a long, long time. 

This album isn't completely Metal, and has much more of a symphonic tone to it, but what I found interesting, if not funny, was how Lee's parts were usually accompanied by some Metal riffs. 

The album starts off like a movie, grand and baroque. When I closed my eyes, I envisioned the scenes, like it was a musical. I really liked this, as it was like a radio drama. 

The album is like one big history lesson about King Charlemagne, which apparently Lee was related to. At the same time, apparently many people are related to the king in some way.  

Lee's voice is very rich and grand. You can hear how his classical training really came through.

In a way, the album is like another Christopher Lee movie. It starts becoming a little metal with the track: Act II: The Iron Crown of Lombardy". 

The metal on this album is more like a mixture of Symphonic and Progressive Metal. I can imagine fans of Dream Theater, or Devin Townsend being into this.

The album is interesting, and something I feel is good on have on in the background, while doing another activity like crocheting, studying, or sewing.  

For me, I'm more interested in the novelty of the album, that a huge star would create something like this, especially in their advanced age. I think it's great! If anything, it's a reminder that just because you're old, doesn't mean you can't create something for the world to see. At the time of the album's release, Lee was 87 years old. That's amazing! 

If you're interested in hearing Christopher Lee sing, or the history of King Charlemagne, then I'd say to check this out. 

"House On Haunted Hill" [1958] Movie Review

 

[Watched on Fawesome]

"House On Haunted Hill" is a 1958 Horror movie, that's commonly referred to as some sort of Ghost Story. Of course, it's most famous leading role is played by Vincent Price, who is, for the most part...a bad guy. Right?

 Vincent Price plays a perfectly sinister millionaire "playboy" that intends to scare his house guests, inviting them to stay the night with a $10,000 reward if they make to 8 am the next day. It was 5 people invited, so the payout would have been $50,000 overall. Adjusted for inflation, that 50K would be $571,777 in 2026. 

I like the concept of the movie, a creepy murder house that people are  trying to see how long they could stay. You hear a little background about each character, though it's not very much. Even though this was different time period, I think it would have been cool to hear more reasons as to why the people at the house were there. 

I wondered if the movie inspired the quest "Whodunit" from the game Oblivion, where the player has to pick off the guests at a party, one by one. 

 I found it interesting that there was the tale of someone who was thrown into a vat of acid, in the basement of the house. This similar idea was shown in the movie "Scream and Scream Again", which came out in 1970. I wonder if this movie inspired that. 

Some of the acting is pretty cheesy, and a bit stock, but it's funny. I also found it funny when the skeleton of the rat floated to the top of the acid, it was such a cheesy prop used!

The set did a great job at concealing Vincent Price's height. You really couldn't tell how tall he was!

The old lady ghost was funny to me, like some sort of witch without a hat. I found the semi-romantic notes between the characters Nora and Lance to be silly, though I guess that's what they had to do to keep peoples' attention.

 In a way, the movie reminded of the game "Clue", with it's sort of mystery elements around the house.

I'm surprised that they could show the body hanging at the stairs, considering the time period. Supposedly this and the movie poster showing the woman being hanged, caused it to be somewhat censored, but I didn't really see that in newspaper ads, at least. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the film, and found Vincent Price's talent was really highlighted here. He was the perfect "sinister husband" and was surprisingly not "The Bad Guy". In a strange way, Price's character was framed, like in the movie "Madhouse".  I loved the dynamic between him and Carol Ohmart, they were like a more sinister version of Gomez and Morticia Addams. 

I think that, especially today, the movie isn't scary. But that doesn't mean it's bad. Of course, nearly 70 years later, many of the things that society used to be scared of, are considered silly or normal now. I think this movie is one of those perfect watches for Halloween, and October in general. Interestingly, the movie was released in May of 1958, but it seriously has that Halloween vibe. 

I think that this movie is worth the watch, because the plot itself is really fun, and clever. It makes the viewer think of what would they do if in this situation, or how they'd write a story like this one. 

Looking through the newspaper archives, there weren't that many reviews for the film, though one I found was laughable. 

 

 

In a review by "Charles Stinson", he called the movie "inept". He wrote his review in a such a way that to me, it seemed like wanted to use some words that he recently read about in the dictionary, and wanted to seem intelligent. I suppose if he were paid by the word by the newspaper, this likely paid a fatter check. I'm not saying his opinion was wrong, I just felt like he tried too hard to prove how much he disliked the movie. 

 Many advertisements of the movie talked about "Emergo", which was supposed to be some type of interesting device. It was basically just the pulley system used to move the skeleton seen at the end of the movie. Wikipedia states that a device would be used in theaters to scare the audience too.

 I'm unsure if "Emergo" was ever used for anything other than this movie. 

 The house seen at the beginning of the movie is known as "Ennis House", which was built in 1925. The house has an interesting history, mostly due to it's constant need of repairs, since it was virtually built. One of the problems it had was the south wall bulging out. Apparently after this movie was released, there was a problem with young people coming to the residence, and screaming as loud as they could from the outside. 

 Strangely, and sadly, quite a few people from the cast had rather early deaths. First, was Alan Marshall, who played Dr. Trent, passed away in 1961 at the age of 52. He had a heart attack after a performance in Chicago. 

 Next, was the death of Carolyn Craig, who played Nora Manning. She committed suicide, from a self inflicted gunshot wound, and passed away on December 12th, 1970, at the age of 36. I couldn't find any obituary on her in the newspaper archives. 

 

And third, Richard Long, who played Lance, passed away December 21st, 1974, at the age of 47. He had-had cardiac problems due to contracting pneumonia at a young age, and had already had a heart attack in 1961. After a month stay in the hospital to treat additional attacks he passed away four days after his birthday. 

 

 

  But overall, I enjoy the movie, and think that it's well worth the watch. Yes, it's cheesy and not really scary, but I think that it's fun to see! A perfect Halloween movie. 

 3/5 on letterboxd 

"An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe" [1970] Movie Review

 

"An Evening Of Edgar Allan Poe" is a 1970 film which features Vincent Price, and Vincent Price only. He is seen performing 4 different pieces by the author, in what are very dramatic interpretations of the source material. 

The film is hard to find now-a-days, and I was able to watch it on youtube, though the upload of it was pretty low quality. It's hard to judge the film completely, when the only way to watch it is a video that's of potato quality.

That said, I did find Price's interpretations to be great. Simply put. What I loved the most, was how much emotion Price put into each piece. Watching this film, I really felt like Vincent Price was perfect for theater, and of course, Edgar Allan Poe's writings. I really loved watching this, because there are many films from the late 60's and early 70's with Price, that don't utilize his theater skills, like this film does. Movies such as "Scream and Scream Again", and "The Oblong Box" are way too subtle in comparison to how Vincent performed here. Truly, I believe that Price was a perfect stage actor. You can tell how much he enjoyed performing, as he really seemed to be enjoying himself while interpreting these pieces. Overall, I really enjoyed this, especially since it's almost lost media. I don't know where you could easily find a high quality version of this, unless you bought something second hand online. 

I couldn't find any reviews for this in the newspaper archives, but there were a few articles and ads for the showing. 

 

Most of the articles I found, usually mentioned this film in passing. The exact date that this was released doesn't seem to be known, but it seems to have been around the late spring-summer time period of 1970. That same year, Price also renewed his contract with AIP (American International Pictures). 

 

 

Another thing I found interesting, was that the news couldn't seem to figure out if the film was titled "An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe", or "An Evening Of Edgar Allan Poe". There were advertisements calling it both.

 

Not much more can be said about this one. I enjoyed it for what it was, and just wish there was a higher quality video to watch somewhere. I liked the idea of Vincent Price doing "solo" work. I wish there were more works of his like this. 

That said, I gave it a 4/5 on letterboxd.