MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

t_atzmueller For whatever reasons the producer had for firing Michael Reeves, hiring director Gordon Hessler must have seem like a good idea. After all, not only did both men have a similar style and method but both directors could produce much in very little time with very few resources. However, directing "The Oblong Box" seemed clumsy, uninspired, the story obstructed by needless subplots and awkwardly put together – all evidence of a director too young who has bit off more than he could chew.Let's talk about the good things first: we get classic Hammer-atmosphere, camera-work and colour and an interesting story – for the first half of the movie, that is. The acting is a good as expected by the cast It's always a joy to see beautiful Hilary Dwyer (and a shame that she quit acting in the mid-70ies) and Sir Christopher and Lee Vincent Price together in one film is always an event. But in "The Oblong Box" it seems as if both actors didn't even get to meet on the set. Through the second part of the film, Lee and Price are degraded to nothing more than overpaid extras, the story shifts attention to Alister Williamson, the cursed Sir Edward Markham. Originally portrayed as a disfigured Hannibal Lector, Markham soon comes across as a mix between the "Elephant Man" and Hammer's "Phantom of the Opera". And here goes the spoiler, the warning and the let-down of the film: at the end, we finally get to see Markham without his mask. Behold … a horrible, potato-sized nose, looking about as frightening as one of the peasants in "Monty Phyton and the Holy Grail". Viewers nowadays will probably laugh, then reflect and ask themselves: "why did I sit through this in the first place"? Sure, if you've seen all other Hammer- / Amicus-styled films, you might well watch this one too – but it remains one of the weaker efforts and should only be watched by completists and true fans. It makes one wonder what Michael Reeves would have made of this otherwise intriguing tale.I'd give it 6 from 10 points.

Henry Kujawa The opening premise of THE OBLONG BOX is almost identical to the Peter Davison DOCTOR WHO story, "Black Orchid". A man returns from Africa, cursed by tribal magic, disfigured & insane, and kept a prisoner in his own home by his family. But whereas on the WHO story that was the punch line, here's it's just the springboard. Said victim secretly pays some friends to help him escape his brother-- Vincent Price-- who comes across as much nicer than most of these films, but all the same seems to be hiding something. Via more witch doctor "magic", the man fakes his own death... but then things go astray. SERIOUSLY astray. He's buried alive, then his "body" is stolen by grave-robbers in the employ of an unscrupulous medical adventurer. (One expects Peter Cushing in such a role, but NO! --it's Christopher Lee!) WHY his "friends" failed to follow-thru on their plan is a complete mystery to me-- I blame an unpolished script. It would have been a much more entertaining (and sensible) twist if they'd actually TRIED digging him up only to find the grave-robbers got there FIRST...! But no. The result: in addition to wanting to find out WHY he had a jungle curse put on him, Price's brother now wants REVENGE on everyone involved. Armed with a mask and a VERY sharp knife, his antics in the film's 2nd half make this seem like a Victorian-era installment of the HALLOWEEN series!!! I understand the late Michael Reeves was scheduled to direct; this may explain why Price, Rupert Davies (DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE) and Hilary Dwyer (CRY OF THE BANSHEE) are all together again following WITCHFINDER GENERAL-- and why there's so much pointless VIOLENCE in the story. While that film disturbed me in the EXTREME each time I sat thru it, OBLONG BOX is a LOT more "fun"-- if you can get past the growing number of bodies, most of which were killed in particularly brutal and senseless fashion. 2 interesting things I noticed about this plot, as it goes on nearly every character seems to be BLACKMAILING somebody (it seems EVERYBODY has some secret they don't want known), and the sympathetic-yet-INSANE victim/SLASHER only seems to kill people who've done wrong. (The sweet, innocent housekeeper gets terrified and dragged thru the woods, but nothing REALLY happens to her!) Interesting cameos to watch for: Colin Jeavons (Inspector Lestrade on the Jeremy Brett HOLMES series) plays a police inspector, as does Ivor Dean (Inspector Teal on the Roger Moore SAINT series!).With this film, producer Louis M. Heyward & director Gordon Hessler began a string of collaborations, all of which were somewhat iffy. Like WAR-GODS OF THE DEEP (which Heyward produced) OBLONG BOX feels like the script could have used to fine-tuning. (WHY did Price do what he did before the picture started? HOW was it nobody at his brother's viewing realized the body on display was SOMEBODY ELSE? etc.) All the same, I find it more watchable than most of these.

hitfan I recently got the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe (in a single volume) for Christmas and around the same time, I acquired "The Oblong Box" movie through a tape trader on the internet which was recorded from a 1982 broadcast of Movie Macabre--where Elvira provides her own colorful commentary just before the commercial breaks.I had put off watching this film because I wanted to read the Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same name. In that story, a man brings an oblong box on a ship voyage to New York. A hurricane causes the ship to sink, and the man refuses to go on a lifeboat, clinging to the box as he drowns. We find out later that the contents of the oblong box was the corpse of the man's recently deceased wife.The movie version is nothing like this, of course. It involves Vincent Price burying his brother alive after which, the latter goes insane and lusts for revenge. It might have been more fitting to call this one "The Premature Burial" (another Poe short story) but there is another movie with this same name (a Corman film also based on the Poe story).In spite of the misleading title, I enjoyed it. Vincent Price is one of those actors who makes every movie, no matter how bad, very entertaining when he appears in it. Christopher Lee also appears, though I wish he had more screen time with Price. I really liked the period settings and costumes which contributed to the overall enjoyment of the film.On the B-movie scale, I rate this a 9.

Witchfinder General 666 Gordon Hessler's "The Oblong Box" of 1969 starring the great Vincent Price is a creepy, and excellent Horror tale with a great atmosphere. The movie, whose cast also includes another great horror icon, Christopher Lee, is only loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story of the same name, a fact that, in my opinion, does not downsize the quality of this eerie and obscure film. "The Oblong Box" combines all kinds of elements a fan of Gothic Horror cinema could desire: Voodoo, disfigurement, premature burial, and of course a constant eerie atmosphere and a bunch of bloody murders.In 18th century England, Sir Julian Markham (Vincent Price) keeps his brother Edward (Aliester Williamson) locked in a chamber in the tower of his mansion. Edward had been disfigured during a voodoo ceremony in Africa, and since gone completely insane. With some help, however, Edward manages to fake his own death in order to flee his prison, using methods which include a premature burial...Vincent Price is my favorite actor of all-time and his performance is, as always, superb, and no other actor would have fit in his role as Price does. Christopher Lee also delivers a great performance as a body-snatching doctor, a role in which he once again proves that his reputation as a horror icon is more than justified. The cast furthermore includes the beautiful Hillary Dwyer, who had already starred besides Price in Michael Reeves' masterpiece "Witchfinder General" in 1968, and who would play besides Price again in 1970, in "Cry Of The Banshee", also directed by Gordon Hessler, in the female lead.An excellently written and directed and superbly acted movie, "The Oblong Box" is a film which fans of Gothic Horror can't afford to miss. "Witchfinder General" director Michael Reeves was originally considered to direct the film, but died before the shooting began, and although I have utmost respect for this promising director, who sadly passed away at such a young age, I must say that I cannot imagine anyone to do a better job directing "The Oblong Box" than Hessler did. An excellent little tale of terror, "The Oblong Box" is a must-see for every Horror-fan. 9/10