Amicus Productions loved to put out anthology horror films in the 60s and 70s... They produced seven in total, and so tonight for your viewing pleasure, here's a double bill of two of these movies...both based on the EC horror comics of the same names!
Amicus founder and producer, Milton Subotsky was a huge fan of the comics, and eventually managed to persuade his business partner Max Rosenberg that buying the movie rights would be a good idea...
William Gaines, EC co-editor and copyright holder, insisted on script approval. With a budget higher than most previous Amicus films, American International Pictures chipped in with some extra cash.
Despite being a fan of the comics, Subotsky had reportedly actually read paperback reprints rather than the original comic books, and that possibly is why only two of the stories are actually based on Tales stories, with the rest being Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear stories.
Peter Cushing (still haunting my blog...) was offered the role of Ralph Jason in the Wish You Were Here tale, but wanting to try something different, he instead went for the role of Arthur Edward Grimsdyke in the Poetic Justice tale!
Here then is the first feature....Tales From The Crypt!
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As if to counter what happened with Tales from the Crypt, none of the stories in the sequel The Vault of Horror actually appeared in the comic, with one coming from Shock SuspenStories and the rest all appearing in Tales...
One cool thing to note in this movie is that in the story Bargain in Death, Maitland (Michael Craig) can be seen reading a copy of the novelisation of the earlier Tales film! Geoffrey Davies and Robin Nedwell, who both appeared in the British TV series Doctor in the House are in the same segment.
Another noteworthy fact is that the brother and sister in Midnight Mess are played by actual brother and sister Daniel and Anna Massey...
Now, lets finish up with our second feature....The Vault Of Horror!
I hope enjoyed that slightly more fact-filled visit to the Cinema of Stuff...I thought I'd put a little bit more effort in for this double bill, as they are two horror classics!
Anyway, if you're still looking for more thrills, spills and spooky chills after that double whammy, you canhope on over to the Countdown Hub and see what the other Cryptkeepeers taking part have been up to by clicking the badge below... like Jamdin over at Moongem Comics who has been taking a look at old Dark Shadows catalogues amongst other things this Countdown!
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Love these films, and wish there were more anthology films from the era. Such fun when done well, or well enough. :)
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