In this made-for-TV production, Vincent Price and his hunchback sidekick (Billy Van) host a pun-filled salute to the hor | dG1feXlSdVhpZWp4WWs
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 distinguished Mr. John Carradine.
00:04 John, lovely to see you again.
00:07 Nice to see you, Vinnie.
00:08 Thank you.
00:09 It's been a long time.
00:10 It has been a long time.
00:11 I think the last time we saw each other was in a film which, well, it was not a horror
00:14 film, it was certainly a horror.
00:16 Yes, it was a long one, that's for sure.
00:18 John, you know, you have been connected with the classics and with horror films, but I
00:23 think one of the fascinating things to go back into is the background of horror in the
00:28 theater.
00:29 Tell us a little bit about it.
00:30 It goes a long way back.
00:31 Yes.
00:32 I did one of those original horror plays on Broadway with Elizabeth Bergner.
00:35 What was that?
00:36 The Duchess of Malfoy.
00:37 Oh, superb.
00:38 John Webster, the contemporary of Shakespeare.
00:39 And the whole Jacobean theater actually was based on horror and revenge.
00:43 And then, of course, there's always a little touch of the grand mignon too, which helps
00:47 a bit.
00:48 Yes, it does.
00:49 A few heads rolling on the floor, never heard a picture of horror.
00:52 I think one of the most fascinating ones was a surrealist film, really, that went way beyond
00:58 its time.
00:59 Twenty years later, you know, I met the man who played in it, Conrad Frite.
01:04 He came up to the door one time to ask his way somewhere, and I nearly fainted.
01:08 It was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
01:12 [music]
01:15 [music]
01:19 [music]
01:22 [music]
01:28 [music]
01:34 [music]
01:40 [music]
01:45 [music]
01:48 Well, this is the second one you saw.
01:50 The first one you saw was--
01:51 The first one I saw was The Golem.
01:52 Yes, tell us about that a little.
01:54 I don't remember it very much.
01:55 I was only about 14 years old.
01:56 I remember it took place in Prague in the ghetto, and the man was made of clay, and
02:03 that he was born to slay.
02:04 I think that's what got me to go to the theater.
02:07 He was made to help the situation, but then he turned on the people.
02:10 The Golem, a real frightener.
02:13 I think he was the first sort of robot character.
02:16 Yes, he was, and he wore the Star of David on his shoulder.
02:20 You pushed him, didn't you?
02:22 Look at that face.
02:23 Look at that face.
02:24 Oh, boy, what a superman.
02:26 Yes.
02:27 Didn't they push that star on the audience?
02:29 Yes, no.
02:30 He took the star off of him, you see, and then that killed him.
02:33 [laughter]
02:34 My Lord, people have been doing that to me for years.
02:37 Before Forward.
02:38 Before Forward, yes.
02:39 With that headpiece on, he had to turn back.
02:42 Tell us something about John Baramore, who was a great friend of yours.
02:45 I only met him once, and I've always been jealous of you.
02:48 Oh.
02:49 Yeah.
02:50 Well, you know, he had his own sense of the macabre.
02:51 Yes.
02:52 He owned a vulture, which he bought in Chile or Peru, I think it was,
02:56 and he used to sit on a perch in his home up on Tower Road,
02:59 and they would sit together nose to nose.
03:02 [laughter]
03:03 Baramore thought it was love, until it went on a wagon,
03:06 and then the vulture would have nothing to do with it, you see.
03:09 It was his alcoholic breath the vulture relaxed.
03:11 I know.
03:12 He was a magnificent actor.
03:14 His Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a performance I'll never forget.
03:19 He wore no makeup.
03:20 He wore no makeup at all.
03:21 Only that he gave him a kind of conical head when he didn't wear any makeup.
03:24 It was all done by facial expression.
03:26 Here, look.
03:27 See, there he is now.
03:28 He's taking the drink.
03:29 [grunts]
03:30 I used to rehearse this when I was 12 years old
03:33 with a glass of water and vinegar and some soda by Collins.
03:38 That would fill my pocket and take the potion and go through all the agony.
03:41 I've been reading about Mansfield doing it.
03:43 It's divine.
03:44 Now, let's see what he does here.
03:46 He really, the hands, of course, played an enormous part, didn't they?
03:50 You know, he had short stubby fingers, and he hated them.
03:53 He was always dangling them so they'd look long and artistic.
03:56 That's true, because you'd never know that, would you?
03:58 Not the way he was doing it.
03:59 It looks like he had tremendous volume.
04:00 Look at the face.
04:02 It's all, it's no makeup.
04:03 No.
04:05 The, you know, so many of these pictures have been made and remade.
04:09 The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
04:12 And I think that we all remember, at least I remember, Chaney Sr.
04:17 And Lawton was marvelous, but it didn't have the paint.
04:20 I've never seen anyone do it but Chaney, and I don't think I want to.
04:23 No, look at this fabulous scene where he's pushing that bell.
04:27 You have a feeling of the weight.
04:29 I bet it was heavy.
04:30 I bet it was, too.
04:31 I remember working on that set years ago.
04:34 Mary, is that Mary Philbin or Patsy Ruth Miller?
04:38 That's who it was.
04:39 Was that Patsy Ruth Miller?
04:40 Patsy Ruth Miller.
04:41 She played Esmeralda.
04:43 There was Mary Philbin in Phantom of the Opera.
04:45 In the Phantom of the Opera, you're absolutely right.
04:46 And Rod LaRock.
04:47 And Rod LaRock, yes, yes, indeed.
04:50 Yeah.
04:51 Oh, boy.
04:52 John, you've played in quite a few horror films.
04:55 No, it wasn't Rod LaRock.
04:57 It was Norman Carey.
04:58 It was Norman Carey.
04:59 Norman Carey, yes.
05:00 Yes, it was indeed.
05:01 But, you know, you and I have never played in a horror film together.
05:03 No, and I've never played a monster.
05:05 I never played a monster.
05:07 He offered one and turned it down.
05:09 Yeah.
05:10 I turned down Frankenstein.
05:11 Well, after doing--
05:12 Boris took it.
05:13 You're kidding.
05:14 I turned it down.
05:15 You're kidding.
05:16 No, I'm not.
05:17 Oh, that's--
05:18 They sent me off to the makeup department, and the makeup man started mixing up a bowl of plaster,
05:21 and I, being a sculptor, knew just what he was up to.
05:23 Yeah.
05:24 Make a life mask.
05:25 And I said, wait a moment, what is this?
05:26 What is this?
05:27 Yeah.
05:28 He said, you play a monster.
05:30 I said, oh, do I have any dialogue?
05:32 He said, no.
05:33 I said, I don't have any dialogue.
05:35 No, you're just blunt.
05:37 He said, this is not for me.
05:38 And I walked out.
05:39 Oh, dear.
05:40 Three months later, they got Boris, and he took it.
05:42 It did, dear.
05:43 I never regretted it, and he never ceased to regret it.
05:45 But now, you and I did do something sort of vaguely in common.
05:48 I did the second Invisible Man picture, The Invisible Man Returns.
05:53 And let's see, now, you know, in talking about the other--
05:57 I did a bit in the first one.
05:59 In the first one, you did.
06:00 I played a somersetcher yokel with a frowzy mustache, a muffler, and a bowler hat,
06:04 who goes to a phone booth and calls the police and says, I just saw the Invisible Man.
06:10 The Phantom of the Opera was played by several people, wasn't it?
06:15 It was played by-- let's see, of course, Lon Chaney Sr. to begin with.
06:19 I think that-- there's Mary Philbin, look.
06:21 See?
06:22 Yeah.
06:23 And she's going to take off the mask.
06:24 Oh, I remember this scene.
06:25 He's sitting at the organ.
06:26 Yes.
06:27 Yes.
06:28 And he turns around, and your blood turns cold.
06:31 Oh, don't take it off, Mary.
06:32 Don't.
06:33 Now, that's right.
06:34 [laughter]
06:36 No, don't, don't.
06:38 Oh, she's going to do it.
06:41 There.
06:42 [music]
06:50 John, thank you for honoring the Honor Hall of Fame with your presence.
06:54 Oh, thank you.
06:55 It's always an honor for me to be with you in Phoenix.
06:57 Thank you.
06:58 It's wonderful to see you again.
06:59 And I'll have Zuckman show you to the door.
07:01 Oh, never mind the door.
07:03 I'll just seep through the wall.
07:06 [laughter]
07:08 John?
07:10 John?
07:13 John?
07:14 (audience laughing)