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... soon found himself typecast and unable to achieve his dream of performing Shakespeare. That sad circumstance was alleviated in 1973 with Theatre Of Blood. In the movie Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart, a brutally criticized Shakespearean actor who fakes his death and takes revenge on the clique of theatrical critics who unfairly tormented him, executing them with gruesome reinterpretations of Shakespeare's most violent scenes.

The acting is top-notch in that uniquely British theatrical style. Everyone, from despicable critic to broken hero, seems to have a great time hamming up the Bard's bloodiest excesses. Despite this, the movie was poorly received as critics had issue with how sympathetically the film treated Price's character. Indeed, his revenge is clearly justified as the critics he targeted for assassination were clearly trying to ruin his career out of a strange, quaintly snobbish British spite. Indeed, Ian Hendry as the main critic and designed hero Peregrin Devlin, is almost unbearably arrogant and contemptuous of Lionheart.

The negative aspects of the movie demand a certain Shakespearian demand for suspension of disbelief. Several murders simply could not work without a tremendous amount of coincidence and sheer dumb luck. The homeless men and women that assist Edward in his grisly work are little more than unthinking zombies, stumbling comically through their scenes until the knives are drawn.

If you want a movie that has Shakespearian monologues, brutal murders on deserving people, and one of horror's icons at the top of his game, you need to see Theatre of Blood.

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