Rating: 
Summary: Looking for stylish, high camp, British black humour...
Review: ...then perhaps this is your cup of tea!A puckish exercise in style over substance, some of the best British character actors of the early seventies attack their roles with alacrity! ("Ham" served as dessert?) Vincent Price is in top form as the villainous Edwin Lionhart, Shakespearean thespian wrongly presumed deceased. Former "Avenger" Diana Rigg decks out in a number of amusing disguises as Lionhart's daughter Edwina, ranging from male drag to blonde ingenue. An original "Avenger" (way back in the beginning of the series, when Patrick MacNee was his sidekick), Ian Hendry (as head of The Critics' Circle) keeps things emotionally well grounded. The remaining cast are suitably quirky self-absorbed cardboard characters, ripe for bumping off with temerity in manners inspired by scenes from The Bard himself! All the players here dig in with relish, as one might expect from anyone who ever received hash notices in theatrical reviews. All the guilty parties concerned appear to have had a fun time while making this bit of camp horror fluff. The story is remarkably similar "The Abominable Dr Phibes". After this movie, Diana Rigg compiled a book of nasty theatrical criticism entitled "No Turn Unstoned." Vincent Price and Coral Brown met during the making of this film, and afterwards they wed.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for stylish, high camp, British black humour...
Review: ...then perhaps this is your cup of tea! A puckish exercise in style over substance, some of the best British character actors of the early seventies attack their roles with alacrity! ("Ham" served as dessert?) Vincent Price is in top form as the villainous Edwin Lionhart, Shakespearean thespian wrongly presumed deceased. Former "Avenger" Diana Rigg decks out in a number of amusing disguises as Lionhart's daughter Edwina, ranging from male drag to blonde ingenue. An original "Avenger" (way back in the beginning of the series, when Patrick MacNee was his sidekick), Ian Hendry (as head of The Critics' Circle) keeps things emotionally well grounded. The remaining cast are suitably quirky self-absorbed cardboard characters, ripe for bumping off with temerity in manners inspired by scenes from The Bard himself! All the players here dig in with relish, as one might expect from anyone who ever received hash notices in theatrical reviews. All the guilty parties concerned appear to have had a fun time while making this bit of camp horror fluff. The story is remarkably similar "The Abominable Dr Phibes". After this movie, Diana Rigg compiled a book of nasty theatrical criticism entitled "No Turn Unstoned." Vincent Price and Coral Brown met during the making of this film, and afterwards they wed.
Rating: 
Summary: Great film, Lousy transfer
Review: A film that deserves it's title! Vincent Price and Diana Rigg are truly outrageous as the merry murderers. The gore element could have been toned down, but an otherwise good film. What lets it down is the awful transfer. MGM has used a decades old laserdisc transfer and it shows. The picture is soft and grainy and full of nicks and scratches. The soundtrack is even worse. Distorted and hard to understand at times, this could have used some cleaning up. MGM should have put some money into remastering this wonderful title for DVD release. Shame
Rating:
Summary: Good movie, rehashed plot
Review: Another great addition to the MGM Midnite movie line, and another great Vincent Price movie. While a fun movie to watch, there is nothing new here. Revengeful Vincent starts wacking his critics one by one, until the bitter end.
Rating: 
Summary: Revenge is a dish best served by Vincent Price
Review: As incredibly good as this movie is, one must give pause before attempting to review it; after all, Vincent Price plays an actor who murders the critics who panned his performances and cost him the acting award he felt he deserved. I find it something of a relief to have nothing at all negative to say about this unusual, almost brilliant movie. This is essentially a slasher film, but it differs markedly from its modern counterparts by injecting the story with intelligence, culture, and actual feeling. Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart, a Shakespearean actor who deigns to perform no dramas not penned by the Bard. There is no better actor, he truly believes, than himself, and thus he is slowly crushed by the stream of bad reviews the local critics hurl down upon his performance in one play after another. After facing humiliation at an annual awards banquet, he takes his own life-or at least so everyone thought at the time, despite the fact that his body was never found. Two years later, a literary critic dies mysteriously on the ides of March of multiple stab wounds. Then a second critic is killed and his body dragged through the streets behind a horse. As more critics die, it begins to become clear, even to the rather ineffectual police, that the murders are all patterned on the death scenes of Shakespearean dramas. After the fourth murder, where the culprit deviates from the script of The Merchant of Venice by literally taking a pound of flesh from the victim, the de facto leader of the critics knows that Lionheart is the murderer because "only he would have the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare." The deaths here range from the somewhat comical to the ludicrously horrid to the deliciously gruesome, with a few nice touches of 1973-style blood thrown in for good measure. Each murder is of course accentuated by a vainglorious dramatic performance by Lionheart. This imbues the movie with both maudlin comedy as well as academic pretentiousness. At the very end, even more unexpected emotions bubble up in the viewer, a phenomenon manifesting itself through a combination of Price's perfectly over-the-top acting and a wonderfully evocative soundtrack. One actually gets something of a lesson in Shakespeare in this film. Lionheart doesn't base his revenge killings on Shakespeare's most famous plays-instead, he draws on several that I and probably many others are not intimately familiar with-yet the magic he breathes into each scene makes one anxious to delve into the Bard's original plays themselves. In total, the following Shakespearean plays serve as the basis of the murders: Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, Richard the Third, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Henry the Sixth, part 1, Titus Andronicus, and King Lear. A little Hamlet is also thrown in for good measure. I must say that the cast is a great complement to the storyline, although even the lovely Diana Rigg of Avengers fame pales in the shadow of Price's mesmerizing aura as he brings to life a character seemingly written especially for him. Who else could have played such a convincing Shakespearean actor and ingeniously mad killer simultaneously? I must admit it is somewhat strange to watch Rigg play the role of Lionheart's fiercely loyal daughter, though, and I daresay that many Rigg devotees such as myself may not even recognize her when she first appears. Theater of Blood is truly one of Vincent Price's most memorable performances. His ability to morph into and truly become different Shakespearean characters is superb, and the range of emotions he is able to express is pretty powerful, especially in the closing moments of the film. A couple of the killings are somewhat farcical, but most of them are rather ingenious and fascinating. Just wait until you see Price playing the role of a bushy-headed hairdresser. The best killing, without a doubt, involves a surgical gown, a scalpel, and a handsaw-I'll let you figure out what Lionheart does with these items. The idea for this movie may not be wholly original, but Theater of Blood works magnificently, and the combined talents of Price and Rigg make this a classic that really should find a home in the collection of all horror movie buffs.
Rating:
Summary: It's fun to watch ham play a ham
Review: Distraught over not winning the Actor of the year award, Richard Lionhart (Vincent Price) takes gruesome revenge on the theater critics who gave the award to someone else. With tongue placed firmly in cheek, this film zips along at a fast pace with a shocking yet well staged murder taking place every few minutes. Lionhart is a genius at planning the murders and its fun to see how he gets away with them. All of the murders adhere (or try to) scenes from Shakspears plays. My favorite is the one where the queen had to eat her children baked in a pie. It is sick, sick, sick but fun watching Lionhart kill one of the critics using this method. Price gets to ham it up and chew scenery every time he is on screen which is a delight to watch.
Rating: 
Summary: The fun is spoiled by the violence...
Review: Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a little murder and mayhem, especially when it's tastefully played for laughs in a film as slick and sophisticated as The Abominable Dr. Phibes, but this film comes off less comic, and more ugly. Price is great as usual and Riggs adds her presense, but the murders aren't particularly clever (as in Phibes, I can't help making the comparison) and so the film comes off much more like a precursor to the Slasher Films of the late 70's. Leonard Maltin's review says that the film is "spoiled by incredibly gory killings" and I have to agree, since I was looking for more of a humorous and mild film like Dr. Phibes and not this. In fact, I've found a buyer for it through Amazon's z shops today. If you want Vincent Price in a better film, check out The Pit and the Pendulum and Fall of the House of Usher, both by MGM Midnite Movies, which have the added bonus of Roger Corman's excellent audio commentary on the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: a wonderful horror comedy
Review: drip...drip...drip...goes the blood from the head of a poor victim in this chilling horror film that adds morbid humor and pathos in a strange but satisfying marriage. Price plays a demented Shakespearean actor named Edward Lionhart, who spent his entire career being panned by the critics for his over-the-top performances...do i detect a bit of reality in this movie? Diana Rigg plays the daughter, Edwina. The tale of actor versus critic is a wonderful subject to explore. This film is very graphic in it's violence, one scene shows a man's head falling off his body while he lay next to his wife! In another gut-wrenching scene, the ONLY critic who was even likable dies in a wine barrel. Robert Morley is seen as the gay critic, whose force-fed a nice dish of poodle stew from "Chef" Lionhart. Coral Browne, as the only female critic, gets treated to a new hairstyle by "Butch", a gay hairdresser {which is Vincent, wearing a laugh out loud orange wig and sporting a gay walk and speaking style! it's so hilarious that it's the highlight of the film.} Milo O'Shea and Eric Sykes portray the baffled police on the pursuit. Ian Hendry also appears in the film. This is a great movie for ALL Vincent Price fans. Several of my fellow reviewers have pointed out the film quality or the storyline...who cares. It's Vincent and we get to see him strike down his opponents with one gruesome death after another! What more could you want??? like the promo on the movie says: "This Actor doesn't just break a leg...he knocks 'em dead one by one".
Rating:
Summary: Theater Of Blood
Review: Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price) truely belived he was the greatest Shakespearean actor of all time, but when a group of critics denyed him an award for fine acting hes going to make them pay. He fakes to commit suicide so they all believe he's dead. One by one he kills them based on Shakespearean plays. His daugher helps him in his plans. Although Theater Of Blood has lots of graphic violence, its a good movie to watch. If you liked The Abominable Dr. Phibes And Dr. Phibes Rises Again you will love Theater Of Blood.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Combination of Wit and Gore
Review: Edward Lionheart is a Shakespearean actor who has more ham than talent. His plays have been savaged by the London critics, who now have denied him a great acting honor. He shows them the error of their ways.
Vincent Price plays Lionheart in one of his most effective and slightly campiest roles. I say slightly campy because Price actually does an effective job of showing Lionheart in a sympathetic manner, and his reading of Shakespeare (when he's not doing it as Lionheart on the stage) is good. Diana Rigg as Lionheart's daughter, Edwina, is as psychotically effective as Price.
Lionheart sets out to prove his critics wrong by dispatching them in ways drawn from Shakespeare's plays. Among the methods, one is set up to kill his wife in a jealous rage and then is taken off (Othello). One is upended in a butt of wine (Richard III). One has a pound of flesh removed (The Merchant of Venice). One is stabbed and hacked to death in a crowd (Julius Caesar). And the funniest (and slightly sickest) is reserved for Meredith Merridew (Robert Morley), who at first finds great pleasure in his two poodles that he loves dearly (Titus Andronicus). For those who enjoyed this scene, I highly recommend Julie Taymor's Titus with Anthony Hopkins.
Among the actors playing the critics, in addition to Morley, are some of Britain's finest: Dennis Price, Jack Hawkins, Harry Andrews, Michael Hordern, and several others.
Price is known now, I suppose, as a hammy horror specialist. He made a lot of money and enjoyed himself immensely doing it. But the guy could be a good actor. I thought he was very effective as Shelby Carpenter in Laura. Occasionally on late night cable you can see a Samuel Fuller movie called The Baron Of Arizona. Price is excellent in it.
I think Theater of Blood is a first-rate movie, but it's best enjoyed if you have a passing knowledge of Shakespeare's plays. Cliffs Notes always did it for me. The movie is camp, witty, literate and gory. Nice combination.
The DVD transfer is very good.
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