The Oblong Box (1969)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1969
Running Times: 91 mins
Format: Eastmancolor     35mm
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: American International Productions
Executive Producer: Louis M. Heyward
Producer: Gordon Hessler
Associate Producer: Pat Green

SCRIPT
Script: Lawrence Huntington
Additional Dialogue: Christopher Wicking
Story: Edgar Allan Poe

DIRECTION
Director: Gordon Hessler
Assistant Director: Derek Whitehurst

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: John Coquillon
Gaffer: Nobby Cross
Lighting: Lee Lighting Ltd
Labs: Rank Film Laboratories, Denham, UK

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Max Benedict

MUSIC
Music: Harry Robinson
Conductor: Philip Martell

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Bob Peck

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Jimmy Evans
Hair: Bobbie Smith
Costume Designer: Kay Gilbert
Wardrobe Supervisor: Kay Gilbert

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: George Provis
Set Dresser: Terence Morgan
Scenic Artist: W. Simpson-Robinson

LOCATIONS
Studio: Shepperton Studios, London, England, UK

CAST
Vincent Price (Sir Julian Markham)
Christopher Lee (Dr J. Neuhart)
Rupert Davies (Joshua Kemp)
Uta Levka (Heidi)
Sally Geeson (Sally Baxter)
Alister Williamson (Sir Edward Markham)
Peter Arne (Samuel Trench)
Hilary Dwyer (real name: Hilary Heath) (Elizabeth Markham)
Maxwell Shaw (Tom Hackett)
Carl Rigg (Mark Norton)
Harry Baird (N'Galo)
Godfrey James (Weller)
James Mellor (Holt)
John Barrie (Franklin)
Ivor Dean (Hawthorne)
Danny Daniels (the witch doctor)
Michael Balfour (Ruddock)
Hira Talfrey (Martha)
John Wentworth (the parson)
Betty Woolfe (Mrs Hopkins)
Martin Terry (sailor at graveyard)
Anne Clune, Jan Rossini (prostitutes)
Jackie Noble
Ann Barrass
Zeph Gladstone (Trench's woman)
Tara Fernando (table dancer)
Tony Thawnton (man in tavern)
Anthony Bailey (Talbot)
Richard Cornish
Colin Jeavons (village doctor)
Andreas Melandrinos (the Baron)
Hedgar Wallace (the Major)
Martin Wyldeck (village constable)

PLOT SUMMARY

Disfigured by a voodoo curse, Sir Edward Markham is kept in the attic of the family mansion by his brother Julian. But Edward escapes and takes up with a shady doctor who employs body snatchers to steal corpses for his research. Edward joins in the mayhem, murdering several of locals when a ready supply of corpses runs out.

How much would director Michael Reeves' reputation have sunk if he had actually directed this film – potentially his next project after Witchfinder General (1968). Produced in England by AIP who had produced the early 60's Roger Corman films, this is another vaguely Poe based mystery. Sadly the combination of Price and Lee is wasted as the real villain is the mysterious man in the red mask. Given what the pair did in the same year with director Gordon Hessler in the out-there Scream and Scream Again and what AIP produced the next year with The Vampire Lovers (1970) this is sadly routine and deadly dull.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: American International Pictures
Video Distributors: Home Box Office Home Video; Key Video; Orion Home Video; Sinister Cinema
Laserdisc Distributor: Image Entertainment Inc

Norway
Rating: 18

Sweden
Rating: 15

USA
Rating: M (original rating); PG

1970
February
16: Sweden - theatrical release

1988
April
6: UK - television broadcast (on Thames Television)

June
15: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

For the first time... the classic tale of the restless dead and their unspeakable hungers!

Le cercueil vivant - French title
Dance, Mephisto
Elävänä haudattu - Finnish title
Im Todesgriff der roten Maske - Austrian title
Mies punaisen naamion takaa - Finnish title
La rossa maschera del terrore - Italian title

MAGAZINES

Hollywood Reporter vol.206 no.22 (11 June 1969) p.3 (USA)
credits, review

Kine Weekly no.3267 (23 May 1970) p.12 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.37 no.438 (July 1970) pp.148-149 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

Motion Picture Herald vol.239 no.27 (2 July 1969) p.223 (USA)
review

Today's Cinema no.9806 (22 May 1970) p.10 (UK)
review

Variety 11 June 1969 p.38 (USA)
credits, review

BOOKS

Creature Features Strikes Again p.283
credits, review

KEYWORDS

short story into film, voodoo, disfigurement, body snatchers, masks, revenge, witch doctors, buried alive, child murders, grave robbing, prostitutes

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009