![]() ![]() It should be a pretty safe bet for Price fans. “ Twice-Told Tales” (1963) – Three Vincent Price vehicles directed by Sidney Salkow and written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I plan to feature it in an upcoming Iceberg Arena on evil ventriloquist dummies. It was a very early example of the omnibus mode, highly influential, well-regarded and now somewhat rare (not on DVD in the US and expensive otherwise). It kicked of the directing career of Charles Crichton (“The Lavender Hill Mob”) and Robert Hamer (“Kind Hearts and Coronets”) and also features segments by Basil Dearden (“The Blue Lamp”) and Alberto Calvacanti. “ Dead of Night” (1945) – This is the plum that really caught my eye, since I’ve been vacillating about buying an expensive VHS just to see it for quite some time. I plan to start a little early with “House of Usher” at 6:30 and than watch the next 12 hours through, marathon style. Turner Classic Movies is rather brilliantly showing an anthology of horror anthologies: five back-to-back horror portmanteaus running past the wee hours of the morning. However, I have kept my eyes open for interesting omnibuses and for those who are also interested in or curious about episodic cinema a fantastic opportunity will be available this Halloween. In my defense, copies of these films are not exactly falling from the sky. ![]() Unfortunately, I’ve yet to get around to seeing the particular anthologies we discussed in class: “In Our Time” (1982) and “The Sandwich Man” (1983) from the dawn of the Taiwanese New Wave. We had the option of hitting the theater for a screening of “Three… Extremes” (2004) as part of our final projects. I later learned he was something of an expert on the topic. My interest was eventually stirred by Professor David Scott Diffrient, whose opinion I quickly came to value. I’m never quite sure how I feel about them and for a long time I made a special point of avoiding even well-regarded omnibuses. ![]() They are usually decried as uneven and disjointed, often because of varying quality between the segments, conflicting visions of multiple directors or the failure of a central theme to gel. Portmanteau films, also called omnibuses or anthology films, tend to live in the shadows of regular features. ![]()
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