Master Of The Macabre

 

CD

 

"Vincent Price, art historian and collector, gourmet cook, author and raconteur, perhaps best known for his blood-curdling acting roles in Roger Corman’s series of films based on Edgar Allan Poe stories for American International Pictures during the sixties; House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death and The Tomb of Ligeia.

A horror legend, other notable Price performances include in Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General, as ‘egghead’ in the Batman TV series, the English production Theatre of Blood with Diana Rigg and Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. He did a voiceover on Alice Cooper’s 'Welcome to My Nightmare' album and performed a sinister rap on the title track of Michael Jackson’s top-selling 'Thriller'.
Price’s greatest asset throughout his career was his voice and nowhere was it put to better use than in the medium of radio. This honeyed instrument, with which he was able to portray infinite permutations of charm, terror and sinister intent was a godsend to the writers and producers of such series as Escape and Suspense who offered listeners a world of adventure, romance and, increasingly, horror, and with the ingenious use of music and sound effects, conjured up scenarios that would have proved prohibitively expensive in film or television. At the same time they were able to explore their characters’ inner worlds in the same way as novels, and it was this kind of interior monologue at which Price excelled - the sound of a man grappling with his inner demons as much as the supernatural kind".

 

Tracklisting

 

1  The Pit And The Pendulum (by Edgar Allan Poe) CBS radio broadcast, 1957

 

2  Fugue In C Minor (by Lucille Fletcher) CBS radio broadcast, 1944

 

3  Present Tense (by James Poe) CBS radio broadcast, 1957