Cry of the Banshee *** (1970, Vincent Price, Elisabeth Bergner, Hilary Dwyer, Hugh Griffith, Patrick Mower) – Classic Movie Review 2835

Vincent Price is back in Witchfinder General mode in 1970’s Cry of the Banshee, as a wicked magistrate hunting out witches.

Vincent Price is back in the Witchfinder General-mode horror business in 1970’s Cry of the Banshee as Lord Edward Whitman, the wicked magistrate hunting out witches and trying to kill all the members of a coven in Elizabethan England and clean up the area.

He presides over the trial of a young woman, ruling that she is a witch, he has her branded, whipped through the streets, then placed in the village stocks. Then Lord Edward hosts a feast in his hall, where he kills two teenagers who may be ‘devil-marked’. His pretty young wife Lady Patricia (Essy Persson) sleeps with his shifty eldest son Sean (Stephan Chase).

Whitman goes hunting in the hills for witches with his two older sons, breaks up a Black Sabbath, kills several witches and scatters the rest.

But the forces of darkness impel the leader of the coven Oona (Elisabeth Bergner) to get revenge on the Whitman clan, She calls up a magical servant, a ‘sidhe’, to destroy the lord’s family. The demonic beast takes possession of decent young servant Roderick (Patrick Mower), who begins to kill off members of the Whitman family.

This third collaboration (after The Oblong Box and Scream and Scream Again) of Price with director Gordon Hessler and screenwriter Christopher Wicking co-stars Hilary Dwyer and Hugh Griffith.

On the plus side, there is a lot of enjoyable plotting and interesting themes, much gruesome blood-letting, some haunting location work and a sturdy, upright central performance by Price. It is a worthwhile horror movie experience, but still it is the weakest of the three films. There is also a lot of 70s-style violence and nudity, at least in the restored full uncut version we now have on DVD.

Like many of Price’s movies, it opens with a quote from a verse attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, this time spuriously. ‘Who spurs the beast the corpse will ride?’ etc.

The title credit sequence is animated by Terry Gilliam.

The Cry of the Banshee is the signal that someone will die in a Celtic ghost legend that nothing to do with Satanism. No banshee ever appears, so it’s safe to say that no banshees were harmed in the making of this film.

Hessler did not like Tim Kelly’s original script and hired Wicking to rewrite it. He would have got Wicking to change it further and improve the witch characters but his employers American International Pictures would not let him.

It is Elisabeth Bergner’s first appearance in a film in 29 years.

The original music score was composed by Wilfred Josephs but AIP decided to replace it with a score by Les Baxter. The original score was restored in the later uncut DVD releases.

The US cinema release is the heavily edited ‘GP’ rated print, which replaces Gilliam’s opening animated credits with still ones, completely alters the score, and is cut to remove all topless nudity and tone down whippings and assault scenes. This is also used for the original UK cinema release in 1970 and the 1988 UK Guild video release. But, finally, all DVD releases are the full uncut version and restore the Josephs score.

The film was a hit but Hessler was dissatisfied and called it the least interesting of his four AIP movies.

Filming started November 1969 at the former home of W S Gilbert, Harrow Weald.

Vincent Price declared: ‘It’s becoming harder and harder to scare people. We still rely on the basic elements of fear: snake, rats, claustrophobia, but we’re adding all the time.’

The cast are Vincent Price as Lord Edward Whitman, Hilary Dwyer as Maureen Whitman, Essy Persson as Lady Patricia Whitman, Hugh Griffith as Mickey, Patrick Mower as Roderick, Elisabeth Bergner as Oona, Carl Rigg as Harry Whitman, Sally Geeson as Sarah, Stephan Chase as Sean Whitman, Marshall Jones as Father Tom, Andrew McCulloch as Bully Boy, Michael Elphick as Burke, Pamela Moiseiwitsch as Maid, Richard Everrett as Timothy, Peter Benson as Brander, Robert Hutton as Party Guest, Pamela Farbrother as Margaret, Jan Rossini as Bess, Quinn O’Hara as Maggie, Guy Deghy as Party Guest, Joyce Mandre as Party Guest, and Jane Deady as Naked Girl.

The films of Gordon Hessler: Catacombs (1965), The Last Shot You Hear (1969), The Oblong Box (1969), Scream and Scream Again (1970), Cry of the Banshee (1970), Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971), Embassy (1972), Medusa (1973), Scream, Pretty Peggy (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), Skyway to Death (1974), Hitchhike! (1974), A Cry in the Wilderness (1974), Betrayal (1974), Puzzle (1978), Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978), Secrets of Three Hungry Wives (1978), The Secret War of Jackie’s Girls (1980), Pray for Death (1985), Rage of Honor (1987), The Misfit Brigade (1987), and The Girl in a Swing (1988).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2835

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