Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This offbeat horror film, scripted by Christopher Wicking based on a novel by Peter Saxon, has a rather busy plot. It ties together separate threads: one about political intrigue, one about a "vampire" styled serial killer, and another about a mad scheme to harvest human body parts for some unknown purpose. The perplexed but determined police inspector in charge of the serial killer case is a man named Bellaver (Alfred Marks); even after the killer, Keith (Michael Gothard), is apprehended, he escapes again and leads the cops to the operation of a doctor named Browning (Vincent Price).Fans of Mr. Price, Sir Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing are likely to feel disappointed after watching this. After all, they're billed as star attractions, yet their combined screen time doesn't add up to much, leading one to believe that they were hired principally for name value. It's the excellent Marks that does the true heavy lifting in terms of acting. He plays his role with humour and charm, and makes "Scream and Scream Again" worth seeing. It's also fun to see a British genre film from this period that so obviously is of its era. We even get to see a brief musical performance by a band named The Amen Corner, who perform two songs, "When We Make Love" and the title track. The actual music score is courtesy of David Whitaker and adds to that off the wall quality because it's rather jaunty, not exactly your typical horror film score. One unqualified highlight that occurs is the protracted chase sequence between the cops and Keith. And it's hard to completely dislike any horror story that includes a couple of acid baths.Lee and Cushing are really rather wasted, but Price has as much fun as he can in his somewhat limited role. In addition to Marks, other actors doing fine work are Peter Sallis as Schweitz, Christopher Matthews as the inquisitive young Dr. Sorel, Kenneth Benda as Professor Kingsmill, and Marshall Jones as Konratz.This isn't all that *good* a movie, in all honesty, but it certainly rates as a real curiosity.Six out of 10.

"Scream and Scream Again" (1969) is surprisingly good. The film is quite odd because of the disparate story lines that seem to bear no relation to one another as the movie unfolds. In fact, I initially thought that the film might be a series of short stories, much like "Tales from the Crypt" or "Asylum" (both 1972), but with the difference that the three stories ran concomitantly (a trope that I don't think I've ever witnessed, but certainly an interesting idea--note to self when I'm a successful Hollywood director). But the stories did indeed come together towards the film's conclusion. The effect is a delicious sense of paranoia and disorientation.The film, despite its PG rating, is actually quite explicit, with a surprising amount of female nudity (okay, only about ten seconds total, but that's a lot for a PG film) and some violence and gore. I certainly would have felt more comfortable if the film had borne an R

A killer who has a literal thirst for blood is prowling the nightclubs for fresh young victims. The police decide to set a trap to catch this man. A young policewoman poses as his new victim while wearing a wire. The killer meets the young policewoman and takes her with him to a secluded spot where he proceeds to drink her blood...Vincent Price in interviews a number of years after the film was made, said he never understood the script at all. Not surprising, as the novel featured aliens and the film changed them to Communists (or something like that). And that is probably the least of the problems...I mean, the choking of women and the pointless blood sucking? A jogger who is getting his legs removed? Yellow acid for some sort of research? It does not really all add up. Really sweet cars, though.Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee appear, though not much. Heck, even Vincent Price does not really show up until the second half. But if you like these guys, do not mind waiting, and are okay with not really understanding what you are watching, check this one out.

From the golden years of pulp horror comes an obscure oddity that keeps you guessing right to the end. Is it horror? Is it action? Is it espionage? It's very difficult to say, but doesn't really matter in the end. Very entertaining with a refreshingly non-linear plot (some might say too non-linear), mix up some ruthless dictator types with a vampire killer at large in England, throw in a mad surgeon complete with acid bath, add a pinch of a groovy pop group singing "Scream and Scream Again" and you about have it. Vincent Price does what he does best as a mad doctor, Christopher Lee is suitably British as a dodgy diplomat, but the star of the show (for me) is Alfred Marks doing a rather clichéd but nonetheless great routine as a laconic London Bobby. Art it ain't, but for pure fun it's a scream!