The Oblong Box

• Directed by Gordon Hessler
• June 11, 1969
• Takes its title from Edgar Allan Poe’s 1844 short story The Oblong Box

After being disfigured in an African voodoo ceremony for a transgression against the native populace, a man is kept locked in his room by his brother.

How closely The Oblong Box follows the story upon which it gets its name from is beyond me. I’ve never been big into Edgar Allan Poe, and as such I’ve only read a smattering of his works. But we’re not here to discuss an Edgar Allan Poe story. We’re here to discuss a film based on/getting its name from an Edgar Allan Poe story.

I have a distinct love of older horror films. Not because I find them generally scary but because they had style and attracted great actors. They focused on atmosphere and appearance to create an unsettling or unnerving environment. At least the ones aiming for quality did. There was plenty of trash but that’s a whole other story.

The Oblong Box is set in the Victorian era. As such there is a great deal of focus on the feel and the environment. You are transported to a dark other world when watching. It’s a place where the supernatural could and does happen. Dark things and darker motives are more than possible.

One thing this movie does is it doesn’t show you everything. It makes your mind to do a lot of the work for the filmmakers. That starts out as a benefit but becomes a bit of a distraction. In this movie Julian Markham (Vincent Price) keeps his brother Sir Edward Markham (Alister Williamson) locked in a room due to a deformity caused by a curse put on him in Africa but you never get a look at him with no indication on the affliction until the closing shot.

The thing is there are several points when people see his face but you the viewer never see it. The problem is it happens too many times and after a while it just becomes annoying. They clearly were pushing it off as long as they could perhaps because they had no idea what to show. Based on the tightness of the final shot which revealed the curse I’m guessing it was a last-minute ad on. And honestly what I saw was a bit disappointing. The face of Price in The Abominable Dr. Phibes was much more disturbing than what we got here. And more importantly it did not justify screams of terror. I know there were limitations of all sorts but they do not try too hard.

There is a side plot involving Julian getting married to a woman named Elizabeth (Hilary Dwyer) but that whole character, while providing an emotional anchor for Julian, ultimately just serves to issue the scream at the end. She has little impact on events.

Edward for his part has become sick of his extended captivity to hide his shame and plots to fake his death to get out of there with the help of the crooked family lawyer Trench (Peter Arne) and a witch doctor (Harry Baird) because where else can you get that stuff in Victorian England? Things get complicated from there when Julian needs a body to act as his brother’s since Edward is really messed up (supposedly) and his appearance would bring shame on the family.

From there things get REALLY complicated as Edward gets buried while under the influence of the potion and then dug up by grave robbers while Body B gets dumped in a river and discovered. Doctor Newhartt (Christopher Lee) is the body snatcher and Edward uses that to blackmail Newhartt for shelter as he searches London for the witchdoctor to cure him. There is a ton going on in this movie.

The costuming is fantastic. It just transports you to a completely different time. Visually this is a very good-looking attempt at Gothic horror. The only moment that fell short is when they are in Africa because it looks like England. And not middle of nowhere England but somebody’s backyard England.

The Oblong Box is an entertaining old school horror with some genre greats. Though the reveal of what the curse is takes too long, the rest is atmospheric and entertaining though not scary. This is something I recommend.