The Vault of Horror (1973) - EOFFTV - The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television

UK, 1973
87m
35mm film, Eastmancolor
mono, English

A British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker. Filming was originally announced to start on 11 September 1972 but eventually began on 3 October 1972.

Plot Summary

Five men are trapped in a vault in the basement of an office building. To pass the time, they all reveal how they've all been having dreams that reveal how they are all going to die.

Credits

Crew
Directed by: Roy Ward Baker
© Metromedia Producers Corporation, MCMLXXIII [1973]
Metromedia Producers Corporation presents an Amicus production
Executive Producer: Charles Fries
Produced by: Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky
Production Executive: Paul Thompson
Production Supervisor: Art Stolnitz
Production Manager: Teresa Bolland
Screenplay by: Milton Subotsky
Based on the Stories Written by: Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
As originally published by William M. Gaines in the comic magazines entitled The Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt
Assistant Director: Anthony Waye
Continuity: Betty Harley
Director of Photography: Denys Coop
Camera Operator: John Harris
Photographed in Eastmancolour
Editor: Oswald Hafenrichter
Processed by: Technicolor
Music Composed and Conducted by: Douglas Gamley
Sound Mixer: Danny Daniel
Sound Editor: Clive Smith
Dubbing Mixer: Gerry Humphreys
Wardrobe Master: John Briggs
Chief Make-Up: Roy Ashton
Chief Hairdresser: Mibs Parker
Art Director: Tony Curtis
Set Dresser: Fred Carter
Construction Manager: Bill Waldron
Made at Twickenham Studios, England
Casting Director: Ronnie Curtis

Cast
Midnight Mess
Daniel Massey (Rogers)
Anna Massey (Donna)
Michael Pratt (Clive)
Erik Chitty (old waiter)
Jerold Wells (waiter)

The Neat Job
Terry-Thomas (Critchit)
Glynis Johns (Eleanor)
Marianne Stone (Jane)
John Forbes-Robertson (Wilson)

This Trick'll Kill You
Curd Jürgens (Sebastian)
Dawn Addams (Inez)
Jasmina Hilton (Indian girl)
Ishaq Bux (Fakir)

Bargain in Death
Michael Craig (Maitland)
Edward Judd (Alex)
Robin Nedwell (Tom)
Geoffrey Davies (Jerry)
Arthur Mullard (gravedigger)

Drawn and Quartered
Tom Baker (Moore)
Denholm Elliott (Diltant)
Terence Alexander (Breedley)
John Witty (Gaskill)

Alternative Titles

Further Tales From the Crypt – working title
In der Schlinge des Teufels – Germany
Tales From the Crypt Part II – USA

Links

See also
Tales from the Crypt (1972)

Extracts included in
Mad Ron's Prevue's from Hell (1987)

Production Notes

Production
Rosenberg and Subotsky originally wanted to shoot the film at their usual stamping grounds at Shepperton but a boom in UK film production had filled the stages at that studio so they were forced to take over both stages at the much smaller Twickenham Studios. ¹ Production began on 3 October 1972 ²

Release
The film opened in the USA at the Penthouse, the 86th St. Twin l and Murray Hill in Los Angeles, taking a healthy $35,441 in its forst three days of release. ³ In New York, it opened at three locations and performed even better, taking $48,000 in the same period. ⁴

Censorship
In the UK at least three cuts were made to the film to ensure its original X certificate: In the first story, the film freezes just as the vampire waiter advances on the tap in Rogers' neck; another freeze frame in the second story, just as Eleanor raises a hammer to strike Critchit, removed a shot of blood spurting from the man's head; and in the final story, a shot of the publisher's bleeding stumps, right after his hands have been severed by the paper cutter, was removed.

In the USA, the film was rated PG when it was released in 1974 under the title Tales from the Crypt Part II. To get the rating, several cuts had to be made and was, eventually, the same as the British version. A later video release on Nostalgia Merchants restored the missing footage.

Press

1973
Daily Variety vol.159 no.8 (15 March 1973) p.2
[T]his highly exploitable five-parter is less notable for its chill factor than for its showcasing of a number of name performers who react to the ham macabre like celebs who used to relish the pie-in-the-face from Soupy Sales. Quality of the material is uneven, ranging from camp comedy to the belabored grotesque. Despite the R rating from the Motion Picture Association, explicit gore is minimal, but what there is (the amputation of hands, for example) is enough to warrant the restricted tag. […] The five stories herein are bracketed with a creaky device about five men in an elevator that is more functional than imaginative, and the tales themselves have the kind of telegraphed endings that any old EC buff will figure from the first scenes. Though overly enamoured with the zoom lens and with characters who pop up from left frame, director Roy Ward Baker does a workmanlike job overall. – from a review by Verr

Cinefantastique vol.3 no.1 (Autumn 1973) p.26
In economics, the law of diminished returns states in part that a product which maintains the same quality, or at least does not improve, is doomed to decreasing popularity. The equivalent in films occurs when producers hew to a once successful formula that has clearly outrun both its interest and profitableness. This seems to be exactly the spot where Amicus resides at the moment. It is not simply a matter of all the Amicus films basically resembling each other as far as subject matter, stars, and style of filming are concerned. They are now beginning to look almost perfectly identical, particularly the interiors, with their appalling pastel color schemes and sterile, ultra-modern furnishings. […] Vault of Horror is played more for chuckles than for chills, and succeeds in neither department. The special effects are quite the shoddiest that I have seen in recent years […] The tales, despite their shortness, all manage somehow to be verbose. Missing completely is [Robert] Bloch's macabre sense of humor, which knows more than one way to visualize a bad joke, and the screenplay equivalent to his published short stories which seem to be written solely to flesh out the wonderfully awful pun in the last sentence. Bloch's uncanny ability to painlessly cram his tales with a sometimes extraordinary amount of exposition is missed, too, as well as his quite exquisite flair for bad taste, both in dialogue and plot. – from a review by David Bartholomew

CinemaTV Today no.10054 (20 October 1973) p.14
The crude characterisations and Illogicalities so often to be found in comic magazines have been ironed out by Roy Ward Baker's direction. He keeps each of the five plots flowing smoothly, making it easy for us to suspend our disbelief in the incredible, and refraining from souping up the more macabre elements with obtrusive music. The stores [sic] are well contrasted to provide a balanced programme ranging from high camp fantasy to true horror, and the strong cast plays everything for real with the ease of experience. – from a review by Marjorie Bilbow

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.40 no.478 (November 1973) p.234
Following up Tales from the Crypt with a further selection of five stories from the William Gaines horror comics – again shorn of much of their ghoulish delight – Vault of Horror is even less satisfactory, mainly because the Freddie Francis atmospherics have been replaced by pedantically flat direction by Roy Ward Baker in which each story plods squarely through yards of exposition before erupting in all too brief explosions of Grand Guignol. […] The lack of atmosphere (most noticeable in the last and best story), no fault of Denys Coop's crystalline camerawork or Tony Curtis' pleasing sets, is underlined by the fact that the worst tale – the first – emerges as the most striking because it has a few visual notions […] The Amicus portmanteau films, this being the sixth, have been going steadily downhill since the days of Torture Garden, and it is surely time that the framing device – so teasingly speculative in Torture Garden, serviceable in The House that Dripped Blood, and drearily routine both here and in Tales from the Crypt – was either jettisoned or given an infusion of new blood. – from a review by Tom Milne

1994
Flesh and Blood no.3 (1994) p.41
Vault of Horror features some arresting images and suitably macabre ideas courtesy of Feldstein and Gaines. Although despised by E.C. supremo William Gaines to the extent that it was responsible for the termination of the working relationship between Amicus and E.C., the comedy occasionally gels and the film is surprisingly gruesome at times. However the negative points outweigh the pluses and if truth be told, Gaines' judgement was probably correct as over-all it is one of the weakest compendium efforts Amicus produced. Still, fans of this sort of thing will want to track it down. Worth a look. – from an uncredited illustrated review

References

Periodicals

Cinefantastique vol.3 no.1 (Autumn 1973) p.26 – illustrated review (by David Bartholomew)
CinemaTV Today no.10054 (20 October 1973) p.14 – review (by Marjorie Bilbow)
Daily Variety vol.155 no.32 (18 April 1972) p.1 – note (Col And MPC Will Produce, Distribute Pix)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.2 (7 September 1972) p.2 – note (Metromedia filming ‘Catch My Soul' and ‘Vault of Horror)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.3 (8 September 1972) p.12 – credits (TV Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol. 157 no.13 (22 September 1972) p.6 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.18 (29 September 1972) p.6 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.23 (6 October 1972) p.10 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.24 (10 October 1972) pp.6; 12 – note (Film Castings); note (MPC, Amicus Sets 8 For ‘Vault of Horror‘)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.25 (11 October 1972) p.2 – note (Cinerama To Distrib Metromedia's ‘Vault)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.27 (13 October 1972) p.8 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.32 (20 October 1972) p.8 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.36 (27 October 1972) p.14 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.41 (2 November 1972) p.2 – note (Just for Variety by Army Archerd)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.42 (3 November 1972) p.10 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.47 (10 November 1972) p.8 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.52 (17 November 1972) p.12 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.57 [sic] no.56 (24 November 1972) p.7 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.58 (28 November 1972) p.8 – note (Deal For Single Releasing Outfit Nears Completion)
Daily Variety vol.157 no.61 (1 December 1972) p.10 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.158 no.13 (22 December 1972) p.10 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.158 no.17 (29 December 1972) p.10 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.158 no.21 (5 January 1973) p.32 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.158 no.26 (12 January 1973) p.12 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.158 no.31 (19 January 1973) pp.10; 18 – note (Who's Where); credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.158 no.36 (26 January 1973) p.10 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.159 no.6 (13 March 1973) p.6 – credits (Film Production Chart)
Daily Variety vol.159 no.8 (15 March 1973) p.2 – review (Film Reviews by Verr)
Daily Variety vol.159 no.11 (20 March 1973) p.2 – note (‘Sawyer/'Horizon/'Vault/'Caesar' Lead Happy Music At N.Y. 1st-Runs)
Flesh and Blood no.3 (1994) p.41 – illustrated credits, review
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.40 no.478 (November 1973) p.234 – credits, synopsis, review (by Tom Milne)
Sight & Sound vol.3 no.8 (August 1993) p.62 – video release note
Variety vol.266 no.12 (3 May 1972) p.131 – note (British Spurts & Slowdowns)
Variety vol.267 no.9 (12 July 1972) p.32 – note (International Soundtrack)
Variety vol.267 no.11 (26 July 1972) p.41 – note (Metromedia Production Arm Betting $25-M3 On TV & Features In '72-'73)
Variety vol.267 no.11 (26 July 1972) p.28 – note (International Soundtrack)
Variety vol.267 no.12 (2 August 1972) p.27 – note (Feature Prod. Again Booms In Britain; 20 Pix Roll; Pinewood Studio Hottest)
Variety vol 268 no.4 (6 September 1972) p.27 – note (Metromedia Prods. roll 2 films in fall)
Variety vol.268 no.5 (13 September 1972) p.5 – note (Metromedia readying pair of theatricals)
Variety vol.268 no.8 (4 October 1972) pp.28; 32 – credits (Film Production Pulse); note (International Soundtrack)
Variety vol.268 no.9 (11 October 1972) pp.22; 24 – note (Despite British Film Studio Slump, Two Lots Lure Investment Money); credits (Film Production Pulse)
Variety vol.268 no.10 (18 October 1972) p.26 – note (International Soundtrack)
Variety vol.268 no.11 (25 October 1972) p.32 – note (International Soundtrack)
Variety vol.269 no.1 (15 November 1972) p.34 – credits (Film Production Pulse)
Variety vol.269 no.2 (22 November 1972) p.48 – note (International Soundtrack)
Variety vol.269 no.3 (29 November 1972) pp.3; 69 – note (Plot details of the fusion); note (Ibiza)
Variety vol.269 no.4 (6 December 1972) p.24 – credits (Film Production Pulse)
Variety vol.269 no.6 (20 December 1972) p.26 – note (Film Production In Austria Needs A Hypo: Jurgens)
Variety vol.269 no.8 (3 January 1973) pp.16; 60 – article (Debate over brutality by Lee Beaupre); credits (Film Production Pulse)
Variety vol.269 no.10 (17 January 1973) p.24 – note (Joe Sugar's musters of Cinerama sales)
Variety vol.270 no.6 (21 March 1973) p.8 – note (‘Sawyer', Stage Pace N.Y. With 200G; ‘Lost Horizon' 64C In 2; ‘Music' 25G; ‘Tango' $43,840; ‘Wattstax ‘$40,000)
Variety vol.270 no.6 (21 March 1973) pp.5; 26; 30 – note (N.Y. Critics' Opinions; credits, review (by Verr [reprinted from Daily Variety vol.159 no.8 (15 March 1973) p.2]); note (Metromedia's Mexican vampire bats pic)
Video Business vol.4 no.50 (18 February 1985) p.27 – review

Books

Elliot's Guide to Films on Video by John Eliot p.849 – credits, short review, UK video data
The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide by Stephen Jones p.96 – credits, short review
Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.520 – credits