A gift for camp, and much more

Like Boris Karloff, Vincent Price could be memorably menacing on the screen, but off-screen he was a delightful man -- witty, sophisticated, and passionate and knowledgeable about art. He had no patience with actors who felt horror pictures were beneath them, believed that the acting required to make an effective horror picture was often unappreciated, and was grateful that horror gave him a career for life. Some of Price’s films were gems of the genre, and they are included in the American Cinematheque’s “Tales of Terror: The Films of Vincent Price,” which runs Friday through Sunday at the Aero and Friday through Wednesday at the Egyptian.

“Theatre of Blood” is quite possibly the best horror picture Price ever made. Certainly, it afforded him his best role in the genre. A triumph of stylish, witty Grand Guignol, it allows Price to range richly between humor and pathos as a crazed Shakespearean actor. It’s not too much to say that if horror pictures were taken seriously Price would have been a 1973 Oscar contender.

Price is Edward Lionheart, a glorious ham who exacts revenge -- by literally reenacting death scenes from Shakespeare -- upon the eight members of a London drama critics’ circle who have denied him a best actor award. Although it’s a dark comedy, “Theatre of Blood” enables Price to portray the eloquent tragedy of a second-rate actor and also serves as a stinging comment on the often cruelly lethal power of drama critics. Assuredly directed by Douglas Hickox from Anthony Greville-Bell’s ingenious script, the film offers a formidable challenge to Price. He not only does a superior job of portraying an inferior actor but also assumes various disguises -- a London bobby, a fey hairdresser, etc.--and suggests that poor, crazy Lionheart never played Shakespeare so well sane.

Playing with “Theatre of Blood” at the Egyptian and the Aero is “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971), Price’s 100th film, for which a grateful American International Pictures pulled out all the stops. As Dr. Phibes, Price is a mad organist out to avenge his wife’s death. A little decadent but lots of fun, it was also an English-made production, with extravagant Art Deco settings and considerable baroque campiness. Thought to have died in a car crash in Switzerland, Phibes, a onetime vaudeville artiste and a wizard at mechanics, returns to London disfigured and mute, to plot vengeance against a team of surgeons he irrationally holds responsible for the death of his beloved wife -- and inflicts upon them the curses that afflicted the Old Testament pharaohs.

Dr. Phibes lives in a gloomy mansion fitted out like a cabaret, which he invariably enters while pounding an organ. He then dances with his assistant (Virginia North) while his mechanical orchestra -- Dr. Phibes’ Clockwork Wizards -- plays such tunes as “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” and “One for My Baby.” A foray into camp pathos offset by broad comedy, “Dr. Phibes” was directed by Robert Fuest with appropriate panache.

This nifty double feature is just the beginning of the fun in this festival.

An evasive ‘Fixed’

The Cinematheque’s Alternative Screen presentation “Fixed” offers an unsettling portrait of a troubled 25-year-old collage artist (Jason Van Over) who takes a drastic measure, seemingly to keep his focus on his career. Writer-director Neil Matsumoto evokes quite effectively the loneliness and isolation of Van Over’s Matthew and his vulnerability to the negative influence of some of the individuals with whom he crosses paths.

However, considering the bleak trajectory of his film, Matsumoto might well have been more specific about the “bad habits” that first drove Matthew to join a faith-based sexual recovery group, only to be asked to leave it on account of his failure to participate in its open discussions. Does he have an urge to molest children? Is he uncertain about his sexual orientation? Or is his concern over his sexuality masking other emotional problems? Matsumoto’s desire to avoid the literal is understandable, but a film that otherwise has considerable merit comes off as needlessly evasive.

*

Screenings

Tales of Terror: The Films of Vincent Price

* “Theatre of Blood” and “The Abominable Dr. Phibes”: 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Egyptian, 5 p.m. Sunday at the Aero

Alternative Screen

* “Fixed”: 7:30 tonight at the Egyptian

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica

Info: (323) 466-FILM or www.americancinematheque.com