Scream and Scream Again
| Scream and Scream Again | |
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| Directed by | Gordon Hessler |
| Produced by |
Max Rosenberg Milton Subotsky Louis M. Heyward |
| Written by | Christopher Wicking |
| Based on | the novel The Disorientated Man by Peter Saxon |
| Starring |
Alfred Marks Vincent Price Christopher Lee Peter Cushing Michael Gothard |
| Music by | David Whitaker |
| Cinematography | John Coquillon |
| Edited by | Peter Elliot |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Warner Pathe (UK) AIP (USA) |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $350,000 |
| Box office | $1,217,000 (US/ Canada rentals) |
Scream and Scream Again is a 1970 conspiracy-thriller / science fiction film, based on a novel by Peter Saxon, a house pseudonym used by various authors in the 1960s and 1970s.
It marks the second teaming, after The Oblong Box, of actors Vincent Price and Christopher Lee with director Gordon Hessler. Price and Lee only share a brief scene in the film's climax, however.
The movie's title, and association with stars Price, Lee and Peter Cushing have given it an undeserved reputation as a violent horror film, but the violence in the film is mostly understated and/or off-screen, while the plot owes more to films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or 1970's era 'conspiracy thrillers' like The Parallax View.
The Overlook Film Guide: Science-Fiction, acknowledges it as: "one of the best science-fiction films made in Britain."
The movie's structure is fragmented, as it alternates between three distinguishable plot threads.
A man jogging through suburban London grabs his heart, and collapses. He wakes up in a hospital bed. The nurse tending him gives him water. She leaves. He pulls down the bed covers to discover both his legs have been amputated. He screams.
An official (Marshall Jones) from an unidentified Eastern European totalitarian state arrives back at his home country. Upon being debriefed by a superior officer, the man steps around the table, places a hand on the man's shoulder, paralyzes him, and kills him.
A Metropolitan London detective (Alfred Marks) and his unit, investigate the deaths of several young women in the city. The women, picked up at nightclubs by Keith (Michael Gothard), have apparently been killed by the same individual, and some of the bodies have been drained of blood.
The centerpiece of the movie is a near 15 min. long police car-chase/foot-chase sequence through suburban London.
Vincent Price plays a doctor whose clinic specializes in limb and organ transplantation.
Christopher Lee plays the head of Britain's -unnamed- intelligence services.
Peter Cushing -third-billed- plays an unidentified official in the Eastern European country; a very brief cameo role.
The three plot lines converge in a chilling - and unexpected - climax.
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Wikipedia