Introduction

History Part 1

History Part 2

Gallery

For once, Armstrong was not around for the casting. Jenny Craven, the associate producer, was elevated into overseeing the film from the moment it went into pre-production.

"Everything happened so quickly," Armstrong recalls, "Pete [Walker] had barely arrived back from LA before the picture was in pre-production with a shooting date only a few weeks away. To my concern, what I’d dashed off in those two weeks was the script they were working from. Admittedly my first drafts are usually as tight as most people’s final drafts but, even so, I still desperately wanted, at the very least, to sit down and clean it up and tidy it - especially around the final confrontation scene between the Grisbane brothers - but it proved impossible. Pete had been swept up into the throes of production with Jenny [Craven], which meant that he and I couldn’t find a free moment to get together and talk, even. Whenever I tried to say anything, everyone seemed so perfectly happy with the script as it was that I finally gave up pressing the point and assumed it was just me being insecure and finicky and that they’d come back to me if something wasn’t working."

Within the first week of shooting a call came from the set, asking Armstrong to go down and fix the final dialogue scene between Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.

"I was so relieved," Armstrong confesses, "When I got on set, I found Christopher’s concern was that he felt the final confrontation between he and Vinnie [Vincent Price] wasn’t correctly balanced. Vinnie had more dialogue and had the last line. He was quite right, of course - except about wanting to have the last line. I sat down and tightened the whole scene, which I’d been dying to do. It automatically balanced their dialogue and resolved Christopher’s worries and Vinnie still kept his last line, much to his amusement. From that point on, I decided it might be better if I remained on set for the rest of the shooting...although, as it turned out, there was nothing else that needed fixing."

Filming went smoothly. The stars, in particular, enjoyed working together and relished the camp theatricality of the dialogue and in lampooning the Gothic melodramas of the past. By the end of shooting, there was a general feeling on set that the end product would be a lot of fun and prove popular with audiences.

Leaving Walker to editing and post production, Armstrong became embroiled in Cannon’s plans for publicity, part of which involved him writing and recording a series of jokey radio ads with Price and Lee.

Elaborate plans were now in progress for releasing the film. Head of Distribution, Trevor Green and the publicity department came up with the idea of a starry, camp 30’s style premiere to reflect the mood of the film. Craven, however, now overseeing the film’s publicity machine, as well as the film, opposed the concept, preferring the idea of a simple dignified press reception instead. Shortly afterwards, Green left and joined his brother to build one of Britain’s biggest current distributors, Entertainment.

As enthusiasm for a fun launch of the film waned and a more serious approach to its marketing was adopted, a similar sobriety seemed to be affecting the film during its post-production.

"Early in the cutting, Pete invited me into the editing suite to see his cut of the music scene and it was wonderful. Vinnie was very funny revelling in the moroseness of explaining the Grisbane’s doom-ridden destiny to an accompaniment of Sheila Keith’s wailing Verdi aria and the whole scene had a fabulous rhythm and stylish wit. Pete was so enthusiastic and clearly happy the way the film was turning out. I don’t know what happened between then and later, when I saw the scene in the finished film, it had been re-cut and a good half of the scene was missing - mostly Vinnie’s dialogue. There were other strange cuts and trims, too and a serious reduction of the comic pacing by dragging out Desi’s [Arnaz Jr] early scenes and those with Julie [Peasgood]. Someone told me it was Cannon’s attempt to tone down the film’s sense of humour and turn it into a more serious horror film. How true that was I really don’t know but somewhere along the way, I sensed Pete’s usually buoyant spirit had been eroded by something. I don’t know what. I don’t know why."

It was Pete Walker’s last film. Shortly afterwards he retired from the industry.

Armstrong’s disappointment at the cuts in the final film was matched by the reaction of the stars. Price, in particular, was so upset that his role had been reduced by the cuts - especially in the music room scene - that he denounced the picture openly and refused to aid in its promotion or have anything more to do with it.

"I got a panic call from Cannon just before the film was due to open, telling me Vinnie’s reaction and asking me if I could try and change his mind. Apparently he had refused to speak to anyone in the Cannon offices. He was staying at the Savoy in London because Coral [Price’s wife, the actress Coral Browne] was receiving specialist treatment for cancer here. I called him and tried to persuade him to talk to Cannon but he was adamant. He was so angry and so very upset because he’d loved doing the film and thought it was some of his best comedy work and then to see so much of his performance cut...but what could I say? I was totally in agreement with him and, as I pointed out - the cuts to his dialogue were equally the cuts to my dialogue. We were on the phone over an hour and a half. By the end, we were commiserating with each other. He never did speak to anyone at Cannon, although he and I continued to stay in touch right up until his death."

The film opened in London in 1983 at the Carlton Cinema in the Haymarket to mixed reviews and a disastrous box office. Cannon’s decision to sell it as a straightforward horror film had only resulted in confusing both the critics and audiences who, without having the benefit of knowing beforehand that it was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek lampoon of Gothic melodrama, mistook all the wit and pastiche jokes as an attempt at the real thing. Those critics, however, who did realise the film’s intent, raved - in particular over the screenplay and the stars. Similarly the film went on to win prizes for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actors (jointly for the four stars) at Avoriaz, Sitges, Paris and other genre festivals around the world.

Dismayed at the film’s London box office results, Armstrong persuaded Cannon to let him experiment with a different approach for the regions and sell the film as the comedy it was, rather than the horror film that it wasn’t.

To test this, the East Anglian release was launched with a specially organised gala night audience in Stowmarket being issued with souvenir programmes quoting only those reviews recognising the film as a comedy. The result was a packed house loving the film, laughing and applauding throughout. As Armstrong points out, "It was exactly the same audience reaction we’d seen at Avoriaz and in Paris where it had won the audience prize for Best Film at the Paris Film Festival."

Despite this evidence of audience reaction, it was too late to change anything. Cannon’s original marketing campaign remained and the film continued to fail at the UK box office. With a far more tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign the film fared better upon its American and international release, once more mainly garnering good reviews. Its excellent entry into the video market, however, was cut short by the collapse of Cannon. As part of the company’s product sell-off, the film was included in a package acquired by MGM and, along with so much of the Cannon product seems to have been lost in the archives.

It has yet to appear on DVD.

"The only problem with parody is that unless you know what is being parodied, you miss the joke and I think that’s where certain people missed out on the film. I encountered the same problem when we staged The Curse Of Tittikhamon. Hardly any of the theatre critics knew the films being parodied so they took everything at its face value and missed the point completely. It’s a pity because both Titti and House are so full of jokes for the movie buff - almost every single line of dialogue has a reference point to some movie or other - that I defy anyone to get them all in a single screening. Apart from the movie references, though, House Of The Long Shadows exists on several levels, which is why it really needs more than one viewing to appreciate it fully. It was also made with a great love for the films it so affectionately lampoons and as a swan song to the horror careers of the four. Just take a look at their dialogue to see what I mean. I firmly believe that when it does finally emerge on DVD, it will finally be recognised, not only as one of Pete’s best and most complex films, but a fitting tribute and elegy to a bygone era."

Copyright © 2005 Michael Armstrong