The sinister style of Vincent Price

Vincent Price began his career on the Broadway stage and appeared on film in such classic film noirs as 1944’s “Laura” and comedies like 1950’s “Champagne for Caesar.” He was an erudite art collector and a gourmand.

But his legacy is far more primal -- Price is best known as the man who scared the daylights out of audiences in such horror films as “House on Haunted Hill” and “House of Wax.”

Michael Jackson used his menacing tones and cackling laugh on “Thriller,” and director Tim Burton paid homage to him in his animated short “Vincent” and by casting him in his final role, as the kindly inventor in 1990’s “Edward Scissorhands.”

The American Cinematheque -- at both the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and Aero Theatre in Santa Monica -- is presenting some of the late actor’s best chillers Friday through March 31.

“Tales of Terror: The Films of Vincent Price” kicks off Friday at the Egyptian with one of his best films, 1973’s “Theatre of Blood,” in which Price plays a Shakespearean actor who murders the critics who have panned his performances, and 1971’s “The Abominable Dr. Phibes,” which casts him as a disfigured madman who seeks revenge after the death of his wife.

The Aero Theatre opens its portion of the program Friday with 1962’s “Tales of Terror,” Roger Corman’s trio of Edgar Allan Poe stories, and Corman’s 1964 adaptation of Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” in which Price plays a sadistic prince during the plague.

Finding his niche

Film historian David Delvalle, a longtime friend of Price, says the actor didn’t mind being typecast in horror films.

“He wasn’t a snob,” says Delvalle, who has produced a DVD called “Vincent Price -- The Sinister Image,” which features a 1987 conversation with the actor.

“He was very grateful to have been typed. You don’t have any longevity in the business if you are too much of an actor. Whereas if you are something like Boris Karloff....

“I think all actors who worked in costume pictures and were trained on stage had a sense of camp and drama that invest performances in horror films with a certain kind of reality where there is no reality.”

This Saturday, Delvalle will introduce the screenings of two films Price made for director William Castle: 1959’s “The Tingler,” in which he plays yet another mad scientist, and 1959’s “House On Haunted Hill,” in which he stars as a humorously sadistic millionaire who invites five guests to earn $10,000 each if they spend the night in a haunted house.

“One of the things I am going to bring up is the fact that there are very few actors who would have taken a film like ‘The Tingler’ and made it anything other than ludicrous,” says Delvalle. “Peter Cushing had this ability. Christopher Lee has this ability. These weren’t actors you would put in westerns or put in movies that were set in contemporary times particularly. They just lent themselves to larger-than-life tableaux of Gothic castles and supernatural occurrences.

“I think that’s part of the charm of Vincent Price. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and ‘The Tingler’ and ‘House on Haunted Hill’ are very funny movies. I think it’s fascinating today that these films can’t be made. The remake of [‘House on Haunted Hill’] was just a disaster. I am glad Vincent didn’t live to see it.”

The actor, who died of lung cancer in 1993 at age 82, was a self-confessed workaholic. “He said to me on many occasions, ‘Sometimes I have accepted jobs perhaps that if I would have been a little more prudent I may have changed my mind. But I have to work.’ ”

Price, Delvalle says, was beloved on the sets. “I am here to tell you that this is a man who enjoyed living. He had a ball. I interviewed most of the directors he worked with in the ‘60s, and all of them, to a man, said, ‘Oh, when Vincent was on the set it was fun.’ There was time to have a laugh. He knew his craft. He knew his lines. If someone needed an upper hand in the scene, he was more than accommodating.”

Still, Delvalle explains, “for years and years no one took Vincent seriously because Vincent didn’t take himself seriously. Vincent is always there winking at the audience. So his performances have a kind of contemporary sense of irony that just doesn’t exist in a lot of actors’ careers.”

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‘Tales of Terror: The Films of Vincent Price’

Where: American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; and at the Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica.

When: Friday to March 31 at the Aero; Friday to March 30 at the Egyptian

Price: $6 to $9.

Contact: (323) 466-FILM or go to www.americancinematheque.com

Schedule

Egyptian Theatre

Friday: “Theatre of Blood” and “The Abominable Dr. Phibes,” 7:30 p.m.

Saturday: “The Tingler” and “House on Haunted Hill,” 5 p.m.; “Tales of Terror” and “Masque of the Red Death,” 8:30 p.m.

March 30: “Witchfinder General,” 7:30 p.m.

Aero Theatre

Friday: “Tales of Terror” and “Masque of the Red Death,” 7:30 p.m.

Saturday: “The Raven,” 5 p.m.; “Witchfinder General” and “The Oblong Box,” 7:30 p.m.

Next Sunday: “Theatre of Blood” and “The Abominable Dr. Phibes,” 5 p.m.

March 31: “The Tingler” and “House on Haunted Hill,” 7:30 p.m.