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Released by: All Day Entertainment
Released on: 6/4/2002
Director: N/A
Cast: Vincent Price, David Del Valle
Year: 1987
The Movie:
In 1987, film historian David Del Valle self produced a pilot which he intended to use to get his TV show off the ground. The pilot was the only episode filmed, however, and the show, titled The Sinister Image, never took off.
All Day Entertainment has unearthed this hour long pilot episode, which features a fascinating and in depth interview with the one and only Vincent Price. Price and Del Valle speak at great length about Price's career, and not only his work for AIP and Roger Corman for which he is probably best known, but also about his work on stage, television and radio as well.
Price, the perfect gentleman here, maintains how important it is for those who might be typecast at times to always have a sense of humor about yourself and what you do. He relates anecdotes and stories about working with all the classic actors he was involved with throughout his career, from Peter Lorre to Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
The Sinister Image is an interesting and wonderful trip down memory lane for those of us who grew up on Prices's films, and Del Valle conducts the interview with a lot of respect and a genuine love for the material, which is nice to see.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Seeing as this was intended to be a TV show pilot, it's presented here in 1.33.1 full frame, which is it's original aspect ratio. The colors are a bit soft and the picture quality is a bit fuzzy, but this is a problem with the source material, not with All Day's presentation. Overall though, it's very watchable and you won't have any problems whatsoever viewing this
feature.
Well, the main feature is an old TV show and it doesn't really sound too spectacular, but it doesn't sound any worse than what you'll find if you turn your TV onto a Public Access channel right now. I'm sure All Day did what they could with it. It's never a problem understanding the dialogue, and the only problem really is some hiss, but it's definately there and I would suspect is inherent in the source material.
In addition to the main feature, this DVD contains a separate 40 minute audio interview between host David Del Valle and Vincent Price. There are also two TV programs highlighting Vincent Price's television career. The first one is 'A Half Hour to Kill: Freedom to Get Lost" from 1958 and the second one is "Shindig!: The Wild Weird World of Dr. Goldfoot" from 1965. Both of these run the standard TV show lenght of roughly 30 minutes each.
Also included is an episode of Escape entitled "The Three Skeleton Keys." Clocking in at just under 30 minutes, this is a great audio track from one of the many classic radio drama shows that Price was involved with in the 1950s.
Finally, there is also a massive photo gallery of over 200 stills from Del Valle's collection, many of them seen here for the first time, as well as liner notes detailing how the Sinster Image came to be and what it was like to know Vincent Price.
The Final Word:
The Sinister Image is a truly loving tribute to one of the all time screen greats and anyone even remotley interested in Price should add this to their collection.