The Oblong Box

The Oblong Box is one of those Poe films attempting to model after Corman’s series with Price, and I must say that, despite the rather lukewarm reception, I rather liked it. It has a diabolical plot and there isn’t one single character to speak of who isn’t morally dubious. Price is one of two brothers with a family ancestry that exploited rich resources of Africa through the laborious mistreatment of those who live there, eventually receiving karma’s payback for their misdeeds. Price is in love with a woman who seems out of reach (she adores him) due to his troublesome brother, quite mad with a face that was rendered unpleasant thanks to the film’s opening tribal ceremony…a curse that would leave him as ugly externally as he was internally. Price isn’t beyond the understanding of his exploitation of the African people that he steals precious resources from, admitting this to his family’s lawyer, Trench (Peter Arne). Trench is slime. He has been skimming from the profits of the family Markham, doctoring documents and pocketing moneys he thought would go unnoticed. However, Price’s Julian Markham learns of his forgery and thievery and (as he exploits the Africans) exploits Trench’s crimes to find a body that would substitute for the corpse of Edward, his brother, so that it would be presented to those who would attend his bedside before burial. Edward, though, hadn’t died, but he administered a drug thanks to a witchdoctor named N’Galo (Harry Baird), hired by Trench to make it look like he had passed. This whole plan was orchestrated by Edward and Trench so he could escape a room keeping him imprisoned by Julian. When he’s placed in the casket (the oblong box of the title) and buried, Trench and company (including an assistant played by Carl Rigg) decide to let him stay there. So when Edward is able to free himself, there’s hell to pay. Pretty much every character, especially Julian who is actually responsible for the crime that the tribe punished Edward for (!), is a scum of the earth. Few have even the most remote redeeming quality. Edward may have been wronged by most of those that were supposed to be in support of him, but Julian understood why this had happened to his brother and was far beyond displeased that he no longer had to deal with him. Marrying a pretty younger woman, and ridding himself of the nuisance of a brother that was placed in his care due to his own crime, Julian seemed to have removed any repercussion of his past sins. Trench and N’Galo, among others, will suffer for their involvement with both Julian and Edward. 

What I liked was that ultimately Julian doesn’t escape the curse his brother endured, but he would get a taste of what Edward was punished with. I thought Gordon Hessler did well to invoke the atmosphere of yesteryear in London and a degree of decadence and moral decay is always noticeable in almost every scene. Few scenes show any of the characters not out to satisfy their own avarice or desires. Even Christopher Lee, a scientist who commissions body snatchers to provide him corpses for experimentation and study, is corrupt to a certain extent. He is provided the oblong box which houses Edward’s still-living body! So Lee is dragged into the plot and suffers as a result. 

Edward becomes the “killer with the crimson hood”, threatening to expose Lee’s Dr. Neuhartt if he doesn’t provide him with shelter. People unrelated to Edward’s premature burial often fall to him if they spurn him. That past event in Africa pollutes almost all that come in intimate contact with Edward. I think that is the whole point of the film. A curse harms more than just Edward; all who spurn his wrath fall to him…he doesn’t escape from his sins, either, though.