Main Cast: Vincent Price, Elisabeth Bergner, Essy Persson, Hugh Griffith, Patrick Mower
Release Year: 1970
Country: UK
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The inimitable Vincent Price puts an interesting spin on this otherwise pedestrian witch-hunt exercise -- a rehashing of Witchfinder General (aka The Conqueror Worm) and several of Roger Corman's numerous Poe variations from the previous decade. Here Price plays Edward Whitman, a corrupt, sadistic magistrate in 16th-century Ireland who puts a quick and deadly stop to the activities of a local Druidic coven... but not before the sect's leader Oona (Elisabeth Bergner) puts a curse on him and the Whitman family line, calling up a vengeful spirit known as a "sidhee" which takes flesh in the form of an otherwise mild-mannered stable boy (Patrick Mower). As swift and violent retribution works its way through the Whitman family, so does this film snowball toward its bizarre and muddled conclusion -- made all the more confounding by rather choppy editing. Just like Conqueror Worm and half a dozen others, this was fallaciously marketed by distributor American International Pictures as yet another adaptation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe -- as if AIP hadn't kicked Poe's corpse around enough in the '60s. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Review
Cry Of The Banshee has a reputation amongst classic horror fans as being little more than a ripoff of The Witchfinder General. That judgement is rough but fair, as Cry Of The Banshee basically recycles Price's villainous witchfinder character from that film in a new setting with a few extra trappings (namely, a vengeful witch and the title creature) thrown in for added spice. As a horror film, its kind of silly: the characters are all overheated clichés, the witch's ceremonies are more likely to inspire giggles than shivers and the Banshee is pretty unconvincing bit of monster makeup (it is wisely kept off-camera as much as possible). However, Cry Of The Banshee is quite entertaining as a sleazy campfest: Price has a blast hamming it up, the script delivers some bit of salaciousness or brutality every few minutes and Hessler directs the proceedings with more vigor than they probably deserve. John Coquillon's photography is quite lovely and Terry Gilliam's animated titles get things off to a suitably campy start. In short, Cry Of The Banshee might be trash but its agreeable, energetic trash. Fans of vintage b-movie sleaze could do lots worse. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Hilary Dwyer - Maureen; Carl Rigg - Harry; Stephen Chase - Sean Whitman; Marshall Jones - Father Tom; Andrew McCullouch - Bully Boy; Michael Elphick - Burke; Pamela Fairbrother - Margaret Donald; Quinn O'Hara - Witch Girl; Janet Rossini - Wench; Godfrey James - Rider; Terry Martin - Brander; Richard Everett - Timothy; Sally Geeson - Sarah; Robert Hutton - Guest; Mickey Baker - Rider; Peter Benson - Brander; Guy Deghy - Party Guest; Gertan Klauber - Landlord; Stephen Rea - Villager; Tony Sibbald; Dinah Stabb; Guy Pierce; Nancy Meckler; Maurice Colbourne
Credit
George Provis - Art Director, Ariel Levy - First Assistant Director, Gordon Hessler - Director, Oswald Hafenrichter - Editor, Les Baxter - Composer (Music Score), Al Simms - Musical Direction/Supervision, Tom Smith - Makeup, John Coquillon - Cinematographer, Gordon Hessler - Producer, Louis M. Heyward - Producer, Scott Slimon - Set Designer, Christopher Wicking - Screenwriter, Tim Kelly - Screenwriter
The film is set in Elizabethan England and revolves around a wicked lord that tries to kill all the members of a coven of witches. This makes the leader of the coven, Oona, sworn enemies of the lord and his family. To get revenge Oona calls up a magical servant, "banshee", to destroy the lord's family.
Trivia
The film was played at the first Quentin Tarantino Film Festival in 1997 at the Dobie residence hall near the University of Texas.
