Blu-ray

Behind all of the poetic language, William Shakespeare clearly had a bit of a sadistic streak. Almost all of his plays feature brutal murders and other transgressive acts of violence – something this wickedly funny 1973 black comedy celebrates with its tale of a hammy actor taking his revenge on the theatre critics who belittled him, murdering them using methods lifted directly from The Bard's plays.

As inventively grisly and wittily literate as the film is, it would all be for nought if not for Vincent Price's stupendous turn as the murderous Edward Lionheart. The actor clearly relished the chance to get away from the B-movie dialogue he was usually given, instead reciting whole passages from Shakespeare's works. Surrounding Price is an equally adept supporting cast including Diana Rigg, Ian Hendry, Robert Morely, Arthur Lowe and Eric Sykes, who seem just as happy to join in the fun – no matter how icky it gets (poodle pie anyone?).

Picture: The Blu-ray's restored AVC 1.66:1 1080p encode is taken from a HD master supplied by MGM, transferred from a new 35mm interpositive. It's not the most polished hi-def encode you'll ever see, but image fidelity is generally good and print damage is thankfully kept to a minimum.

Indeed, the most obvious flaws in the image, such as fluctuations in sharpness and density, appear to relate to the source material. And there are no technical issues with the disc encode itself.
Picture rating: 4/5

Audio: The LPCM 2.0 dual-mono mix was made from the restored mono optical soundtrack negative and is as good as you could expect given its heritage. Dialogue, music and Foley effects all offer reasonable dynamic range and serve the movie perfectly well – just don't go in with any unreasonable expectations of sonic perfection and you'll enjoy it just fine.
Audio rating: 3.5/5

Extras: The members of comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen provide a fun chat-track that doesn't necessarily tell you as much about the making of the film as it does about their love for it. Also included are lengthy interviews with Vincent Price's daughter Victoria, film historian David Del Vale, actress Madeline Smith and composer Michael J. Lewis.
Extras rating: 3/5

We say: A fine hi-def outing for this much-loved British horror comedy. Encore! Encore!

Theatre of Blood, Arrow Video, Region B BD & R2 DVD, £23 Approx
HCC VERDICT: 4/5