Production
Price, Davies and Dwyer had recently appeared in Witchfinder General, under the direction of Michael Reeves, and on November 18, 1968, the four also began work on the Oblong Box. The original script had the Markham brothers as twins, both played by Vincent Price. However, Reeves died during pre-production, so Hessler stepped in and made a number of substantial changes. With the help of Christopher Wicking, he reworked the screenplay to incorporate the theme of imperial exploitation of native peoples in Africa. This theme gave the film a "pro-black" appearance that would later cause it to be banned in Texas.
The leading role of the film was given to character actor Alister Williamson, his first. Although he has the largest amount of screen time, more than either Price or Lee, his real voice is never heard (it was redubbed by another actor) and his face is covered for the majority of the film. His makeup was done by Jimmy Evans, whose other credits include Hessler's Scream and Scream Again (1970) and Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1972).
Read more about this topic: The Oblong Box (film)
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