Cry of the Banshee

Cry of the Banshee
Theatrical release poster.
Directed byGordon Hessler
Written byTim Kelly
Christopher Wicking (screenplay)
Based onstory by Tim Kelly
Produced byLouis M. Heyward
Executive
Samuel Z. Arkoff
James H. Nicholson
Gordon Hessler
StarringVincent Price
Elisabeth Bergner
Essy Persson
Hugh Griffith
Patrick Mower
Hilary Dwyer
Sally Geeson
CinematographyJohn Coquillon
Edited byOswald Hafenrichter
Music byLes Baxter (U.S theatrical version)
Wilfred Josephs (uncut version)
Distributed byAmerican International Pictures
Release date
  • 22 July 1970 (1970-07-22) (U.S. release)
Running time
87 minutes (U.S theatrical version)
91 minutes (director's cut)
CountriesUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$450,000-$500,000 (est.)[1]
Box office$1,306,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[2][3]

Cry of the Banshee is a 1970 horror film directed by Gordon Hessler and starring Vincent Price.[4][5] It was released by American International Pictures. It was written by Tim Kelly and Christopher Wicking. Despite the tagline reading "EDGAR ALLAN POE probes new depths of TERROR!" the film is completely unrelated to Poe's work, apart from quoting five lines of his 1849 poem The Bells before the opening credits.[6][7]

The title credit sequence was animated by Terry Gilliam.

  1. ^ Tom Weaver, "Gordon Hessler", Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews 2000 McFarland, p 148
  2. ^ "Big Rental Films of 1970", Variety, 6 January 1971 p 11
  3. ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 301. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  4. ^ "Cry of the Banshee". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  5. ^ "Cry of the Banshee". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  6. ^ Newman, Kim (July 9, 1999). "Poe's eternal life". The Guardian. London: Guardian Media Group. Retrieved November 13, 2024. It is still possible to write Poe's name into a movie title like a possessory credit, even in the case of films he had nothing to do with (such as Edgar Allan Poe's Cry of the Banshee)
  7. ^ Fuller, Peter (July 23, 2015). "CRY OF THE BANSHEE 1970: 15 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW". spookyisles.com. Retrieved November 13, 2024. Apart from some a spurious salute to the author's poem, The Bells, in Cry of the Banshee's pre-credit sequence, there's no reference to Poe.