Quartet Records, in collaboration with MGM, presents a remastered 50th anniversary edition of Michael J. Lewis’ score for the 1973 cult classic Theatre Of Blood, directed by Douglas Hickox and starring Vincent Price and Diana Rigg, with guest victims Ian Hendry, Harry Andrews, Robert Morley, Michael Hordern and Jack Hawkins, among others. The film is a macabre British black comedy about a Shakespearean actor who is systematically humiliated by critics who consider him hammy and old-fashioned. The actor becomes a serial killer and murders every critic by emulating the sadistic crimes in Shakespeare’s plays.

Michael J. Lewis (Sphinx, The Madwoman Of Chaillot, The Naked Face, The Medusa Touch) composed a delightful score, with a catchy, charming main theme that is opposed to the brutality of the story. Contrasting strains of old-fashioned lyricism and modern soundscapes frame a score of great stylistic diversity.

Even though Theatre Of Blood was a success—and has become even more widely admired over the last half-century—no commercial album of the full soundtrack existed until 2010, when the score made its debut on La-La Land Records. The program has now been freshly remastered and slightly re-sequenced in film order for this Quartet fiftieth anniversary edition, produced and mastered by Chris Malone from new transfers in high resolution of the original master tapes. The package includes a 16-page booklet with detailed liner notes by John Takis, including a new interview with Maestro Michael J. Lewis.