The Price Of Fear was a BBC radio show hosted by Vincent Price. Each episode would feature a scary story, sometimes supernatural horror (though always set in the modern "real world", unlike many of his most famous films), other times a non-supernatural murder story. The episodes were generally adapted from existing short stories by a variety of authors, but for the first two seasons were rewritten to feature Vincent Price himself, sometimes as a witness to events and occasionally as the protagonist. The third season moved away from this idea, perhaps because it felt less plausible for a man in his 70s to be getting into these situations.
The first two seasons were broadcast in 1973 and 1974, and the third season in 1983. A novelisation was also published, featuring eight stories from the first two seasons, with introductions to each story written by Vincent Price.
The Price Of Fear contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: The father in "Guy Fawkes Night" is a very cruel example who goes so far as to kill his son's dog. Naturally he becomes an Asshole Victim.
- Alone with the Psycho: Several times, the episodes take the form of stories supposedly recounted to Vincent by people he met who were involved in the events. Invariably, these people turn out to be the killer, and Vincent finds himself alone with them and listening to their murder confession. Downplayed, as while Vincent is sometimes disturbed to realise he's talking to a murderer, they don't generally try to harm him (with one notable exception they're generally semi-sympathetic killers with AssholeVictims, and Vincent never calls the authorities on them.)
- Ambiguously Bi: The topic of bisexuality wasn't going to be discussed too blatantly on BBC radio in the early 1970s, but Vincent's narration can get quite appreciative in descriptions of both men and women, making the fictionalised version of himself he portrays come across as this (according to many who were close to him, he was bisexual in real life.) For instance, this description from "Meeting In Athens":Vincent: A very good-looking couple. She was a tall honey-blonde, and although she was wearing one of the shortest minidresses I'd ever seen, there was an air of elegance about her. He had dark hair, broad shoulders, and a muscular build, shown to advantage by the denim shorts and open-necked shirt which he wore.
- He also references how in 1933 he shared a flat in Baker Street with... "but that's another story." In real life, he shared the flat with a gay couple, was friends with several other queer men in London at the time, and according to letters later discovered by his daughter, was in a relationship with a man himself for a while around the same time (she did not confirm whether it was one of the men he shared a flat with).
- Anachronic Order: It's not always clear exactly when in Vincent's life each episode is supposed to take place, but they're definitely not all in order, and range from the early 50s through to the 70s. "Meeting In Athens" is a particularly odd case, as a character mentions having worked with Vincent on Theatre of Blood "four years ago", but the episode was released in the same year as the film (which did not take four years to make—it was filmed in 1972 and released in 1973), suggesting this story is set a few years in the future relative to when it was broadcast.
- Anomalous Art: The painting in "Lot 132", which causes one owner to murder his wife and children, and its next owner to attempt it, only being stopped by Vincent destroying the painting.
- As Himself: Vincent Price portrays a fictionalised version of himself—still an actor who has appeared in many of the same films (though fictional films are also sometimes mentioned where needed for the plot), with the broad strokes of his life story still present, and many of his real-life interests featuring in the plot, but also getting involved in clearly fictional events alongside fictional characters. (Character tropes referring to "Vincent" on this page refer to the characterisation of this fictionalised version.)
- Asshole Victim: Several. The lodger in "Blind Man's Bluff" who mocks and torments the blind man for months is a prime example: the blind man eventually sews his eyes shut and locks him in the cellar, leaving him to die in revenge for the mistreatment.
- Badass Bookworm: The emphasis is mostly on the "bookworm" part, but Vincent (who throughout the show is portrayed as a well-read, well-travelled art expert who makes semi-frequent literary references; in real life Vincent Price was known not only for his acting and art expertise but his ability to recite entire Poe stories word-for-word from memory) runs towards an Ax-Crazy possessed man in "Lot 132" and tears the hatchet out of his hands.
- The Bad Guy Wins: While Vincent himself is always relatively unscathed, there are several episodes where he only pieces together what happened long after it's too late to save any of the victims, and the killer is not stated to face any consequences (or the killer is a supernatural entity that is never truly defeated).
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Malcolm Rivers in "Cat's Cradle" throws a stone towards a kitten as part of his general Jerkass nature, though he doesn't intend to hit it and is horrified when the kitten is killed. Though Vincent's killing of the vengeful cat at the end of the episode is portrayed more as Shoot the Dog, as it's implied to have been after the whole group, and Vincent does feel bad about it.
- Similarly while Luigi in "An Eye For An Eye" isn't outright evil, more just arrogant and hedonistic, Vincent (his friend) and his wife both find his idea of eating a live octopus very disturbing, despite his insistence that it's no worse than eating live oysters (in real life octopi are considerably more intelligent, though Luigi is unaware of this and believes they don't feel pain.) He ends up being killed by a giant octopus in revenge.
- Big Damn Heroes: Vincent doesn't often get to do this, but "Lot 132" is one of the few stories where he does save the day. After tracking down the new owner of the possessed painting, he rushes to the man's house, knocks the poisoned drinks he was about to give his children out of his hands (pretending it was an accident)—and then when the man is about to attack his wife with a hatchet, Vincent throws himself in between them, grabs the hatchet himself, and uses it to destroy the painting, freeing the man from his possession.
- Blaming the Victim: Amelia in "The Ninth Removal" believes that women who wear revealing clothes are "asking" to be raped and even murdered—used to establish her as a truly deranged fundamentalist.
- Blind Seer: Downplayed, but the blind man in "Blind Man's Bluff" claims to have powers of perception that ordinary people lack, including heightened hearing and smell, and possibly even mind-reading. He does manage to predict what Vincent is thinking a few times.
- Big Fancy House: Occasionally featured, often in the English countryside. In "Come As You Are" Vincent goes to a party at a particularly grand one which turns out to be haunted.
- Brain in a Jar: Well, brain in a basin, in the episode "William and Mary" that adapts the Roald Dahl story of the same name. Vincent thinks it looks like a pickled walnut (in the original story, it is Mary who thinks this, but the adaptation changes it to Vincent's perspective.)
- Buried Alive: The Asshole Victim in "Blind Man's Bluff" is left trapped in a cellar to die.
- Campbell Country: As this is a BBC series (using mostly British actors with the exception of Vincent Price himself), and Vincent Price had spent quite a lot of time in the UK in real life, many episodes are set there. "Blind Man's Bluff" features a gruesome tale of revenge and murder taking place in quiet, rural Cornwall, while other episodes involve murders and hauntings in English country manor houses. However, there are also episodes that take place in many other parts of the world, including some (like Sydney, Paris, and Naples) not typically associated with horror.
- Celebrity Paradox: Vincent Price plays a fictionalised version of himself, who meets a very much fictional character played by his real-life friend Peter Cushing. In another episode, a character is played by his wife Coral Browne.
- Cool Old Guy: Vincent Price was in his early 60s at the time of the first two seasons, and 72 for the third season. The fictionalised version of him who is the protagonist of this show is portrayed as having encountered all kinds of murderers, mysteries, and supernatural occurences and lived to tell the tale (even solving mysteries or saving the day in a few episodes), and that's on top of his real life and career.
- Creepy Good: Downplayed, as Vincent isn't nearly as creepy as the things he encounters (which even he often finds quite disturbing), but his narration can often slip into either morbid humour or dramatically sinister monologuing, he calmly observes that a brain floating in a basin looks like a "pickled walnut", and his curiosity about strange and dark topics extends to suggesting a tour of a castle that was used as a torture chamber by the Inquisition as a fun way to pass the time for a couple on their honeymoon. He also ate human flesh and liked it, though in fairness he didn't know it at the time. Of course he's also a famous horror actor, as in real life.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: What the blind man eventually does to his tormentor in "Blind Man's Bluff": poisoned with carbon monoxide from a stove in his sleep to ensure he's unconscious but not dead, eyelids sewn shut, and left trapped in a cellar to die. Vincent is clearly disturbed by the story, and the introduction to this story in the novelisation says that the cruelty of this death made it the most disturbing episode of the show for Vincent Price in real life.
- Dead All Along: In "Come As You Are", the man Vincent was talking to eventually turns out to have been a ghost.
- Death of a Child: It's not common in this series, but it does happen in "Lot 132": the possessed man murders his children with poison, just like the man possessing him did centuries ago. Thankfully, Vincent is able to prevent the children of the painting's next owner from meeting the same fate, though it's a very close thing.
- Demonic Possession: The episode "Lot 132" features a painting of a murderer whose spirit possesses the painting's owners, causing them to commit similar crimes to his own.
- Eaten Alive: Luigi in "An Eye For An Eye" intends to do this with a live octopus, and gets attacked by a giant octopus which apparently did this to him in revenge, though it only ate his head.
- Everybody Smokes: Vincent smokes cigarettes in several episodes (as he did in real life) and cigars in at least one, as do many other characters, and William disapproving of his wife's smoking in "William and Mary" is used to make him seem like a cruel and controlling husband. The blind man in "Blind Man's Bluff" also doesn't smoke and expresses a dislike of it (perhaps because his sense of smell is described as being more acute than most people's), but still tells Vincent to go ahead and smoke in the same train carriage. In "Speciality of the House", Vincent is even shocked when smoking isn't allowed in a restaurant.
- Evil Smells Bad: Vincent is apparently able to smell the evil of the painting in "Lot 132", though while other characters find it unnerving no-one else specifically describes a smell. In other episodes Vincent generally just talks about being able to sense evil without specifying if this is also by smell or by other means.
- Eye Scream: In "An Eye For An Eye", Luigi cuts out the eye of a live octopus, and his eye is torn out by the giant octopus that attacks him later on. In "Blind Man's Bluff", the blind man sews his tormentor's eyes shut in revenge.
- Fake Aristocrat: Luigi in "An Eye For An Eye" insists he is a count. His friends all know that this claim is dubious, and generally treat it as an amusing quirk of his.
- Femme Fatale: Jane in "Fish" is a subversion—Vincent initially describes her in these terms, as she ran off with the director of the film they were working on shortly after he first met her and clearly didn't stay with him for long, but it's one of the few episodes in which he totally misjudges someone. Rather than being an evil seducer, it seems she is trying to escape her controlling husband, and the reason her affairs never last long is that her husband murders the men.
- Fingore: In "Soul Music", when Vincent sees the photographs of David's hands after his death, he is horrified to see that every joint in them is cracked.
- The Fundamentalist: Amelia in "The Ninth Removal", to a homicidal degree.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: Vincent is an art expert frequently consulted by other characters for his artistic knowledge. He references literature frequently, enjoys classical music concerts, and his narration style is quite eloquent. He's also almost always kind and polite to the other characters, and is well-liked by a large number of friends (many of whom are artists, musicians, or writers—along with a fair number of them being rich and upper class).
- Gentleman Snarker: Vincent's narration often has its snarky moments, but never in a cruel way, and he's generally very polite to the other characters.
- Ghost Story: Surprisingly rare, but "Come As You Are" does turn out to be this.
- Giant Squid: A giant octopus features towards the end of "An Eye For An Eye".
- Horror Host: Vincent Price introduces a different horror or mystery story in each episode. A rather unusual example as he's more involved in the plot than most other horror hosts, often as a witness and sometimes as a protagonist; while mostly relatively stoic with moments of dark humour, more like Rod Serling than the Crypt Keeper in tone, there are also moments where he's genuinely scared by the events he witnesses.
- Human Resources: "Meeting In Athens" features the black-market sale of human blood. The victims believe they'll just be donating a small amount, but are then drained of blood entirely.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: The majority of episodes do not feature supernatural threats and focus on human killers, and even some of the supernatural threats are of human origin (such as the spirit of murderer possessing a portrait). In the first episode, Vincent's narration explicitly states that things that can happen in real life are often far scarier than anything in his obviously unreal films.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In "Speciality of the House", the titular special at the restaurant Spiro's turns out to be...people. The regulars are unaware that they're eating people but Spiro himself is of course a murderous cannibal. Not to mention that Vincent seems to ''miss' the taste of "Lamb Amistan" as he recounts the story, despite knowing what it is...
- I Need a Freaking Drink: This is sometimes Vincent's reaction to particularly disturbing events he encounters (he tends to phrase it out loud as asking if anyone else would like a drink, but his narration makes his motivations pretty clear.)
- I See Dead People: In "Come As You Are", Vincent appears to be the only person who can see the ghost.
- It Can Think: Luigi in "An Eye For An Eye" insists that the octopus he intends to eat alive can't even feel pain, let alone think. His wife isn't so sure. As it turns out, the giant octopus that appears later in the episode can not only think, but carry out revenge against Luigi.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Vincent Price's real-life friend and occasional costar in various films, Peter Cushing, appears in one episode. Coral Browne, his wife who also appeared with him in Theatre of Blood, appears in another episode (and her character actually is an old friend of Vincent's).
- Mr. Vice Guy: Vincent is a heavy smoker to the point of being shocked by the idea of not being allowed to smoke in a restaurant, likes to drink (though not to alcoholism levels), and generally has a somewhat hedonistic streak—rather than deliberately setting out to be any kind of hero, the plot tends to happen to him while his only initial goal was travelling around meeting up with friends and enjoying good food and wine. He also has several moments of Eating the Eye Candy with both women and the occasional man. That being said, he is also always portrayed as gentlemanly and kind, is well-liked by the other characters, and has several moments of selflessly risking his life for people (even strangers).
- This somewhat hedonistic side of him, specifically in relation to food, takes a darker turn in "Speciality of the House" where he unknowingly eats human meat, likes it, and repeatedly comes back to the restaurant for more...and even after figuring out the truth appears to somewhat miss the taste. The ending has him say he's "never yet dared to attempt" to cook it himself...if his characterisation in other episodes is anything to go by he's unlikely to do so, as he's never otherwise portrayed as willing to harm people, but it's rather disturbing that he sounds almost tempted.
- My God, What Have I Done?: "Lot 132" , one of the earliest-set stories, involves Vincent unknowingly selling a cursed painting to a friend of his, causing the man to become possessed by the subject of the painting and murder his wife and children. Vincent is horrified when he discovers this (and sees the scene of the crime), and clearly blames himself. Vincent Price's performance in this episode sounds genuinely traumatised without the humourous approach taken in many of the other stories.
- Mundane Horror: Vincent's opening narration in the first episode discusses this trope, saying that the events that could happen in real life are far scarier than the obviously unreal movies he's appeared in. All episodes are in a contemporary setting featuring mostly ordinary people, and many have no supernatural elements at all, just human killers with human motivations, though there are exceptions.
- Night Swim Equals Death: In "The Man Who Hated Scenes", it certainly does when the killer has drained the water out of the pool before his targets dive in.
- No Sense of Direction: In "Come As You Are", Vincent finds himself driving around the countryside in circles for a long time trying to find the house where the party he's been invited to is being held. (In real life, Vincent Price was unable to read maps, and by the time his daughter was eight she was doing it for him.)"Put to the test, Charles's 'simple' set of directions might well have been comprehensible to a five-year-old child, but, not having one of them with me in the passenger seat, I spent hours exploring the same piece of countryside in ever-decreasing circles."
- Obliviously Evil: Amelia in "The Ninth Removal" genuinely thinks that murdering "sinful" women is good Christian behaviour.
- Organ Autonomy: In "Soul Music", a violinist's hands take on a life of their own, apparently resenting that his marriage is taking his focus away from music. They cause him to play badly in front of audiences, and then to attack his wife. It ends in his death.
- Patricide: A boy kills his abusive father in "Guy Fawkes Night".
- Sanity Slippage: Amelia undergoes a serious one in "The Ninth Removal", and she was The Fundamentalist to begin with.
- Scare Chord: Each episode starts and ends with one, and sometimes there are more.
- The Secret of Long Pork Pies: The episode "Speciality of the House" has Vincent visiting a restaurant that serves the mysterious Lamb Amistan, which when he tries it turns out to taste amazing. When his friend is never seen again after being given a "tour" of the kitchen, Vincent remembers other mysterious disappearances of regulars at the restaurant, puts the clues together and realises that he was in fact eating human flesh. Rather disturbingly, he still sounds very enthusiastic about the food, even describing it in hindsight and knowing what it really was—and at the end of the episode says that he's "never yet dared to attempt" to cook it himself.
- Serial Killer: Several. The episode "The Waxwork" deals with a disturbingly lifelike waxwork one in the Chamber of Horrors, and the possibility of it coming to life. Meanwhile in "Fish", Jane's husband has murdered several men for showing an interest in her, and used the bodies as shark bait.
- The Brigadier in "The Ninth Removal" is also one who murders "sinful" women for such minor things as wearing revealing clothes.
- Significant Anagram: Lamb Amistan (note that there is no such country). Anagram of "it's a man".
- Spider-Sense: Downplayed. In nearly every episode, Vincent at some point senses that something is wrong, or someone or something is dangerous, etc., at least once talking about being able to ''smell'' evil. Other characters almost never sense anything similar. However, its usefulness is limited, as half the time Vincent dismisses it as probably nothing; on the occasions when he doesn't and tries to warn the other characters, they tend to dismiss it as probably nothing.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: The killers are often quite unassuming people, "The Man Who Hated Scenes" being a prime example with the titular shy and nervous man committing a coldly premeditated murder.
- Third-Person Person: Luigi, as part of his general arrogance.
- Think Nothing of It: Vincent sometimes does this when he actually manages to help someone. Then again, considering how rare that is, it's not surprising if he doesn't see himself as much of a hero...
- Weirdness Magnet: Vincent. Wherever he goes he seems to encounter some mystery or supernatural occurence. Even when he's not encountering such things directly, he tends to meet people with strange and often sinister stories to tell him (and these strangers have an odd tendency to tell their stories to him in great detail, including on several occasions confessing to murder... which is apparently not far off what would happen to him in real life).
