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Later that evening, as I was driving Vincent back to his house, which was up in the hills off Doheny Drive not far from my own, I asked him about his chat with Larry. It obviously had had an effect on him, as Vincent began talking about his older brother Mortimer. “You know, David, I have had more than my share of experiences with alcoholics, and Larry Tierney was one of the most notorious in this town during and after the war.”

I explained to Vincent how the guys on the film felt about Larry: he was kind of their mascot – I mean they worshipped this guy. Vincent then remarked “Well, first off I was shaken at how bad Larry looked. I mean he was such a handsome guy, and to see what the effects of years of drink and hard times can do to a person. It is encouraging to see young film makers like Jeff appreciate actors with a history like Tierney and help them get back to work. My brother Mortimer was a brilliant man and for the most part an honorable one, yet he had the same vice as Larry. Mortimer always had a glow about him and when I was younger I simply did not realize he was drinking, and he remained a drinker for the rest of his life, yet I loved him just as much drunk or sober, after all he was my brother.”

I had brought Martine in to play the pivotal role of Vincent’s niece, Katherine White, a mass murderer who puts the stories in motion; it is her execution that brings in Susan’s character and thus her visit to Vincent’s library in Oldfield, the town that has a reputation for breeding killers or, to quote Vincent’s dialogue,“The history of the town is written in blood on pages of human skin.” Martine was still a beautiful woman and made a great addition to the cast. Vincent just fell in love with her the first time they met. I drove her over to see the set and do some wardrobe tests for the dream sequence where she wears a white evening gown. Price was there and they posed for some group publicity stills with Rosalind Cash, Clu Gulager and Jeff Burr. This was the absolute best time on the shoot as everyone was so upbeat, and Vincent just enjoys people so much that he just radiated that day, and everyone loved him.

As the weekend rolled around I got a call from Jeff telling me that they still needed to do some pick-up shots of the front of Vincent’s house in the imaginary town of Oldfield, and that they’d found a perfect location near Santa Barbara in the small town of Carpentaria. He wanted me to pick up Susan Tyrrell and bring her to the location. This could well be an all-nighter. Jeff also decided to confide in me that SU SU was in AA and not to stop in any bars on the way. I was a little surprised at this, yet with all the drinking that had been going on at my pad with Mike, I should have expected it.

I called ahead to Tyrrell’s abode in Santa Monica to let her know I was on my way when a man answered the phone, kind of not with it at all. I found out later this was Susan’s latest boy toy and he was all of nineteen years old and very hung up on our Miss Susan. When I got to her front door she was still getting ready and also having a time keeping her guy from having her right on the spot. It is funny to me now, but then I must have looked like such a square as I tried not to notice that these two were in heat…

Finally she grabbed her tote bag and French kissed him goodbye for the umpteenth time, followed by kisses in the air as we make it to my car, which had my friend Alan White in the driver’s seat as I did not want to cope with this alone. Heading for the freeway, Susan surprised me yet again by telling Alan “Stop at the next 7-11 and pick up some beer.” I know I should have said something after Jeff mentioned AA, but since I was neither her sponsor nor her baby sitter, we stopped and got a 12-pack of Bud. Susan was a total blast, don’t get me wrong, and the ride to the location was a hoot. She brought her Aretha Franklin tapes so we played FREEWAY OF LOVE –(in a pink Cadillac) more than once before arriving at the mock-up for Julian White’s foreboding library . Jeff was not too pleased to see us all arrive with a heat on except for Alan. I foolishly thought the more of those 12 beers I drank, the less there would be for SU SU…well forget it. We were high and that was the name of that tune. Fortunately Jeff did not require any dialogue from her, so it worked out but somehow. I felt like I let him down a bit. I was determined to make up for my slip, so I worked on that location till daylight and got back in his good graces before returning my crazy leading lady to her sex-crazed boyfriend.

The last day of filming was particularly poignant for me personally as I had spent more quality time with Vincent than ever before. Also I could not help but notice that he was beginning to show his age, yet he was still Vincent Price. And his wife had not yet shown the symptoms of cancer that was to follow. So I could take some comfort in the knowledge that he might make some more films. His death scene in the film involved putting a rubber knife in his neck, and the afternoon this was done I remember they got blood on his shirt. When I drove him home that night he had that shirt in a plastic bag so Coral could soak it out. It struck me that what other wife would have blood to deal with instead of lipstick on the collar? Only the wife of Vincent Price

Jeff and the two producers bought him a large basket of goodies with wine wrapped in plastic with a card. They had placed it in his trailer as a gesture from a grateful crew. He came in a few minutes later to collect his things and then we were off.

A journalist from VARIETY had come out that morning as Otto Preminger had just died, and they wanted Price to comment since he was one of the surviving cast members from LAURA. While they were setting up someone asked him about how he felt working with a director like Jeff who was only 24 years old.

Vincent gave the reporter a glare and in his most imposing tones replied “I was directed by Orson Welles when he was 20. I think the fun is really being directed by young people, because the old ones get stuck unless they’re terribly good. Billy Wilder doesn’t get stuck, as well as a few others.” With that they brought up Orson, to which Vincent observed “Orson and I have discussed what an actor must do to survive. If you look at, say, Kate Hepburn, she is one of the very few women who still have a career as important as it was at the peak of her career. Look at Welles for a moment: no one had such potential, he was the greatest director I ever had. He could have been the greatest theater and film director in the history of the American stage or Cinema, yet HE BLEW IT…He did not have the discipline. I think it was a terrible frustration to him. He became fat, he became unhealthy, he became a caricature of himself, and he knew it. In my work I have perhaps fulfilled most of my potential, certainly more than Orson at this point. My wife Coral has brought me back into the theater and bless her for that, still all in all it has been a life well lived.”

I was preparing to take Vincent back home that night when he explained that he was being collected that evening to begin work on yet another film, DEAD HEAT, a horror comedy about zombies. He was amused that one of the leads, Joe Piscopo, the comic, was now a body builder as well, “So Joe won’t have to really act like a zombie, just play himself.” I then said goodbye, although we would still work together at least once more when he appeared on my Sinister Image pilot a few months later. When I got to my car I realized I had not even bothered to lock it all day. When I got in I noticed that sitting in the passenger seat was the basket of goodies that had been given to Vincent by the crew.
He had placed a note on top with this hand written note:

“David… you did super work on this film It was justly noted and much appreciated. Love Vincent.”

I drove out of the lumberyard and down to Pico where I turned right onto Beverly Hills like I had done all week with Vincent. I was driving along when all at once an overwhelming depression came over me … I began to cry as if I had just hurt someone with the car. It was only when I managed pulled over to compose myself that I fully realized that I was experiencing a profound sense of loss, not to mention dread, for what the future surely must hold for him, and how much this man had meant to me throughout my life, and always would.

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