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Movie of the Week :Saturday March 30, 2013 - MOVIE -"TALES OF TERROR" (1962). Starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone. Suggested by Ron Adams, Ligonier, PA. I watched both the movie of the week TALES OF TERROR and another Roger Corman AIP Price/Lorre/Rathbone film THE COMEDY OF TERRORS over the weekend. TALES OF TERROR is a trio of Edgar Allan Poe stories: MORELLA, THE BLACK CAT and THE CASE OF M. VALDEMIR. My daughter noted that THE BLACK CAT is really a combination of story elements from Poe's THE BLACK CAT and two other Poe stories. They all work well with MORELLA and VALDEMIR being the serious and the middle story (BLACK CAT) played as dark comedy. Price acts in all three. Lorre steals the show in THE BLACK CAT and Rathbone shows he still had the tuff in 1962 as he appears in VALDEMIR. A great compilations that spurred on many more AIP compilation films. -Ron Adams, Ligoner, PA
Ever since reading "The Tell Tale Heart" in 7th grade, have been a I feel Poe has never really been done justice on the screen as most
For me, the last story "The Facts in the case of M. Valdemar" is the So, with three stories by one of America's best writers and solid Steve Schimming
Peter Lorre (drunk) in TALES OF TERROR: "Whoooo dat, whooooo dat, whoooo dat knocking at da door? And dat's you Sam?" -Mke Adams, Cartaret, NJ
I think that "The Black Cat" episode is the single best thing that My son, Dalton, agrees -- He purchased the film long ago (when I And I think that Vincent Price must have been an excellent human being Phil Smoot, North Carolina
The third Roger Corman/Vincent Price/Richard Matheson/Edgar Allan Poe adaptation from AIP. And as usual, they get pretty creative while adapting. Before re-watching the main feature (as part of the MGM Scream Legends Vincent Price Box Set) I watched the trailer--it described the three stories in reverse order from the movie itself. Was the order changed before the movie was released? Vincent Price's opening narration for the first story asks, "what happens after death?" while the second story asks "what happens just before death?" and the third story asks "what happens at the moment of death?"
1. MORELLA Poe's short story of a woman who is reincarnated as her own daughter has been reworked into a ghost story with elements of "Ligeia". The reclusive Locke (Vincent Price) is visiting by his estranged, consumptive daughter Lenora (Maggie Pierce). They reconcile just before she dies, but the spirit of her dead mother (Leona Cage) takes over her corpse. This is the weakest story and the only episode to end with the usual (for this series) burning mansion. Incidentally, Maggie Pierce also appeared in an old sitcom I recently discovered on HULU called "My Mother the Car". I never seriously believed that any show with such an inane title ever existed...but there it is.
2. THE BLACK CAT The filmmakers turn to comedy with the next segment, a forerunner to THE RAVEN (1963). It's the longest episode, and tends to overshadow the other two. The script is actually a combination of "The Black Cat" and "The Cask of Amontillado" with a dash of "The Tell-Tale Heart." Peter Lorre plays alcoholic Monstresor Herringbone, who walls up his wife and her lover in the basement only to be haunted by either their ghosts or (more likely) his guilty conscience. His unhappy wife Anabelle is played by Joyce Jameson, an acceptable substitute for Hazel Court, and her boyfriend, wine connoisseur Fortunato Lucrechi, is again played by Vincent Price. That Montresor's alcoholism is played for laughs verges on being in poor taste, but Lorre's performance makes it work. There's a silly scene in which Montresor dreams that Fortunato and Annabelle are tossing his head around like a ball. Or is it meant to evoke Poe's story "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"? Vincent Price plays his character "over the top" and it says much for his versatility that he not only stars as three different characters but plays each one in a completely different style. The avenging cat of the title isn't given much to do (until the climax) and isn't even given a name. In the short story the black cat is named Pluto (for the god of the underworld, not the dwarf planet, which hadn't been discovered in Edgar Allan Poe's time). No doubt they didn't want the audience to think of Mickey Mouse's dog!
3. THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR Vincent is now Ernest Valdemar, a dying man married to the much younger Helene, played by the beautiful Debra Paget. I had forgotten until I saw "The Ten Commandments" (1956) again this weekend that they had worked together once before, and would again in "The Haunted Palace." Basil Rathbone takes on the Bela Lugosi/Lionel Atwill role of the sinister mesmerist with designs on Helene. He places Mr. Valdemar into a trance at the moment of death and refuses to release his spirit unless Helene marries him. But love is stronger than death...and Valdemar rises from his deathbed. Getting back into a scary mode after the humor of the previous story, it's slow going until the suitable gruesome climax. Kudos to Les Baxter (Composer) Floyd Crosby (Cinematographer) and Daniel Haller (Production Designer). Mark Ditoro Submit your thoughts on TALES OF TERROR by e-mailing: creepyclassics@creepyclassics.com.
Every weekend we're watching movies together...whether you're in Pennsylvania USA, or Sydney, Australia. It's a throwback! Back to the days when you had the anticipation for waiting till the weekend to see the classic horror or science fiction film that was listed in the TV Guide. The plan is to watch a movie at 7:30PM on Saturday night in your own time zone. Or, if you can't Saturday night...anytime during the weekend. Then, we'll all get together and e-mail our thoughts on the film...a few paragraphs...or simply a sentence if you'd like. After-viewing reviews appear first here on the "News Page" then, permanently on our Creepy Classics Movie Night Page. See the latest thoughts posted by viewers there now. Don't have the movie of the week? Order it right now from Creepy Classics for fast delivery! Suggest movies by e-mailing: creepyclassics@creepyclassics.com. Please just one movie at a time. Check the past viewings to see if it was already used.
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