Tales of Terror (1962)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Roger Corman

Writers:

Edgar Allan Poe (stories) and
Richard Matheson (writer)

Release Date:

23 February 1963 (Denmark)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

A Trilogy of Shock and Horror!

Plot:

Three tales of terror involve a grieving widower and the daughter he abandoned; a drunkard and his wife's black cat; and a hypnotist who prolongs the moment of a man's death.

Plot Keywords:

Death | Wife | Daughter | Dying | Hypnotist

Cast

Vincent Price	...	Locke / Fortunato / Valdemar
Maggie Pierce	...	Lenora (segment "Morella")
Leona Gage	...	Morella (segment "Morella")
Peter Lorre	...	Montresor (segment "The Black Cat")
Joyce Jameson	...	Annabel (segment "The Black Cat")
Basil Rathbone	...	Carmichael (segment "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar")
Debra Paget	...	Helene (segment "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar")
David Frankham	...	Dr. James (segment "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar")
Lennie Weinrib	...	Policeman (segment "The Black Cat")
Wally Campo	...	Barman Wilkins (segment "The Black Cat")
Alan DeWitt	...	Chairman of Wine Society (segment "The Black Cat") (as Alan DeWit)
John Hackett	...	Policeman (segment "The Black Cat")
Edmund Cobb	...	Driver (segment "Morella")
Scott Brown

Also Known As:

Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Terror (USA)
Poe's Tales of Terror

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathé Colour)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #20234) | USA:Unrated (video release) | UK:15 (video rating) (1993) | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | Argentina:13 | Sweden:15 | Australia:M

Company:

Alta Vista Productions

Trivia:

For the story "The Black Cat", Vincent Price based his character of Fortunado on Ernie Kovacs's television character Percy Dovetonsils.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Driver: Ma'am, I have to get back to Boston.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Morgan Stewart's Coming Home (1987)

Pretty good

Another of the Roger Corman/Vincent Price films based VERY loosely on three Edgar Allan Poe tales.

The first is "Morella" where a dying girl comes to visit her father (Price) and find out why he abandoned her as a child. It has to do with her mother (Morella) and her death. Well-done but it doesn't make a lot of sense.

"The Black Cat" is about a man (Peter Lorre) finding out his wife is cheating on him with someone else (Price). It's pretty good but Lorre's acting turns it into a comedy more than a horror story.

"The Case of M. Valdemar" has an evil mesmerist (Basil Rathbone) keeping a man's spirit alive while his body wastes away. Well-done with a pretty gruesome ending.

Basically this a good anthology of horror stories. They're well-produced, well-acted and written. Just don't expect them to be anything like the Poe tales (especially "Morella"). GREAT liberties have been taken with the stories--they just use them as a starting point and build on it.

Also try to see it letter-boxed--the pan and scan TV version is pretty terrible.

I give it a 7.