"Tales of Terror" (1962) for some reason has always been my favorite of the Roger Corman directed Edgar Allan Poe movies starring Vincent Price. Why this is, I couldn't tell you. The three stories making up this movie are pretty slight, especially the opening "Morella" which is more about walking through a heavily cobwebbed set than anything else. The final story "The Case of M. Valdemar" is wicked, disturbing fun, with Basil Rathbone as an oily mesmerist who keeps Vincent Price's soul alive inside his dead body, with grisly results.
It's the middle story, "The Black Cat," which I think is solely responsible for my great love of this movie. Peter Lorre plays a dispicable, drunk. Vincent Price, in what may be his hammiest, scenery chewing role, plays a wine connosieur, who meets his match when Lorre challenges him to a wine taste off. Price then becomes involved with Lorre's mistreated wife, until Lorre catches on and carries out a revenge scheme. This is a humorous segment, never funnier than when Lorre and Price are together on screen, a chemistry that would carry over to the humorous "The Raven" (1963), the following year.
Don't miss it.
1 comment:
Thanks for the tip! I just watched "The Pit and the Pendulum" last night, and am in the mood for more. This sounds great, and I'm adding it to my Netflix queue.
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