Tales of Terror (1962)

 Yes, there was a time when Roger Corman did not churn out low budget fare at an alarming rate. The best example of this is when he decided to bring several Edgar Allan Poe stories to life on the big screen, with a pretty extensive budget. It always shows: the sets are opulent, the colours vibrant and the stories fun and entertaining. Also a pretty nifty way to get people invested in Poe's tales, by the way. 

Here we have an anthology-film, containing three tales, all with the inimitable Vincent Price in a major role, because of course. The only shame is they kick off with the weakest one of the three, being 'Morella'. Here, a young girl returns home to her father after roughly 20 years of being away, because her father blamed her for the death of his wife. Now it turns out the girl is also dying and she wants to try and reconcile with her father. The house is dilapidated and dusty, and it turns out the father still has the mummified corpse of the mother lying in a bed. 

Yes, of course these tales are bizarre. It's Poe, what did you expect?

Through some sort of mysterious magic, the soul of the mother (Morella) now wants to take revenge on both the daughter and father, and she will succeed. But why is this the lesser of the tales? Well, Vincent Price doesn't have a lot to do except look exhausted and bug-eyed, and it's just not the most enthralling of tales. 

The second one works a lot better and has a cool mix of humour and horror, as it is the tale of the black cat. Peter Lorre plays an absolute douche of a man, who is constantly drunk and mentally abuses his wife and takes all her money. Why she hasn't left him, no one knows, but things change up when he introduces her to Fortunato Luchresi, every inch the gentleman. Naturally, she and Lucresi fall in love, but this is something Montresor (Lorre) cannot tolerate. So he kills them both, but he is eventually undone by her cat, who he has also walled in with the bodies. This is great stuff, if only to see Lorre and Price work off each other.

They did save the best for last, though. In 'The Mysterious Case of Mr. Valdemar', an elderly dying man seeks the help of a hypnotist to ease his suffering on his deathbed. He doesn't realize the sinister hypnotist has his sights on the beautiful (and much younger) wife and refuses to let Valdemar die, so Valdemar is now stuck in limbo, unable to pass on. Things come to a gruesome finale that is pretty gory for the time, but also a brilliant way to end the tale where the evil hypnotist (Basil Rathbone in a truly disturbing role) gets his comeuppance. 

For today's standards, the horror does seem a little tame, but these stories are more about atmosphere than anything else, and those with a penchant for Mr. Poe's writings will have a blast, especially as everything is being portrayed in the correct timeperiod. It's not as much fun as the silly 'The Raven', but it looks gorgeous and the actors are clearly having a ball. Besides, what excuse would you need to enjoy the wonderful Vincent Price, doing what he does best? 

I thought so.