Tales of Terror *** (1962, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Debra Paget, Maggie Pierce, Leona Gage) – Classic Movie Review 2848

Vincent Price stars in three Edgar Allan Poe tales, retold by director Roger Corman in 1962 in his own stylish, baroque gothic horror way. Price also introduced all three sequences, which took just three weeks to film. It is the fourth in Corman’s cycle of eight films featuring adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories, released by American International Pictures.

Corman won his greatest acclaim with his eight movies based on the works of Poe, made mostly in collaboration with writer Richard Matheson, who here adapts Poe’s tales Morella, The Black Cat (which is combined with The Cask of Amontillado) and The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar. Corman also worked with set designer Daniel Haller and cinematographer Floyd Crosby on the series.

‘With Tales of Terror, we tried to do something a little different,’ Corman said. ‘The screenplay was actually a series of very frightening, dramatic sequences inspired by several of the Poe stories. To break things up, we tried introducing humour into one of them.’

In Morella, Price plays a Locke, necrophiliac hermit mourning the death of his now mummified wife Morella (Leona Gage), until his long-banished daughter Lenora (Maggie Pierce) returns to the fold. Corman reuses some sets and footage from the fiery climax of his House of Usher (1960) at the climax.

Casting call for black cats, 1961.

In the humorous tale The Black Cat, Price plays the world’s foremost wine taster, Fortunato Luchresi, a philanderer walled up in the wine cellar while still alive by vengeful husband Montresor Herringbone (Peter Lorre in a splendid, gleefully gruesome comic performance).

And in The Case of M Valdemar, Price plays Ernest Valdemar, a ghost who haunts Mr Carmichael (Basil Rathbone), the hypnotist who sent Valdemar’s soul into eternal limbo to be free to steal his wife Helene (Debra Paget). Matheson thought this the best: ‘It was pretty well done. It was pretty straight, except I added the doctor and Valdemar’s wife to the story. They acted it pretty well for a change.’ Price explained how the effect of slow decomposition was done: ‘We settled for an old-fashioned mud pack. It dries and draws the skin up and then cracks open.’

This is enjoyable horror fun, greatly enlivened by the three venerable old stars. Also in the cast are Joyce Jameson and David Frankham.

‘I was getting a bit tired of the Poe films by the time,’ says Corman, ‘but American International felt that I should continue. I was exhausted.’ However, he was still to direct four more Poe films.

Corman’s eight movies based on the works of Poe are: House of Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Premature Burial (1962), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). All but The Premature Burial star Vincent Price.

The film was released as a double feature with Panic in Year Zero! The story Morella was remade in the 1990s as The Haunting of Morella.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2848

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