the Edgar Allan Poe films-Part II

This is the second half of my look at the film series that I think is Roger Corman's crowning achievement.

Roger Corman kept his Edgar Allan Poe series going strong with four additional films in the series. The Raven (1963)

The fifth entry in the series took on a more flamboyant, lighthearted tone. The title bird pays a visit to a grieving widowed sorcerer named Dr. Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price). Craven helps whip up a potion that restores the raven to its original human form, a wizard named Bedlo (Peter Lorre), who explains that he was turned into a raven by another sorcerer named Scarabus (Boris Karloff). Craven agrees to help Bedlo confront Scarabus when Bedlo reveals he saw the spirit of Craven’s late wife Lenore (Hazel Court) at his castle. They’re joined by Craven’s daughter Estelle (Olive Sturgess) and Bedlo’s son Rexford (Jack Nicholson). Not long after they arrive, Scarabus kills Bedlo, although the latter reveals to Rexford that this was all a ruse and he’s simply hiding in his raven form. Craven, on the other hand, is anguished to realize that his wife faked her death to run off with Scarabus. He also is forced surrender his magical powers in order to stop Scarabus from torturing Estelle. This leads to Craven and Scarabus having a duel of magic. This results in the castle getting burned to the ground. Everyone manages to escape, although Scarabus loses his powers and Craven rejects Lenore’s attempts at making amends. The film ends with a quote from the famous Poe poem of the same name, when Craven refuses to turn Bedlo back into a human, saying, “Quoth the raven… nevermore!” The actors reportedly improvised many of their lines, although it took some time for Karloff to adapt to this method, as he was known for being well-prepared when he was on the job. The duel between Price and Karloff is certainly a highlight, although the latter’s health issues made the moments where he was supposed to be floating in the air difficult. It’s also fun to see Nicholson years before Easy Rider made him a star, although he and Lorre reportedly butted heads during filming. A sidenote: The Raven finished filming a couple of days ahead of schedule, so Corman used that remaining time to whip up his infamous quickie The Terror, which starred Karloff and Nicholson. Unlike the Poe films, The Terror more accurately reflects the reputation for cheapness Corman received in some quarters, although it quickly became a drive-in and late-night TV staple. The Haunted Palace (1963)

While there is indeed a Poe poem entitled “The Haunted Palace,” this movie actually owes more of a debt to the H.P. Lovecraft book The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, although portions of Poe’s poem are quoted in the movie. This film begins with Joseph Curwen (Price) being discovered as a warlock by the people of 1765 Arkham, Massachusetts and subsequently burned at the stake. His final words are a promise to get revenge on his executioners and their descendants. Jump to 1875 when Curwen’s great-great-grandson, Charles Dexter Ward (also Price) arrives in Arkham with his wife Anne (Debra Paget). They reveal to the hostile townspeople that they’ve inherited Curwen’s palace. Despite pleas from the town doctor Willet (Frank Maxwell), the couple go to the palace. Ward gets a feeling of deja vu as the palace seems familiar to him. He also notes the portrait of his ancestor along with the strong family resemblance. They also meet Simon (Lon Chaney, Jr.), the palace’s caretaker, who all but insists they make themselves at home. As Anne begins to note changes in her husband’s personality, Willet informs the couple of Curwen’s death and a book he possessed called the Necronomicon. Curwen used the spells in the book to create a race of super-humans by mating mortal women with elder gods. The doctor also states that Curwen’s attempts to do so led to many of the populace being deformed. Not surprisingly, the townsfolk are convinced Ward is the reincarnated form of Curwen, and Willet implores the couple to leave town. But Charles insists on staying, and possessed by his ancestor, he summons the spirits of two other warlocks, who have also possessed their descendants, one of which is Simon. They attempt to resurrect Curwen’s mistress Hester, although Curwen says Charles is fighting him. He also attempts to rape Anne, and when that fails, he tries to tell Willet she’s insane. The film ends with the townspeople destroying the castle while Charles is seemingly free of his ancestor’s grasp once the portrait is destroyed, although the film’s ending suggests otherwise. While it’s fun to see Price and Chaney Jr. share the screen (previously, there were both in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but had no scenes together) this entry is unique in that it was the first Corman film to use the then-revolutionary zoom lens. Although this created its own issues, as it required more lighting than usual. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

This entry is often regarded as the best-looking in Corman’s Poe series. Prince Prospero (Price) rules his village with an iron fist of fear. One night, he takes two villagers, Ludovico (Nigel Green) and Gino (David Weston) into custody with plans to execute them. But Ludovico’s daughter (and Gino’s lover) Francesca (Jane Asher) pleads with Prospero, prompting him to take her to his castle as well. At the same time, Prospero realizes that a woman from his village has a disease known as the Red Death and promptly orders the village burned to the ground to prevent it from spreading. Prospero’s companion Juliana (Hazel Court) makes no secret of her jealousy of Francesca as the prince cleans her up and dresses her nicely to attend the party he’s throwing. Francesca soon discovers the satanic cult Prospero and Juliana are part of, while Gino and Ludovico refuse to fight each other for the amusement of Prospero and his guests. Juliana soon gives Francesca a key to free Gino and Ludovico, although they’re quickly recaptured by Prospero. He brings them before his guests and again tries to make them kill each other for amusement. Their defiance leads to Prospero killing Ludovico and tossing Gino out of the castle. Gino goes through the woods and encounters the red-cloaked figure known for representing the Red Death. Juliana is later killed by a falcon after drinking from a chalice and announcing she’s the wife of Satan. The remaining villagers beg Prospero for asylum, but he responds by having his soldiers kill them. A guest named Alfredo (Patrick Magee) fights with another guest while wearing an ape costume, and Gino attempts to rescue Francesca. But he’s assured by the red-cloaked figure that she’ll be fine, and tells him not to re-enter the castle. Prospero soon notices the figure in his castle, because he ordered no red be worn at his party. The prince later realizes that he’s infected when he removes the figure’s mask to see his own bloodied face beneath. He dies while Gino, Francesca, and some of the prince’s guests escape. Corman initially wanted this film to be the second in his series, but it took some time for him to be satisfied with the script. This entry was also a co-production between American International Pictures and Anglo-Amalgamated in England. This was no doubt why the film had a slightly longer shoot than the others (five weeks rather than three). Corman later expressed his dissatisfaction with the climatic ballroom sequence because of the different working methods of the English crew as opposed to those from Hollywood. Still, the ballroom itself is a nice set. Price and Court are good as always, with Asher and Magee matching them. The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

The final entry in Corman’s Poe series is also, according to some, the best. The script was written by Robert Towne, who would go onto fame as the writer of Chinatown. Widower Verden Fell (Price) feels haunted by the spirit of his late wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd), no doubt due to blasphemous statements she made during her life. He soon meets and marries a woman named Rowena (Shepherd). But their marriage is not exactly happy, as they both feel Ligeia’s presence, which seems to always coincide with the appearance of a mysterious black cat. Rowena has several nerve-wracking encounters with the feline. The film ends when Fell faces his fears head-on by fighting the cat while his home crashes down around them in flames. As Rowena escapes with the help of her former flame Christopher Gough (John Westbrook), the cat reverts to its true form as Ligeia, and she and Fell die. While the sunglasses Price wears in this movie aren’t exactly flattering (this is explained as being due to Fell’s intolerance of sunlight), the movie itself is a nice, atmospheric end to this series. Shepherd is cleverly cast as both Fell’s current and former spouses. One could say the success of Corman’s Poe films made them the American answer to Hammer films, in the same way that the Monkees are viewed as the American answer to the Beatles. I think it’s safe to say that these remain the most famous of all the film adaptations of Poe’s works. While The Tomb of Ligeia was the last Poe film directed by Corman, AIP wasn’t through with Poe by any means. As the 1960s continued, the studio would make and market other films based on Poe’s works, although they were usually in name only. One such film was the brilliant 1968 shocker Witchfinder General, which starred Price as real-life witch hunter Matthew Hopkins. It was later released in American cinemas under the title The Conqueror Worm, which was the name of a Poe poem. Price was even brought in to read the short poem in its entirety for the film’s ending. The good news is that while I’m happy the film was restored to its original form when it came to DVD in the US, those changes didn’t diminish the film’s power. As for Corman, he’s kept on directing and producing in the decades following the Poe films (as I write this, my colleague Thomas Stockel is currently recapping the Corman-produced Battle Beyond the Stars). At the age of 94, his smart business sense allows his filmmaking career to keep going even with such game-changing techniques as home video and streaming. Corman would happily be acknowledged by Hollywood when he was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2009.

the Edgar Allan Poe films-Part I

This is a look at Roger Corman's classic film series.

Roger Corman has always been regarded as the filmmaker who, if he didn’t invent the B-movie, certainly perfected it. During the course of his decades-spanning career, Corman has produced, directed, written, and acted in numerous films across multiple genres. He became noted (some would say infamous) for the efficient way he used finances to get his movies made. Corman is also noted for helping now-legendary actors and directors get their start in filmmaking, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, William Shatner, and Sylvester Stallone. These protégés would often thank him for his support, usually by giving him bit parts in movies such as The Godfather Part II and The Silence of the Lambs. While some have called Corman penny-pinching in his methods, more often than not, the films that resulted became beloved cult hits, ranging from comedies like Rock ‘N Roll High School to horror films like Piranha and the Slumber Party Massacre series. However, if I had to pick Corman’s crowning achievement, it would be the films he made based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Corman instantly became a fan of Poe when he read his works as a child and wanted to make films of his works when the time was right. That time came with the start of the 1960s. While there had been film adaptations of Poe’s work before that, Corman was determined to adapt them as never before. This is evident in his wise decision to spend a bit more money than usual in order to ensure that these films would do justice to Poe. This would include shooting the movies in color, which Corman convinced his distributor American International Pictures to go along with. The finishing touch was casting Vincent Price as the star, as Price had become a beloved horror icon the previous decade with such classics as House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill and would ensure that horror fans would give these films a look. There were a total of eight films in the Poe-Corman series, and I’ll look at each one in order of release. House of Usher (1960)

The film, also known as The Fall of the House of Usher, adapted by the great Richard Matheson, centers on a man named Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) who travels to the title residence to visit his fiancée Madeline (Myrna Fahey). But her hyper-sensitive brother Roderick (Price) insists that Madeline must remain in the Usher mansion because the family, according to him, is cursed and Madeline leaving would bring evil upon everyone. But Philip is persistent and he and Madeline soon reunite with plans to run away together. But Madeline, after vehemently defying her brother, falls ill and apparently dies. But after her burial, Philip realizes Madeline is still alive thanks to a tip from Roderick’s butler. Philip searches the manor for Madeline after finding her coffin empty. He sees her, and having been driven to insanity, he attacks Roderick, eventually causing the manor to collapse, with Philip barely escaping. This film got Corman’s Poe series off to a nice start with Price, as usual, relishing his role. The unexpectedly downbeat ending would also do Poe proud. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

The success of House of Usher prompted AIP to demand Corman rush out a second Poe flick, and Corman was all too happy to oblige. This second entry, which brought back Price and Matheson as well as art director Daniel Haller and composer Les Baxter, is probably the most famous entry in this series, with the moment where Price handles the titular pendulum quickly becoming memorable. In the 16th Century, English patriot Francis Barnard (John Kerr) visits the castle of his brother-in-law Nicholas (Price) to look into the death of his sister Elizabeth (Barbara Steele). Nicholas and his sister Catherine (Luana Anders) tell Francis that Elizabeth died of a blood disorder, although they don’t give much detail about it. But Francis’s determination to find out the truth eventually leads to him realizing that Nicholas has been driven insane, and he begins to act like and eventually become his murderous father Sebastian, who killed Nicholas and Catherine’s mother when Nicholas was a boy. There’s also a clever plot twist involving Elizabeth, which leads to the great climax with Nicholas bringing the pendulum down on Francis. The Premature Burial (1962)

This is the only entry in the series to not star Vincent Price, though ironically, due to studio contract negotiations, Price ended up becoming available after filming began. British aristocrat Guy Carrell (Ray Milland) has an obsessive fear of being buried alive. This begins to get on the nerves of his fiancée Emily (Hazel Court), but she remains devoted to him after Guy explains his fear is due to a traumatic childhood incident involving his father, though Guy’s sister Kate (Heather Angel) dismisses the story. Guy eventually builds himself an elaborate tomb with safeguards in the event that he’s buried alive (that’s what I call planning ahead). Not surprisingly, Emily threatens to leave Guy if he doesn’t straighten up. Guy does, but in another ironic twist worthy of Poe, he suffers a heart attack and is presumed dead. This leads to the film’s nerve-wracking ending, although some may say it’s a bit derivative of the previous two movies. Still, this film is as enjoyable as the other two Poe pictures, and while I’m sure Price would’ve been great in the lead, Milland definitely does his best with the role. Tales of Terror (1962)

One could say that Price more than made up for his absence in The Premature Burial with this installment, as it’s actually a three-part anthology with Price appearing in all three segments. The first segment, titled “Morella”, concerns a woman named Lenora (Maggie Pierce) who visits her depressed, drunk father (Price). But he lashes out at Lenora, blaming her for the death of his wife Morella (Leona Gage) in childbirth. Lenora is further alarmed when she finds her mom’s corpse in one of the beds. But her dad becomes a bit kinder when Lenora tells him she’s ill. Alas, the spirt of Morella saves the illness the trouble when she appears one night to kill Lenora. This causes Morella’s body to be restored to its beautiful, living self. Her husband’s horrified reaction causes his resurrected wife to strangle him as the house goes down in flames. The second segment, “The Black Cat”, combines elements of the Poe stories “The Black Cat” and “The Cask of Amontillado”. A bitter man named Herringbone (Peter Lorre) can’t stand his wife Annabelle (Joyce Jameson) and cares even less about her black cat. He goes to a wine tasting one night and matches wits with a man named Luchresi (Price). Herringbone becomes drunk so Luchresi helps him home, where he meets Annabelle. The two soon begin an affair, prompting Herringbone to later seal them both up alive behind a brick wall in his basement. But Herringbone is caught when police arrive to question him and discover his crime thanks to the cat, who alerts them by scratching on the wall; it turns out Herringbone unknowingly sealed the cat inside, too. The last segment, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”, centers on the title character (Price), who asks a hypnotist (Basil Rathbone) to put him in trances to relieve the pain from his terminal illness. While in one of these trances, Valdemar asks the hypnotist to kill him to end his suffering, but the hypnotist refuses. Months later, with Valdemar bedridden, the hypnotist forcefully tries to wed Valdemar’s wife Helene (Debra Paget). He assaults her when she refuses, which is when Valdemar rises and kills the hypnotist, although Helene escapes thanks to her husband’s physician (David Frankham). I must also point out that 1962, the same year the third and fourth Poe pictures came out, also saw the release of Corman’s most underrated film, The Intruder. That story centers on a racist (William Shatner) who attempts to stop integration in a southern town. But the film, due to its subject matter, had difficulty finding distribution and ended up losing money for Corman. Given the civil rights movement of the time, it’s not surprising that some people kept a project like this at arm’s length. Indeed, Corman, Shatner, and the rest of the crew reportedly received death threats from the Ku Klux Klan while the movie was being filmed in Missouri. But the final film was praised in some quarters, which in turn proved that Corman was willing to take on more thought-provoking material. Likewise, the devotion he simultaneously was giving the Poe pictures showed that he was capable of making pictures that couldn’t be pigeonholed as low budget schlock. As his protégé Martin Scorsese said, “With the Poe pictures, suddenly there was a personality emerging from the Corman factory.” This personality would keep getting stronger with the subsequent entries in the Poe series, which I’ll look at in part two.

Theater of Blood (1973)

"For thirty years the public has acknowledged that I was the master, and that this year my season of Shakespeare was the shining jewel in the crown of the immortal bard!"
-Edward Lionheart.

I recently wrote a review of the terrific comedy, Billy Shakespeare. The film, written, directed and co-edited by Deborah Voorhees, shows how we'd react to history's most famous playwright if he emerged in contemporary times.

Watching that film prompted me to look at another, more sinister look at Shakespeare. Theater of Blood tells the story of actor Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price), who, after apparently taking his own life two years earlier, sets out to kill all the critics who denied him the best actor of the year award.

Lionheart, aided by his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg) and a group of tramps who nursed him back to health following his suicide attempt (Lionheart's fan club?), goes about these grisly tasks by re-enacting death scenes from Shakespeare's plays.

His first victim, George Maxwell (Michael Hordern), is stabbed to death by said misfits on March 15, a la the killing of the title character in Julius Caesar.

The next victim, Hector Snipe (Dennis Price), like Hector in Troilus and Cressida, is impaled through the heart with a spear before being dragged by a horse.

Lionheart next drugs Horace Sprout (Arthur Lowe) and his wife (Joan Hickson) to sleep before decapitating him, leading to his Mrs. getting the same wake-up call that Imogen did when she awakens to see Cloten in Cymbeline.

But Lionheart is not above taking dramatic license with the text he holds so dear when he permits Trevor Dickman (Harry Andrews) to be killed in order to satisfy the bloodlust of Lionheart's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.

He also takes advantage of Oliver Larding's (Robert Coote) love for alcohol when he drowns him in a vat of wine, a la the Duke of Clarence's demise in Richard III.

The one critic Lionheart purposely does not kill is Solomon Psaltery (Jack Hawkins), whom he ensures goes to prison when he tricks him into killing his wife in a jealous rage, a la Othello.

Lionheart's plans begin to slightly derail when he attempts to kill Peregrine Devlin (Ian Hendry) by re-enacting the sword fight between Tybalt and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. Devlin, who has begun to suspect Lionheart as the murderer, fights admirably, but admits defeat when Lionheart overcomes him and basically tells him to get it over with. But Lionheart then decides to spare him for another time.

However, Lionheart's temporary mercy is not extended to Chloe Moon (Coral Browne, who later became Price's wife), whom Lionheart electrocutes with hair curlers as a modern-day version of Joan of Arc burning at the stake in Henry the VI: Part I.

Lionheart then kills Meredith Merridew (Robert Morley) by forcing him to eat his two poodles baked in a pie, just as Queen Tamora ate her children baked in a pie in Titus Andronicus.

He then attempts to kill Devlin again by taking him to a theater and threatening him with hot pokers in his eyes, a la the blinding of the Earl of Glouchester in King Lear, unless he announces Lionheart as the winner of the Critic's Circle Award.

Fortunately for Devlin, the police arrive in time to save him. Lionheart sets the theater on fire. When Edwina is killed in the confusion, Lionheart takes his daughter to the top of the burning building and quoting the end of Lear before falling to his death.

Some have noted the plot similarities between this film and The Abominable Dr. Phibes(1971), which also starred Price. In that film, he played the title character, who goes about killing the doctors he blames for the death of his wife by re-enacting the curses depicted in the Old Testament.

This film, while gorier, has more of a sense of humor. One could often tell the fun Price was having in many of the films he did, and that is probably never more apparent than it is here. He also has a wonderful supporting cast to back him up.

This film could be viewed as the precursor to Scream (1996) in that its killer commits his horrific acts using something he loves as inspiration (Devlin, at one point, tells Edwina that her father may have been praised more if he had done more than just Shakespeare).

Thankfully, this film never had the increasingly awful sequels Scream had.

The Oblong Box (1969)

"I might find myself buying your pretty little body one day for a guinea or two." -Dr. Neuhartt. One of Michael Mann's best movies is Heat (1995), an exciting police drama which became noteworthy for its teaming of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino (they both starred in 1974's The Godfather Part II but shared no scenes). But it also has nice work from Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore at a time before their offscreen antics pissed away the goodwill they had established for themselves in the business. However, Pacino and De Niro only have two scenes and roughly 10 minutes of screentime together. That dynamic always reminded me of The Oblong Box, which was promoted as being the first film to team legends Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. But they only have a brief scene together. Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's story of the same name, the film begins in 1865. Julian Markham (Price) returns to England from Africa. His brother, Sir Edward (Alister Williamson), has been disfigured by an African voodoo tribe for a crime he allegedly committed against them. This prompts Julian to lock him in his room. However, Sir Edward attempts to escape by faking his death, thanks to a witchdoctor (Harry Baird) family lawyer Trench (Peter Arne) has contacted. However, Julian puts Sir Edward in the title box before Trench can do anything more. At the viewing of the body, Julian asks Trench to find another body to stand in for Sir Edward's, which leads to Trench and the witchdoctor killing one Tom Hacket (Maxwell Shaw). Sir Edward is buried and Hacket's body is thrown into a river. Julian promptly resumes his life by marrying the beautiful Elizabeth (Hilary Dwyer), but Sir Edward is later exhumed by graverobbers in the employ of Dr. Newhartt (Lee). Sir Edward revives shortly after the not-so-good doctor opens the casket and promptly blackmails Neuhartt into giving him shelter while he concocts his revenge on Trench. To that end, he covers his face with a crimson hood when he goes out. Neuhartt's maid Sally (Sally Geeson) takes pity on Sir Edward, which prompts Neuhartt to fire her. Ironically, she quickly finds employment with Julian, who has become suspicious of Trench's activities after he realizes that a friend found Becket's body in the river. Trench later informs him that Sir Edward was buried alive. Sir Edward's run in with drunks in town, which ends in murder, prompts Neuharrt to find ways to rid himself of him. Eventually, Sir Edward finds the witchdoctor and learns that he was punished becasue Julian killed a child during their time in Africa. The witchdoctor claims he cannot help Sir Edward and, after a fight, the latter returns to Neuharrt, whom he promptly kills after the doctor attempts to give him poison. Sally, upon hearing news of Sir Edward's activities, informs Julian of her knowledge of him, which prompts Julian to go to Neuharrt's where, dying, the doctor informs him that Sir Edward is going to Julian's home. The climax ends with Julian shooting Sir Edward, but being bitten by his brother before he dies. This, naturally, leads to Julian getting the same curse, to Elizabeth's horror. Both stars are great, although it would have been nice if they had more screen time together. Fortunately, they would reteam twice more: Scream and Scream Again (1969), which reunited both with this film's director, Gordon Hessler, and House of the Long Shadows (1983).

Witchfinder General (1968)

"By the way, do you know what they call me now? Witchfinder General; and there are those who think I should be appointed such for all of England-appointed by Parliament."
-Matthew Hopkins, witchfinder.

This film, while successful upon its original release, was relegated in US cinemas to midnight/drive-in screenings like Vincent Price's Edgar Allan Poe pictures. Indeed, its original US title was the somewhat-catchy The Conqueror Worm, the title of a Poe poem. Price's voice is even heard at the end credits of the US version reciting the poem (which is only half a page long). Had this movie received the same mainstream distribution as Rosemary's Baby, which was released the same year, it may have led to a Best Actor Oscar for Vincent Price, who portrays a villain that is the antithesis of the charming boogeymen he made his name on. One reason for this is that his character, one Matthew Hopkins, was a real-life witchhunter who traveled through 1645 England, during which time the country was engulfed in civil war, with his unscrupulous sidekick making money by torturing innocents accused of witchcraft. When one of his victims, a kind priest, dies as a result of such action, his niece and her lover seek vengeance. This film, like many others released during the late 1960s (and with 1968 arguably the most violent year of that turbulent decade), pushed the envelope in terms of onscreen violence. But the reason for this movie's greatness is the fact that it tackles the human capacity for violence head on. We find ourselves siding with characters who become as vicious as Hopkins.

Fans of the film have even had discussions about whether Hopkins could been seen as villainous or not. He's obviously motivated by money, but he always seems to be a nationalist when it comes to performing his acts.