Tales of Terror

Vincent Price stars in this 1962 trilogy of Edgar Allan Poe stories, scripted by Richard Matheson (who takes liberties with the tales), and directed by Roger Corman. The first, “Morella,” recalls “The Fall of the House of Usher,” with Price playing haunted, hollow-eyed widower Locke—a man who has spent decades in isolation mourning a wife who died in childbirth—and Maggie Pierce as Lenora, the neglected daughter who rouses him from his walking death. The final tale, “The Case of M. Valdemar,” costars Basil Rathbone as Carmichael, a mesmerist who hypnotizes the dying Valdemar (Price) in order to hold him in a state of suspended animation. The most famous (and entertaining) entry is the middle piece: the comic “The Black Cat,” which also borrows from Poe's “The Cask of Amontillado.” Price is Fortunato Luchresi, a prissy, wine-tasting dandy who begins an affair with the wife of Montresor (Peter Lorre), a sloppy wino who poisons them both and bricks up their bodies in his cellar. All three parts play like miniature versions of Corman's earlier Poe features, all are moody and elegantly claustrophobic (shot in vivid widescreen color), and all end with vengeance from beyond the grave. While not one of Corman's best Poe adaptations—The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Tomb of Ligeia are superior—Tales of Terror remains a worthy classic, largely thanks to the comic chemistry of Price and Lorre and a woozy hallucination scene in “The Black Cat.” Extras include audio commentaries, and an interview with Corman. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)