Tales of Terror/The Raven

Tales of Terror and The Raven were two in a succession of early 60s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations by Roger Corman, both of which featured Vincent Price (which was par for the course for most of these other collaborations). Tales of Terror is a well-crafted, generally excellent, and often very funny presentation of three short stories (Morella, The Black Cat, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar) as concocted by Richard Matheson. Peter Lorre is hilarious, Basil Rathbone is very effective, and Price is great in all three shorts. The Raven is a goofy fabrication presented as straightforward comedy and using the famed poem only really as a springboard. The picture runs out of steam, but still is rather riotous with Boris Karloff and again Lorre and Price all a hoot.

Tales of Terror: *** 1/2 out of ****

The Raven: *** out of ****

Premature Burial

A coma prone Englishman (Ray Milland) with a pathological fear of being buried alive goes to extreme measures to prevent his greatest nightmare from coming to fruition. Premature Burial, Roger Corman's third adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe work, offers an inventive screenplay (considering Poe's story was more of an informative on catalepsy) whose collaborators including Twilight Zone veteran Charles Beaumont. In addition, the film boasts wonderful set design which includes a memorable tour through a "survival" crypt. Milland's performance is enjoyable, especially when he atypically ranges out in the heightened conclusion.
*** out of ****

House of Usher

A city gentleman (Mark Damon) travels to the country home of his betrothed (Myrna Fahey) and encounters her ghoulish, suspicious, and standoffish older brother (Vincent Price) who denies him visitation due to her sickly heath and a family penchant towards madness. House of Usher was the first of Roger Corman's heralded Edgar Allan Poe films of the early 1960s (it's the second I've seen after The Pit and the Pendulum, also excellent) and was written by the great, recently deceased sci-fi writer Richard Matheson, creator of so many great TV episodes and films, who here does a fine job in generally capturing Poe's short story in a succinct movie. House of Usher features great lighting, photography, an extraordinary climax and of course an expectedly great performance from Vincent Price.

Pit and the Pendulum

An Englishman travels to the castle of Don Nicholas Medina, the son of a notorious Spanish Inquisitor, to investigate the mysterious death of his sister who was married to Medina. During his investigation, he encounters tale upon tale as to the happenings surrounding her death and the history of the castle, until the actual sinister truth is revealed. Roger Corman's adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum" is a sumptuous, wonderfully set film featuring a humorously diabolical performance from Vincent Price as Don Nicholas. I liked the way the film unfolded with "yes, but did you know" and "why besides myself, you are the only person to know this" revelations, and the climax in the titular torture chamber is absolutely phenomenal. "Pit and the Pendulum" is a horror film that is funny, beautiful, and scary all at once.