TALES OF TERROR [1962 / 2015] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
A Trilogy of Shock and Horror!
In his earlier Edgar Allan Poe films, Roger Corman took short stories by the great Gothic master and expanded them into full-length features. Here, by contrast, the stories stay short, the only other thing they have in common being the participation of Vincent Price.
In Morella, Vincent Price plays a tormented man forced to confront a dark family secret when his long-estranged daughter tracks him down. In ‘The Black Cat,’ he’s the rakish lover of the wife of Peter Lorre, who naturally plots a deadly revenge. And in the title role of ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,’ Vincent Price tries to relieve chronic pain by asking Basil Rathbone to hypnotise him, something that leaves poor Valdemar hovering on the border between the dead and the living.
Roger Corman’s previous Edgar Allan Poe films were played completely straight, and parts of ‘TALES OF TERROR’ are as authentically creepy as any of them. But he also stirred comedy into the Edgar Allan Poe brew for the first time, particularly in the scenes between Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. Narrated by Vincent Price.
FILM FACT: Patricia Medina was originally cast as Helene in the episode ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’ but was replaced by Debra Paget. The British censor deleted the gruesome final shot from the "M. Valdemar" segment and substituted it with a fade to black. "The Black Cat" has been adapted to film numerous times with varying degrees of faithfulness to the original story. The most famous version is Edgar G. Ulmer's 1934 version with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Others include Harold Hoffman's low-budget 1966 remake filmed in Texas, Lucio Fulci's Gatto Nero in 1981 with Mimsy Farmer and Patrick Magee, Luigi Cozzi's Il Gatto Nero in 1989, Dario Argento's "Due occhi diabolici" episode in his collaboration with George Romero in 1990, ‘Two Evil Eyes,’ and the recent 2007 adaptation by Stuart Gordon for the Starz cable series, "Masters of Horrors."
Cast: Vincent Price, Maggie Pierce, Leona Gage, Peter Lorre, Joyce Jameson, Basil Rathbone, Debra Paget, David Frankham, Lennie Weinrib, Wally Campo, Alan DeWitt, John Hackett, Edmund Cobb, Scott Brown, Paul Bradley (uncredited), Kenner G. Kemp (uncredited), Jack Kenny (uncredited), Cosmo Sardo (uncredited) and Jack Tornek (uncredited)
Director: Roger Corman
Producers: James H. Nicholson, Roger Corman and Samuel Z. Arkoff
Screenplay: Richard Matheson (screenplay) and Edgar Allan Poe (based on the stories)
Composer: Les Baxter
Cinematography: Floyd Delafield Crosby, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Color by Pathé)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Music: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 89 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: American International Pictures / M-G-M / Arrow Video
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Who would have thought that the short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe, written in the early 1800s, would inspire a plethora of film franchise, more than a hundred years later on and become popular with young film fans? After the financial and critical success of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ in 1960, American International Pictures wasted no time in producing steady stream of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, all of them directed by Roger Corman. ‘TALES OF TERROR’ [1962] was the fourth entry in the series, but a departure in form from the previous three American International Pictures Edgar Allan Poe films and Roger Corman changed tact with this his fourth entry into the Roger Corman franchise and Edgar Allan Poe cycle of films: ‘TALES OF TERROR.’ The director mixed up his formula this time and delivered his content in the form of an anthology of stories rather than just one main focus, while also allowing for some lighter comedy themes to feature star Vincent Price flexes his gothic horror muscles in three leading roles.
‘TALES OF TERROR’ involve three separate stories that start out with a narration done by Vincent Price himself. Vincent Price talks while we hear the sound and view the image of a human heart beating. Vincent Price, in that spooky horror movie voice, asks the question: “Have you ever wondered what happens after death?” And so the first story begins, the first one is called “Morella” and it’s about a man who gets visited by his young daughter Lenora. Her father [Vincent Price] hates Lenora because she killed his wife during birth. She refuses to leave even though he emphatically scorns her. Soon Lenora discovers that her father is so obsessed with his dead wife that he has kept her rotting corpse inside of his room! Is there some deeper darker secret to be revealed?
The second story is entitled “The Black Cat” and this one starts with Peter Lorre, who is a drunkard and all he thinks about is drinking, drinking, drinking himself beyond redemption! One day, when he runs out of money for drinking, he decides to walk into a wine tasting event, where all these wine connoisseurs are about to present an Expert in wines played by Vincent Price himself. Peter Lorre sees this as an opportunity to get a couple of free drinks in, so he challenges Vincent Price's wine knowledge! Needless to say, they both get extremely drunk that night! Vincent Price ends up taking Peter Lorre to his house, because he is too drunk to walk by himself. When they finally arrive at Peter Lorre’s house, Vincent Price and Peter Lorre’s wife decide to kick start a relationship between them, which of course infuriates Peter Lorre and leads him to take drastic measures for revenge, but how this is done is for you to find out, but all I can say is that Peter Lorre gets his comeuppance!
The last of the three stories is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” and it’s about a dying old man named Valdemar. He has a decease that has him under a lot of pain, so he asks a hypnotist to put him under some kind of trance so that he won’t feel so much pain. The problem comes when Valdemar is hypnotized…and he dies while under hypnosis! So he remains stuck between the world of the living and the world of the dead! But what horrors will befall all of them from beyond the grave? Again, yet another spooky tale and a simple fact that it’s about a guy stuck in a hypnotic state between the land of the living and the land of the dead, and that he can speak to us from “the other side” is an awesome premise! Also, it’s cool as hell to see Vincent Price as some kind of zombie. Again, this gothic horror film surprised me with its make-up effects toward the ending of this particular tale and to find how they did the brilliant make up of Vincent Price in his zombie state, you have to read the booklet on how it was achieved.
‘TALES OF TERROR’ is a wonderful Edgar Allan Poe adaptation precisely because it captures the range that the writer often exhibited in his own literature. The various tales reveal Edgar Allan Poe's trademark paranoid characters, his vivid imagination, and even his morbid sense of humour. ‘TALES OF TERROR’ is ultimately an effective piece of horror precisely because it has no pretensions; it truly is simply a set of spooky tales, which is precisely what Edgar Allan Poe excelled in. Unlike many horror anthologies, there's no true framed story here and instead, each tale is introduced by a short monologue from Vincent Price that's centred around Edgar Allan Poe's favourite theme: death. Each segment represents a different phase of death: what happens after, before, and at the moment of death, respectively. It's an interesting way to tie together the film just enough so that isn't just a completely random set of tales.
‘TALES OF TERROR’ proved to be a financial success for AIP, making more than the previous Edgar Allan Poe adaptation like ‘Premature Burial’ [1962]. Roger Corman remarked that the $1.5 million gross "encouraged Richard Matheson and me to transform Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem “The Raven” into a lighter comedy-horror project and use those two again Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. It was the biggest looking Edgar Allan Poe film to date because we were using sets from previous films." "I was getting a bit tired of the Edgar Allan Poe films by this time," admits Roger Corman, "but AIP felt that I should continue, but I was totally exhausted,” Roger Corman also says, “with ‘TALES OF TERROR’ we tried to do something a little different. The screenplay was actually a series of very frightening, dramatic sequences inspired by several of the Edgar Allan Poe stories. To break things up, we tried introducing humour into one of them..."
Vincent Price gets to show off his range as an actor in ‘TALES OF TERROR.’ Each one of his characters is different and, while a moot point nowadays, really show that the man was more than just a B-movie actor. Vincent Price is still deliciously fun to watch on the screen as he mourns over the death of a wife as a paranoid widower, appears as an arrogant boaster in another, and a feeble old man on the edge of death in the final tale. Throughout each of the three shorts, Vincent Price flexes some serious acting skills and keeps ‘TALES OF TERROR’ afloat, and the critics at the time described ‘TALES OF TERROR’ at the time of its release as, “trashy absurdities.” The 1960s were good for the horror genre anthology, and rather surprisingly, the style seems to be having a sort of resurgence, especially with this superb Arrow Video Blu-ray superior top notch release.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Once again Arrow Video has brought us a stunning 1080p encoded progressive widescreen image, with an equally stunning 2.35:1 [Panavision] presentation, and especially with displays of totally vibrant colours, keeping the horror interests alert with its deep blood-based reds, while the period costumes of the period are preserved in their lively primaries colours and the skin tones look wonderful and radiant as well. Sharpness of the image is equally excellent, exploring crisp facial textures and as well as the set decoration, bringing out the fine detail of the cinematography, which gives you the impression that you would love to touch the surfaces and substances and highlighting the frame information with sustaining deep blacks that is generally strong. The print is in encouraging good shape, with only a few elements of damage and speckling now and again. Image is also of very filmic quality, with comfortable grain management. The transfer, as with the other titles that Arrow Video has brought out in this series, benefits from a great deal of quality restoration, which keeps the original cinematic look and feel of the piece that is spot on, and shows off the bold use of colours in the production and presents a beautiful clarity in the detail without suffering from an heavy handed clean-up. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – As always with Arrow Video they try to bring us the best audio presentation, and again they have done a superb job in presenting us with a brilliant 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio experience, to give us that supposedly spooky mood that it is intended, with a wonderful spooky sense with the music scoring cues by the brilliant Les Baxter, that gives it a definite sense of atmospherics that are very pronounced, in delivering a good sense of chilling excitement. The audio sounds very clean, clear, well balanced and robust when it needs to be. Again the age of the film still sounds good considering its limitations of the mono source and the more ambient aspects of the soundtrack are well represented. This release has the optional second audio track of music and sound effects track, which is very welcomed addition. Despite the age of the film, overall Arrow Video again does a very excellent job in trying to give us the best audio experience.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
High Definition Blu-ray [1080p] presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by M-G-M.
Original uncompressed 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
Optional isolated music and effects track
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Special Feature: The Directors: The Films of Roger Corman: The Films of Roger Corman [1999] [1080i] [1.37:1] [58:30] This just under an hour long episode of this special AFI ‘The Directors’ TV series documentary that was first screened on Februray 1999, takes a career-encompassing look at filmmaker Roger Corman’s work as director and producer, and includes contributions from James Cameron; Jonathan Demme; Bruce Dern; Carl Franklin; Ron Howard; Diane Ladd; Martin Scorsese; Nancy Sinatra; Roger Corman and Dave Mann (Voice Over Announcer). Roger Corman has produced and directed more than 550 motion pictures. In 1953, he sold his first screenplay; the following year he produced his first independent film, beginning with one of the most prolific careers of low-budget films in Hollywood’s history. Some of his major achievements, that we get clips from, include ‘Death Race 2000’ [1975]; ‘Death Sport’ [1978]; ‘A Bucket of Blood’ [1959]; Highway Dragnet’ [1954]; ‘Monsters From The Ocean Floor’ [1954]; ‘The Fast and The Furious’ [1954]; ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ [1960]; ‘Big Bad Mama’ [1974]; ‘Five Guns West’ [1995]; ‘Candy Stripe Nurses’ [1974]; ‘The Little Shop of Horrors’ [1960]; ‘The Intruder’ [1960]; Attack of the Crab Monster [1957]; ‘Swamp Women’ [1955]; ‘The Raven’ [1963]; ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ [1961]; ‘The Wild Angels’ [1966]; ‘Humanoids From The Deep’ [1980]; ‘The Trip’ [1967]; ‘Fighting Mad’ [1976]; ‘Boxcar Bertha’ [1972]; ‘Caged Heat’ [1974]; ‘Big Bad Mama II’ [1972]; ‘Grand Theft Auto’ [1977]; ‘The Howling’ [1980]; ‘Battle Beyond The Stars’ [1980]; ‘Fail Fathom Fire’ [1990]; ‘Fire on the Amazon’ [1993] and ‘Frankenstein’ [1990]. Throughout the documentary all the contributors praised Roger Corman for giving then a start in the art of filmmaking. Also Roger Corman is aske d what is his favourite film, which he said was really impossible, but if pushed he would say the film that gave him so much satisfaction in directing was ‘The Intruder’ [1960], which is about interracial problems is an all-white school in America. Roger Corman tells us that he feels he has done his best in what he has produced and still feels he has a lot to give to the film industry and feels now he can slow down and make fewer films, on a much more personal level. So all in all this is a totally fascinating feature on Roger Corman, and you sure learn a lot about this very prolific director/producer. Narrated by Dave Mann. Director: Robert J. Emery. Producers: Robert J. Emery and Milt Felsen. Screenplay: Robert J. Emery. Cinematography: David M. Wark and Robert J. Emery. Composer: Kevin Kelly.
Special Feature: Kim Newman on Edgar Allan Poe [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [29:32] Critic and novelist Kim Newman discusses the influence and effect of Edgar Allan Poe has had in the cinema and especially some of the key adaptions of his works. Here again we view and hear Kim Newman in his home with his long old fashioned hair, who thinks he is still in the 1960s? Anyway Kim talks again about the influence of Edgar Allan Poe in the commercial sense and also the massive influence he had in the cinema genre. Kim mentions the Edgar Allan Poe stories that were filmed by D.W Griffith in America and in Germany in the silent era. Also mentioned when Universal Pictures started making Edgar Allan Poe films in the 1930s, which included ‘Murder in the Rue Morgue,’ ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Raven.’ It was not until Roger Corman entered the film world and felt there was still life left in the Edgar Allan Poe stories to film and also that Roger Corman felt he had a hit on his hands and when they got released in the 1960s ere, they were a massive hit and box office gold, but what Roger Corman did is make the audiences aware of the existence of the Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems. Kim talks in great detail about Poe’s personal life, where he had a drink problem and was always sending out begging letters to people asking for money so he could carry on doing his work, but it was his Mother-in-Law who sent money to him to support him, as he was always poor. Kim also mentions that all Poe’s stories were very short, but of course the filmmakers tried to adapt the stories and had to add extra material to make the film worthwhile for the paying audiences, which Kim points out that it of course does not make it a real Edgar Allan Poe film. But Kim does point out one full length novel that Edgar Allan Poe wrote and that was “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket” and feels this would make a really totally ideal gothic horror film, but feels it would be too expensive to shoot. Kim then moves onto Roger Corman the producer/director and the American International Pictures films he made, which of course included ‘The Haunted Palace,’ ‘The Premature Burial’ and ‘The Raven,’ which basically were not really Edgar Allan Poe films. Kim also mentions the films ‘The Mask of the Red Death’ and ‘Tomb of Ligiea,’ but in the end Roger Corman was getting fed up with this treadmill of Poe films he had been churning out, as basically they are in fact the same premise of Poe films, but with different variations. Kim finally sums up Edgar Allan Poe, in saying he was marginally successful in his own time, a man who sort of destroyed his own reputation, before other people could do it for him. Kim also feels Roger Corman got it spot on and not the AIP film studio and feels Edgar Allan Poe speaks to the people and especially angry, crazy people. Kim also mentions the last Roger Corman film based on Edgar Allan Poe and that was ‘Gas-s-s-s.’ One sad fact that Kim points out, is that with all the adaptions of Edgar Allan Poe stories, it is a shame Edgar Allan Poe is not around today to pick up all the royalties from all of the film adaptions. So all in all a very nice insight into the life and times of Edgar Allan Poe and also hearing about the films that have been adapted from Poe’s stories and poems. Producers: Anthony Neil and Michael Brookes. Executive Producer: Francesco Simeoni. Cinematography: Michael Brooke.
Special Feature: Anne Billson on Cats in Horror Films [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [9:10] Anne Billson is a novelist, film critic and photographer, whose work appears regularly in national newspapers and magazines. Anne Billson is also the creator of the “Cats on Film blog, and also the author of the short story “My Day with Jones,” which retells the events in the film ‘ALIEN’ from the viewpoint of the Nostromo’s only feline crew member. Anne Billson also discusses the contribution our feline friends have contributed to the genre of the cinema. Here we find this very strange and eccentric looking Anne Billson sitting in here lounge, but what is even weirder is seeing Anne wearing red gloves, that gives the impression Anne is allergic in handling books, which we see Anne reading from a particular large book which Anne is reading from while looking at the camera. Here Anne tells us that she is here to talk about cats that have appeared in films and especially horror films, which cats play a very important role in films. Anne also informs us that cats are the most domestic animals in the world, but that cats also have a darker side to their personality. In ancient Egypt they were worshipped as gods, and in medieval times they were associated with witches and a great deal of negative superstition, especially around nocturnal times, which is what you get to see in horror films. But even weirder is that Anne starts producing loads of toy cats that she drapes over herself. Anne also talks about the important categories, like in horror films that Anne calls “CATZILLA,” which refers to badly behaved cats, which cause destruction, pain and death, or seeking revenge on murderers or would be murderers, who avenge the dead mistress or even dead cats. Anne also talks about the film ‘TALES OF TERROR’ where Peter Lorre gets caught out because the cat has been walled up with the corpses. Anne also talks about the films related to cats, which include ‘The Shadow of the Cats,’ Eye of the Cat’ and ‘The Uncanny.’ Anne next talks about the subject entitled “PUSSZILLA,” which hints at great evil, without doing much and especially with cats that have appeared in the James Bond films, but also talks about cats that have appeared in films like ‘Inferno,’ ‘Black Sabbath,’ ‘Sentinel,’ ‘The Perfume of the lady in Black’ and ‘The Corpse Grinders.’ Anne also informs us that cats do not get all their own way and talks about “THE CATRIFICE,” where the cat is mistreated in the narrative, especially in films like ‘Beware! The Blob,’ ‘Drag Me To Hell’ and ‘The Fly.’ But Anne informs us that there is one happy category about cats and that is “THE HEROPUSS,” where a cat saves lives, of chasing off evil in films like ‘The Mummy,’ or chasing off evil demonic spirits in the film ‘Sleep Walker,’ or vampires in ‘Let The Right One In,’ or werewolves in the film ‘An American Werewolf in London,’ or battling off trolls in the film ‘Cats Eye.’ And so ends this very short feature on cats in horror films, especially by the very eccentric Anne Billson, who tends to read mostly from the big book in front of her that was probably written by her or with some collaboration with someone else. Producers: Anthony Neild and Michael Brookes. Executive Producer: Francesco Simeoni. Cinematography: Michael Brookes.
Special Feature: ‘THE BLACK CAT’ [1993] [1080i] [1.78:1] [18:18] This is a short 1993 short film adaption of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tale, co-written and directed by Rob Green, was also adapted by Rob Green and Clive Perrott. Starring Clive Perrott as a condemned prisoner waiting to be hanged for his crime, who relates the story of his crime he carried out, which of course was eventually discovered. It also starred Alison Morrow and David Kincaid. Edgar Allan Poe's ‘THE BLACK CAT’ may well hold the record as having inspired more feature films than any other short story, but this British short is by far the most faithful adaptation yet. Clive Perrott certainly looks the part of Edgar Allan Poe and manages to convey the author's dry sense of humour as well as his sense of impending doom as he awaits the death penalty chained up in a lonely cell. The black cat of the title, which is pivotal to the story, only shows in the final scenes when it neatly switches to animation. But of course with any Edgar Allan Poe, loves to go into great detail of what evil deeds that people want to commit in thinking they can get away with murder, but of course with the end of an Edgar Allan Poe story, the guilty always get their comeuppance. Cast: Clive Perrott, David Kincaid, Alison Morrow, Ralph Perrott, Nick Devaney, Neil Mockler, James McCusker, Mark Webb, Robby Locke, Tony Ellinas and Brian The Magician. Director: Rob Green. Producer: Sarah Carr. Executive producer: Leslie Jones. Composer: Russell Currie. Cinematography: Simon Margetts.
Theatrical Trailer [1962] [180i] [2.35:1] [2:20] This is the Original Theatrical trailer for the film ‘TALES OF TERROR.’ Despite the quality of the image is very soft grainy image quality, the bonus is that is presented in great style, in making the viewer to go and view this gothic horror film.
PLUS: Beautiful Designed Reversible Blu-ray sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dan Mumford, who is a freelance illustrator working out of Studio100 in central London, United Kingdom.
BONUS: Stunning Designed Collector’s 28 page booklet featuring new writing “THREE DOWN, FIVE TO GO” by Roger Clark and “THE BLACK CAT” BY Rob Green. You also get the “CREDIT” to all three filmed stories ‘Morella;’ ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.’ You also get information on “ABOUT THE TRANSFER;” “PRODUCTION CREDITS” and “SPECIAL THANKS.” Plus you get lots of wonderful illustrated artwork, with also the original black-and-white stills from ‘TALES OF TERROR.’
Finally, the Blu-ray of ‘TALES OF TERROR’ is delivered in a package that's quite stylish for its time; it of course features the trademark lush colour palette of the age, but it also features some interesting camerawork, particularly when the film portrays the disoriented state of Montressor's mind in "The Black Cat." The film is often atmospheric and makes use of some elaborate scene-setting, particularly the decrepit mansion in "Morella," and the film's score is appropriately spooky. ‘TALES OF TERROR’ isn't the most conventional of Edgar Allan Poe’s adaptations, and then again, how many have been? But it's a great example of popcorn fun and represents an excellent bridging of two horror legends and time periods. The anamorphic transfer is crisp and clean and the print shows little age and; likewise, the mono soundtrack is very clear and as usual Arrow Video has brought us something truly amazing and extra special and a great honour to add this to my ever increasing Vincent Price Blu-ray Collection. At any rate, ‘TALES OF TERROR’ was the definite highlight of the AIP, Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Price cycle. I think they are fun; I love that old school horror atmosphere. As they say, they don’t make them like this anymore. Still, for a fun filled old fashion horror film, with loads of atmosphere and a touch of comedy you can’t go wrong with ‘TALES OF TERROR’ and that about sums up this brilliant eclectic Blu-ray release. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
