Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Poe and Price on TV


AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE-1970-These four Poe tales were shot on video tape and presented like a play with Vincent Price starring in each and reciting most of the dialogue from the original stories. Act one is The Tell Tale Heart where a man becomes obsessed with an old man's glass eye, kills him and meticulously hides the body under the floorboards only to be undone when he thinks he hears the dead heart beating. Act two features the not as well known The Sphinx about a man concerned about a cholera epidemic around him who believes he sees a huge monster moving through the forest near his home. In act three The Cask of Amontillado, a nobleman seeks revenge on a rival who insulted him by walling him up in a vault (this one was my favorite). Act four is The Pit and The Pendulum about a prisoner of the inquisition who's condemned to die and finds himself waiting for the pendulum to cut him in half. 

Price is great in this one man show and director Kenneth Johnson uses some good effects to get all the stories across. Arkoff and Nicolson were 2 of the executive producers and Les Baxter did the music. It was made for TV by AIP.




Thanks for reading!

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