Tales of Terror.

Review #2591: Tales of Terror.

Cast: 

"Morella" 

Vincent Price (Locke), Maggie Pierce (Lenora Locke), Leona Gage (Morella Locke), and Ed Cobb (Coach Driver)

"The Black Cat"

Vincent Price (Fortunato Luchresi), Peter Lorre (Montresor Herringbone), Joyce Jameson (Annabel Herringbone), Lennie Weinrib (Policeman), Wally Campo (Barman Wilkins), John Hackett (Policeman), and Alan DeWitt (Wine Society Chairman)

"The Case of M. Valdemar"

Vincent Price (Ernest Valdemar), Basil Rathbone (Mr. Carmichael), Debra Paget (Helene Valdemar), David Frankham (Dr. Elliot James), and Scott Brown (Servant)

Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors, #684 - It Conquered the World, #852 - The Terror, #931 - Not of This Earth, #1007 - Attack of the Crab Monsters, #1039 - Five Guns West, #1042 - War of the Satellites, #1136 - Gas-s-s-s, #1147 - X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, #1186 - A Bucket of Blood, #1423 - The Wild Angels, #1425 - The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, #1674 - Machine-Gun Kelly, #1684 - Creature from the Haunted Sea, #1918 - House of Usher, #2030 - The Trip, #2113 - The Undead, #2211 - The Intruder, #2275 - The Wasp Woman, #2295 - The Pit and the Pendulum, #2434 - The Premature Burial, #2534 - Frankenstein Unbound)

Review: 

Welcome to Trove Tuesday, the first of four featuring anthology movies for the horror season.

For the fourth film in Roger Corman's Poe cycle by American International Pictures, what better way to mess with expectations by making an anthology movie? (sure, purists would probably say the way to really mess with people would be to make "more faithful" adaptations, but, well, apples to oranges). You get three stories loosely adapted that all happen to have Vincent Price play a part in each of them (complete with a voiceover prior to the start of each segment) with varying levels of entertainment for the price of one. Production quickly commenced in November of 1961 before release the following year that actually did re-use footage and setting from House of Usher. Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay and apparently stated his favorite of the three was the last one due to it being played "pretty straight". While the movie had a few mixed responses (Cormanmania isn't for everyone, what else is there to say?), it was enough of a hit to continue the loose filming of Poe tales with Price and Lorre in The Raven (1963); incidentally, Price and Lorre would work together with Rathbone that same year with Jacques Tourneur's The Comedy of Terrors (which happened to be written by, well, Matheson).

I do enjoy the curiosity with looking at the varying quality of anthology movies, particularly ones where one segment seems to have been given the most attention or just to see what you can do with a particular presence in a particular amount of time. It goes like this: either you roll with the cliches present in stuff like this or you roll your eyes and wonder where the time has gone. Maybe I'm just a sucker for AIP stuff with their casual nature to filmmaking and maneuvering the action depending on what genre or fad they really want to draw on. This works in the favor of a movie that is fairly average in execution but at least has the power of Price to lead the way in three distinct doomed types: one warped in delusion, one warped with some light fun, and one basically stationary until needed. The first story is "Morella" (which lasts roughly 22 minutes) that at least has the benefit of not being full-length. It has the cliches present from other AIP movies (decaying houses, loony Price, a totally big twist) while Pierce basically just yields the floor in presence to Price, who makes things casual when a lesser actor would've made one consider getting the remote (or, if one likes watching online, the mouse*). Things happen, you maybe remark, "eh", you await the next one. The second story in "The Black Cat" is the longest of the bunch, lasting roughly 38 minutes, and it actually combines elements of "The Cask of Amontillado" (oh hey, a Poe story I actually did have to read in high school). I think you can see why this one was given the most attention and care, who could resist the charms of seeing Price and Lorre paired up? The scenario is delightful, as they first meet due to a boast after stumbling onto a wine tasting event. The sequence of the two tasting wine (one by the usual sensations in testing and the other in simply drinking the damn thing) is likely the highlight of the film to listen to, honestly. Naturally the partnership cannot last for long, since, well, Lorre is the adversary of the tale with conviction in his coarse nature in reaction to revelations (or imagining things such as a moment where his head is being played around with) and also, well, one little black cat*. By the time he has finished burying people (done in the same way you might be in dealing with cleaning out the sink), it all sounds like it's going to go one way, and it surely does, but the fun is seeing Lorre squirm like an old pro. The final story with "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdmar", lasting roughly 25 minutes, is more of a brief showcase of Rathbone in conman elegance. Nearing his seventies by this point, he just carries the arrogance of hypnosis and would-be plans to take one man's house and maybe eventually figure out what really lies beneath life and death. The only other noted thing in the story is the mud pack to show the decomposition that apparently used a mixture of stuff like glue and makeup paint that was heated and poured for very brief usage due to the heat that probably wasn't a fun thing for Price to go through but it at least looks like it was worth to see on film. As a whole, the movie is filled with one B+/A- (generousness is where your milage is at the time) story and two other stories of that range from either B- to C+ for a pretty decent time depending on your levels of curiosity for what Corman and company sought to do in macabre fun.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day! 

*Sometimes I have no choice but watch a movie on my laptop/desktop while simultaneously doing some writing. 

*You gotta love the Wikipedia page for the film, which includes an image of cats in "audition" for the film. No, really.

Previous Corman-Poe movies, for those who like easy links to click:

House of Usher - Vincent Price & Mark Damon in a desolate mansion, a family curse and plenty to burn

The Pit and the Pendulum - Price and company in a desolate castle with madness and a cool torture device

The Premature Burial - Ray Milland leads the way in a man gripped by the fear of maybe being buried alive!

Master of the World (1961).

Review #2255: Master of the World (1961)

Cast: 

Vincent Price (Robur), Charles Bronson (John Strock), Henry Hull (Prudent), Mary Webster (Dorothy Prudent), David Frankham (Philip Evans), Richard Harrison (Helmsman Alistair), Vito Scotti (Airship Chef Topage), Wally Campo (First Mate Turner), and Ken Terrell (Crewman Shanks) Directed by William Witney.

Review: 

Oh sure, an American International Pictures production that isn't just about horror, what could go wrong? The movie is loosely adapted from the works on Jules Verne, specifically the novels Robur the Conqueror (written in 1886) and Master of the World (written in 1904), as screenwriter Richard Matheson (in his second screenplay for an AIP film, as this was released between House of Usher [1960] and The Pit and the Pendulum [1961]) combined elements for this hodgepodge. But hey, we (yes, I include you) are here for the entertainment value in whatever is being cooked up on an "efficient" budget and maybe even in its cast. And this seems especially apparent here with Vincent Price being the star. Believe it or not, there were rumblings of making a follow-up feature, despite the way the actual film ended (an explosion!), complete with drawings, although these plans were scrapped pretty quickly. Witney was an experienced director dating back to the 1930s, which included films such as Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) along with plenty of television; he directed until he was in his late sixties. 

Really this is a curious movie, because you get a little adventure in color with Price trying to thread the needle of adversary that doesn't require fey qualities to go with Bronson getting a chance of a leading man as opposed to the early heavy stuff (such as Machine-Gun Kelly, if you remember) to go with a few others that either will keep your interest or have the effect of a puddle. 102 minutes is probably decent enough to command the attention of a movie that has pretty routine filmmaking to go with occasional goofy comic-strip moments. So yes, you get the triangle of conflict between the obviously cool adversary in Price (no bias detected), a bullish Hull, and "ambiguity" (nicest word possible) in Bronson. Well, and a bit of hammy old-man acting from Frankham and window-aisle stuff in Webster, but you get the idea. Price seems to be having quite the ball here, playing the angle that arises in pacifism taken to a certain type of notch when it comes to trying to force it down on everyone from the clouds to go with occasional spouting of the Bible. Price isn't playing it for camp, but he makes it fascinating, nonetheless. Bronson and his dryness might not compare to, say, The Magnificent Seven (1960), but it probably does reflect well to see his casual observation at the difference between ideals and methods, particularly with how leaden one finds Hull or Webster (set in the 19th century or not, wondering what is fit for a "gentleman" is not interesting in the slightest for someone like me). Interestingly, this is a movie made for about a million dollars that still manages to look a bit cheap, particularly if you like to wonder just what is made of stock footage and what is not (the opening at least is obvious because hey, "flight'!). Sometimes the aerial view is a bit silly (those familiar with rear projection might have a guess), which is especially true with the rope sequence. At a certain point, one just has to wonder where the low bar is but considering certain other AIP features past and present in terms of trying one's patience (such as here and here), I was fine with it here just enough. I can at least dig the climax for giving one a good sendoff in terms of unsettling ideas. Those with the fortitude to enjoy an AIP film for what it is in goofy entertainment will find something fine here, while others might recognize an even more hammier AIP film than usual. I went with the flow because it went with my expectations of a fairly decent time, which I suppose made it a winner that I could recommend for those with the fortitude to enjoy a goofy film from old yesteryear with one worthwhile performance to follow along with in the usual tradition.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Return of the Fly.

Review #1738: Return of the Fly.

Cast: 

Vincent Price (François Delambre), Brett Halsey (Philippe Delambre), David Frankham (Ronald Holmes / Alan Hinds), Danielle De Metz (Cecile Bonnard), John Sutton (Inspector Beecham), Dan Seymour (Max Barthold), Jack Daly (Granville), Janine Grandel (Mme. Bonnard), Michael Mark (Gaston), and Ed Wolff (The Fly-Creature) Written and Directed by Edward Bernds (#1017 - Space Master X-7)

Review: 

I'm sure you remember The Fly (1958), directed by Kurt Neumann, based on that short story of the same name by George Langelaan about a man-fly hybrid creature told in flashback about how he ended up where he was, which ended up with a fairly interesting classic and other things. Naturally, there was a rush for another movie (despite the whole "dead fly" thing). Sure, there are a few signs that this might not be the most relevant course for a sequel. For one thing, the only person to return for it from the previous film is Vincent Price, who apparently liked the first draft of the script more than the one cut down later for production costs (Herbert Marshall, who played the inspector, apparently could not do the film because of sickness). Another is the fact that this was made for roughly $200,000 less than the last one. If you remember, both films were done under the unit of Robert L. Lippert (a "King of the Bs" kind of producer, who actually started as a theater chain owner), and he decided to bring in Edward Bernds to direct; perhaps it is fitting that it was him, since one of his five films that he directed with Lippert as producer was the film usually put on the double-bill with The Fly in Space Master X-7 (1958); a handful of his hundreds of films produced for 20th Century Fox involved CinemaScope, since he was contracted to make a number of films for them with the lenses, and this one would be done in black-and-white while re-using the lab sets from before (incidentally, this was put on a double bill with The Alligator People).

So yes, the course of action taken was to set the film years after the original and involve the son of the original lead focus. Honestly, for a made on the cheap kind of movie that was dubbed "The Zipper" by Price, it could have been a lot worse. Again, there is probably a limited amount of ideas one could make involving a guy and a fly costume, but I find what they came up with at least semi-plausible, since it isn't just another fluke accident. Unfortunately, the lesser effects for its title creature and trappings of conveniences and contrivances ultimately help to sink the film into mediocrity. Price leads the film in dignity, mostly because each Fly film doesn't lend itself to many opportunities to ham it up for most folks; there's that tinge of awareness that makes for somewhat useful drama. Of course, it is also evident where in the 80-minute run-time they decided to cut down elements for gimmicks, and it seems apparent right around the time the creature shows up (done out of spite by a secret crook). Halsey does fine with the small moments required in measured curiosity, but it probably doesn't help when he is sidelined for the parts involving the Fly (since not only does it not speak, it is played by a circus giant). Frankham might be an interesting double-crosser, but really this doesn't go too far being convenient stuff. Sutton doesn't exactly stoke much interest as the supposed inspector successor, standing in the background to say mild stuff after over half the film has already ended. I can't quantify exactly what De Metz is to the main characters, and honestly you won't really remember, because there isn't really much to the dynamic between her and Halsey. One will have a weird time figuring out which effect brings the film down more: the effect of seeing the fly-human creature, bumbling around looking like they want to not have the heavy contraption to slip from their head...or the human-faced fly that looks a bit too transparent (the mini-voice isn't helpful either). Honestly, I wasn't really expecting the film to end on a downer note, but the way they manage to tie it all together with its climax is pretty weak. Sure, there are probably only two ways this can end: life or death; however, it just seems a bit too silly to really stick the landing, probably because there's the whole matter of "well, somebody killed two people, but it wasn't the MAN who did it" (a crook may be a crook, but...you know, they are still dead). Really it seems more amusing that the creature can evade a whole bunch of cops (at least ones in the 1950s...wait, just when is the movie set?) and then come back to its original trappings with no trouble.

There would be another Fly film years later with Curse of the Fly (1965), which was one of Lippert's last features as producer. Look, both versions of The Fly (1958, 1986) are good enough to stand on their own without any follow-up, that much is for sure. But I suppose if one really needed to know where filmmakers can go with another story about man-flies, I guess you won't have too much disappointment with this movie. It isn't terrible, but mediocrity with horror is dime of a dozen that may or may not suit one's curiosity.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: The Birds (1963).