Probably the most polished and professionally made of all Corman’s Poe films, with both Corman and Vincent Price at the height of the powers. This one has a number of scenes actually set outside during the day, starting with a funeral scene in some abbey ruins and then going on to a fast-paced fox hunting sequence.
But the best thing about it is the fact that the female lead is a really good actor – beautiful, likeable Elizabeth Shepherd gives the best performance by a female in the series, except for arguably Barbara Steele in Pit and the Pendulum. She matches Price all the way – no mean feat, since Price is in good form, too, with some funky glasses and a tormented brooding expression.
You are a little bit confused why Shepherd would want to marry him – I mean, he does physically attack her on their second meeting – but maybe there was a man drought in the early 19th century, too. And maybe Shepherd’s character grew up on Bronte-esque literature about heroines who fell in love with brooding handsome strangers.
Robert Towne’s script is intelligent and logical, even if it covers a lot of familiar ground (“his dead wife’s not really dead!”, “he’s possessed by the spirit of his dead wife”) and points are lost by having the house burned down at the end – although it is good to have a finale where Price takes on a black cat. You go, girlfriend! The male juvenile is weak – reviewing all the films in this series it strikes me that this role was never memorably performed (John Kerr, Mark Damon, Richard Ney) except by Jack Nicholson in The Raven. A good one to go out on.
No comments:
Post a Comment