The Danzigers were a pair of American brothers who churned out an enormous amount of low budget British film and TV in the 50s and 60s. I'd never seen one of their movies before - this is one of the best known due in part to its source material. It is mostly cheap but there are some flourishes - it's set in period, occasionally the lead characters go to a dance where there are a number of extras, there is a street set. But most of the action does consist of a scene in a room with one to three main people.
Poe's short story is probably one of the most adapted short stories of all time and the bits of the movie taken from it are among the more effective: people going mad while a heart is beating. But there's not enough story here for a feature. It's a love triangle where a weird nerd librarian (Laurence Payne) falls for a sexy dame across the road (Adrienne Corri) who actually lusts for the nerd's best friend (Dermot Walsh).
Payne is such a weirdo - he kind of feels up Corri on the first date - is such that Corri seems foolish for sticking around him, even in a man drought, and Walsh seems dim to be his friend. The affair is exposed and leads to Walsh's murder, but even with that happening the movie feels really padded out.
The trio of leads act well, Corri is beautiful and it occasionally comes alive. But this really feels like it should be a one hour episode of an anthology TV drama or something.
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