This movie is actual horror, unlike The Raven, and the music (by the same composer) is appropriate to the mood. (He is a prisoner of the Inquisition, having been put on trial for unspecified crimes.) So far, I’ve seen The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, and* The Masque of the Red Death* These are quite good. | THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM: Directed by Roger Corman and Starring Vincent Price, John Kerr & Barbara Steele. Also unlike The Raven and Pit and the Pendulum, Masque was written by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell, who seem to be far less allergic to dialogue than Matheson. | Gross: Roger Corman’s Poe Movies. My first introduction to this film was listening to Roger Corman’s director commentary on The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). | In the 1960s, director/producer Roger Corman made several Edgar Allan Poe movies, nearly all starring Vincent Price and collectively known as the Corman-Poe Cycle. Oh yeah, he was one of Prospero’s entertainers—renamed Hop-Toad—along with a ballerina who I believe was meant to be a little person like Hop-Toad (the story is inconsistent about her size), but was played by a child dancer whose voice was dubbed by an adult woman. These films would be shot in color with a bigger budget, and would feature Vincent Price. Story: Edgar Allan Poe. For evidence of this, look no further than his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, a series of eight films Corman made between 1960–1965, beginning with House of Usher and culminating with The Tomb of Ligeia. The Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe movies. | Director: Roger Corman. 87 min | The History of the Corman-Poe Cycle In 1959, Corman began a series of eight adaptations of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, known as “The Poe Cycle.” I’d of course heard about the Poe Cycle, all but one of which star Vincent Price, but the idea of watching eight of them seemed a bit cumbersome. Roger Corman 89 min Author Lorenzo Azzopardi Date November 29, 2012. List of the best Roger Corman movies, ranked best to worst with movie trailers when available. Directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price: House of Usher, The Premature Burial, starred Ray Milland and Hazel Court In the 1930s and 1940s, Universal Studios adapted several Poe stories - and used others as inspirational jump-off points - primarily starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie. Roger Corman Watching this movie felt almost exactly like I remember LSD feeling. Vincent Price, I love B-movies and I love movies the gang threw together on the weekend, but sometimes I like a movie that feels like someone actually thought it out and executed their vision. (Everyone speaks with an American accent.) Stars: Gee golly, I love B-movies, and these are some B-movies. He swoons a lot and it’s kind of bonkers, especially considering how many times food and water show up. Roger Corman and Alex Gordon were the principle producers. But it feels like a whole movie, and not just something the gang threw together on the weekend. This is that movie. Between 1960 and 1965, eight movies were made in the Corman-Poe Cycle. And for the final shot of the movie, which I won’t tell you about because I think you should also watch the 80 minutes preceding it. PREMATURE BURIAL: Directed by Roger Corman and Starring Ray Milland & Hazel Court. The latest and greatest from the world of horror. Comedy, Fantasy, Horror. There’s no more tiptoeing around with magic or trauma here; Vincent Price stars as Prince Prospero, who (because the story wasn’t interesting enough, I guess) has literally sold his sold to Satan. Hop-Toad straight-up murders a guy who was an asshole, in a similar but slightly less contrived manner as in the story. However, it sadly fails to adequately portray Roderick Usher’s motivations, and adds a romantic subplot. mad when he learned that Elizabeth was alive the whole time and now believing himself to be his actual father, straps Barnard in and attempts to murder him. Sadly, at no time during the movie does Erasmus call Bedlo a “grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird.”. | Peter Lorre, | Watching it felt distinctly like watching one of the Hammer Films noir thrillers written by Jimmy Sangster. Not since the Golden Era of Horror in the 1930’s has an actor made such an impact on a genre. Meant in croaking, “Nevermore.”. https://www.tor.com/2010/10/12/richard-mathesonstoryteller-the- Oh, and by the way? (If my mom is reading this, I am obviously kidding.). A man's obsession with his dead wife drives a wedge between him and his new bride. | But it’s actually something really great: eight films that Corman directed (and sometime produced) between 1960 and 1965 based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. c) a girl will watch anything a boy will watch; dalej42 August 17, 2010, 3:13am #1. Vincent Price, Compared to the rest of Corman's output (an additional 11 films) during this period, his Poe films are heavily stylized. I re-watched three of them, and reread the original Poe works. Jane Asher, Cafe Society. (There are also two servants, who mostly just lurk; one of them, Maria, occasionally functions as a spring-loaded cat, which is fun; the other is in the opening, lurks throughout, and then acts as a sort of a human deus ex machina.) The plot is, in a word, absurd: after Erasmus finds the ingredients for the potion to return Bedlo to his human form (somewhat delayed because the list includes things like spiders and “we’re vegetarians”), Bedlo tells him that he saw Lenore, alive and well and at the castle of magician Dr. Scarabus, the very one who turned Bedlo into a raven in the first place. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 to a stage actress in Boston. The Haunted Palace (1963): based on H.P. Roger Corman’s film of the classic Edgar Allan Poe story ushered in a new era of horror. Roger Corman's highest grossing movies have received a lot of accolades over the years, earning millions upon millions around the world. It is certainly less fun than The Raven. therefore: The Masque of the Red Death (1964): Based on the short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” with the short story “Hop-Frog” used as a subplot. I’m beginning to think Poe was a little preoccupied with the topics of madness and death. But, if you are anything like me, you might want to mix the two pleasures by indulging in the rather odd series of films based on Poe’s work that were made in the 1960s by one of cinema’s most iconoclastic directors, Roger Corman. Sometimes called Pit and the Pendulum (without the initial “The”), the movie takes the title of the story and almost nothing else, imagining what comes before the death sentence (but ignoring the little context that is given in the story). This story is a 20 page fever dream–like narrative of a man condemned to death as he faints and then slowly comes back to consciousness, trying to piece together what happened and where he is. Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust, and door; Then Juliana gets pecked to death by a falcon (PECKED. Their friend Dr. Leon, who tended to her, joins them for dinner and immediately spills the beans that Elizabeth literally died of fright. 79 min Vincent Price, In the 1960s, director/producer Roger Corman made several Edgar Allan Poe movies, nearly all starring Vincent Price and collectively known as the Corman-Poe Cycle. Roger Corman House of Usher(1960) 1. Stars: The greatest things in all of psychotronic film is the Roger Corman Poe Cycle. Finally, the walls start to close in and he is forced to the edge of the pit—and France is liberated! However, if I had to pick Corman’s crowning achievement, it would be the films he made based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. 86 min | The order of these top Roger Corman movies is decided by how many votes they receive, so only highly rated Roger Corman movies will be at the … Director: WHAT. | Gross: But so weird. I asked a friend of mine who had gone to film school, and he pointed out that House of Usherwas a huge success. Seven were based on Edgar Allan Poe works; 1963’s The Haunted Palace was an adaptation of H.P. The red death is a plague that is overtaking the country, just as in the story. In it, Barnard arrives at a castle on the sea and demands to see Medina and learn the circumstances of the death of his sister, who married Medina. This post on Edgar Allan Poe movies is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publishers of His Hideous Heart, a collection of 13 of Edgar Allan Poe’s most unsettling tales reimagined. The History of the Corman-Poe Cycle What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore Peter Lorre, Not Rated Read part one of this list. Meanwhile, Prospero invites all of his friends to a masked ball to celebrate not having the red death. Frank Maxwell, Votes: $2.62M, G In addition to the aforementioned mood music, the special effects look like someone decided to make Bedknobs and Broomsticks on a shoestring budget (which is, honestly, a fair assessment of the magic in The Raven—although Bedknobs and Broomsticks would not exist until 1971). As always, it’s 100% worth watching for Vincent Price’s earnest performance. Comedy, Horror, Mystery. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, with the title changed and a voice-over added as a framing device, using text from Poe’s poem “The Haunted Palace.” Seven starred Vincent Price; The Premature Burial starred Ray Milland. Barbara Steele, Here they are with brief summaries. The end! Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny Teaming Up On New Political Mystery Novel, Delirium and Delight: The Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, 12 YA Recommendations Based On Your Favorite Poe Poem, Why Edgar Allan Poe Makes a Cameo in Anya Seton’s DRAGONWYCK, 10 Neo-Gothic YA Novels for Edgar Allan Poe Fans, 13 Edgar Allan Poe Read-Alikes For The Smallest Ravens, I’m Poe-pular: Edgar Allan Poe in Popular Culture, 17 Signs That Your Tinder Date Might Be Edgar Allan Poe, 19 Must-Have Edgar Allan Poe–Themed Gifts. In the early 1960s, AIP gained some kudos by combining Roger Corman, Vincent Price and the stories of Edgar Allan Poe into a series of horror films, with scripts by Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Ray Russell, R. Wright Campbell and Robert Towne. Maggie Pierce, By Don Kaye | June 25, 2020 | Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab) Vincent Price, That time came with the start of … | In the sixteenth century, Francis Barnard travels to Spain to clarify the strange circumstances of his sister's death after she had married the son of a cruel Spanish Inquisitor. The Tomb of Ligeia (1965): Based on the short story “Ligeia.”. Unlike the comedy of The Raven and the attempted psychological horror of Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death goes full on horror in the vein of Hammer Films again, but this time much closer to the films they are best remembered for. Pit and the Pendulum is set in Spain, which we only know because main character Francis Barnard (John Kerr), an Englishman, calls his hosts (Vincent Price and Luana Anders) Don and Doña Medina. Scarabus is played by Boris Karloff. The Corman-Poe cycle by screen_theory | created - 26 Apr 2017 | updated - 26 Apr 2017 | Public In the early 1960s, American International Pictures gained some acclaim by combining Roger Corman, Vincent Price and the stories of Edgar Allan Poe into a series of horror films, with scripts by Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Ray Russell, R. Wright Campbell and Robert Towne. Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking and it’s just like, a normal thing that happens? Terrifying tales of torture, madness, grizzly death and blood-curdling burials alive. BUT GUESS WHO SHOWS UP AT THE BALL, THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S YER BOY THE RED DEATH. Lon Chaney Jr., Edgar Allan Poe’s life was tragic; his stories and poems, sad and haunting. 89 min Hazel Court, Roger Corman Director: “Hop-Frog” opens with a description of a fat king who loves jokes, goes on to describe a disabled little person who the king thinks is a joke, and is otherwise really gross and fatphobic and ableist. 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