Tales of Terror/Twice Told Tales (Midnite Movies Double Feature)
When you've got Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Lorre all in the same movie, how can you go wrong?Tales of Terroris a trio of Edgar Allen Poe stories, starring three of horror's greats and produced and directed by the immortal Roger Corman. The first story, "Morella," involves a girl (Debra Paget) who returns to her isolated, spooky family home to see her estranged father (Price) for the first time in 26 years. He's let the housekeeping slide a bit--cobwebs abound and, oh, yes, his dead wife is still upstairs. Peter Lorre joins the fun for "The Black Cat," a piece with comic flavor that allows Price to show his rarely seen silly side, and then it's Basil Rathbone's turn to be creepy in "The Case of M. Valdemar," the tale of a mesmerist who decides to experiment with the unknown (bad idea). The movie is well paced, and makes good use of comedy without undercutting its chills. It's a rare treat to see this many masters of the genre working together and so clearly enjoying themselves. Don't miss it.--Ali DavisAfter the horror-triptych format proved a box-office winner inTales of Terror,Twice Told Talesrepeated the idea… this time not with Edgar Allan Poe stories, but the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Good idea, as Hawthorne delivered some eerie stories in his time, but the execution here is less than scintillating. The first story, "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," is the most entertaining of the bunch, in part because Vincent Price (the star of all three stories, natch) and Sebastian Cabot appear to be enjoying the premise:  two old friends discover a Fountain of Youth elixir. This will come in handy in erasing their own wrinkles and gray hair, as well as reviving the corpse of Cabot's long-dead bride… but be careful what you wish for. The second is "Rappaccini's Daughter," with Price as an overly protective father with a novel way to keep his daughter from the sins of the flesh. It is fatally dull, and the final segment, a severe condensation of Hawthorne's novel "The House of the Seven Gables," is even more annoying, although at least it moves along a bit. The story does offer foxy scream queen Beverly Garland in her prime. Journeyman director Sidney Salkow is responsible for the deadly pace, which leaves only Vincent Price as the reason to watch the proceedings. He's just dandy, but the Roger Corman films of the same era are the ones to see.--Robert Horton