KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Bereamic Awesome Movie

mark.waltz What was probably too tense for T.V. anthology series like "Thriller" or "The Twilight Zone" ended up on the big screen in multi-story feature films which took short stories and adapted them into segments 2-20-30 minutes long. "Tales of Terror" has three stories, two dramatic and one comic, but all having two things in common: Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Price. Wine flows in all three segments, and in all of them, the underlying motive for some of the characters is a definite act of lust.The first segment, "Morella", shows the revenge of a dead woman (Leona Gage) against the daughter she blames for her early demise and the husband (Price) who has built a shrine to her and worshiped her for years, neglecting his daughter. Why Morella is so vindictive is never really explained other than the fact that she blames giving birth for dying three months later. In spite of that detail being omitted, it is truly suspenseful and ends deliciously horrifically.The most popular of the three segments is the middle one, a variation of "The Black Cat", and not at all like the 1934 Karloff/Lugosi movie of the same name. This is the comical filling in the horror sandwich, obvious from the moment that the portly Peter Lorre comes home drunk to his much younger sexpot wife (Joyce Jameson), demanding money so he can go out and drink some more wine. He ends up in a wine drinking contest with professional wine taster Price who escorts the drunken Lorre home and meets the busty Jameson whom he is soon seeing on the side. Lorre plots delicious revenge, not realizing that his worst enemy will be the one to give him away."The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", the final part, is perhaps the goriest and definitely the most eerie. It is also extremely disturbing in the sense that it shows, with great pain, what happens when a body dies but the mind still lives, in this case Price being the victim of the witch doctor-like Basil Rathbone. It is the fact that Price considers Rathbone a friend that this ends up being the most evil of all actions in the three stories, because there seems to be no reason for Rathbone's obsessive desire to keep Price's mind still alive, in torture with a dead, decomposing body, and it seems to be even more horrific than being buried alive.In watching these Gothic horror films from American International, the viewer can find a ton of entertainment, but there are some elements of each of these stories which classifies women in general in three ways: absolutely evil, absolutely good, and absolutely unfaithful. There are no in betweens for his female characters, while Price's characters are all urbane, witty, romantic and all of a sudden nefarious. Another aspect of many of these stories is the way Price turns from noble to insane, and the gruesome ways (usually a fire) his characters are dispatched.

Claudio Carvalho "Tales of Terror" presents three adaptations of good stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by Roger Corman. (1) "Morella": The twenty and something years old Lenora (Maggie Pierce) returns to the derelict house of her estranged father Locke (Vincent Price). Her mother Morella (Leona Gage) died after giving birth to Lenora and Locke still grieves and blames Lenora for the death of his beloved wife. Lenora finds the corpse of Morella on her bed and Locke tells that he could not leave her in a coffin six feet under. Locke tries to make amends for abandoning Lenora but something supernatural happens. "Morella" is the weakest segment of this trilogy of horror tales. The good theatrical performances and the excellent sets make it worthwhile watching. My vote is six.(2) "The Black Cat": The drunkard Montresor (Peter Lorre) is an abusive man that spends the money that his wife Annabel (Joyce Jameson) earns working drinking wine in a tavern. He also mistreats her black cat. One day, Montresor meets the connoisseur of fine wines Fortunato Luchresi (Vincent Price) and he disputes his knowledge with him. Fortunato brings Montresor home and woos Annabel. When Montresor discovers that his wife is having a love affair with Fortunato, he plots an evil scheme to seek revenge. "The Black Cat" is the best segment of this trilogy. This story has humor and Peter Lorre's performance is very funny. The conclusion is hilarious with the cat's meow. My vote is eight. (3) "The Case of M. Valdemar": The wealthy Ernest Valdemar (Vincent Price) is terminal feeling great pain. He hires the hypnotizer Carmichael (Basil Rathbone) to relief his pain and asks his beloved wife Helene (Debra Paget) and his Dr. James (David Frankham) to get married to each other after his death. However Carmichael controls his mind and Valdemar dies but his soul stays trapped in his body. Carmichael tells Helene that he let Valdemar go only if she marries him but his attitude brings tragic consequences."The Case of M. Valdemar" is a creepy tale of terror. Debra Paget is very beautiful, the veteran Basil Rathbone is scary with his eerie power and the conclusion is great. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Muralhas do Pavor" ("Wall of Terror")

Robert J. Maxwell There are three tales of terror, each based on a story by Poe. In the first, a gloomy adaptation of "Morella", which has always sounded as much to me like an Italian cheese as a Poe title, Vincent Price lives in a cobweb-ridden castle, alone except for one servant with whom he exchanges few words, except, "Get out." He receives an unannounced visit from the beautiful daughter he sent away as a child, blaming her for the death of her mother in childbirth. Price sulks and his tall figure flaps around in an open dressing gown until finally he is provoked into strangling his own daughter, at which point the dead body of his wife, which he has carefully preserved, insinuates itself to a dusty gray life and -- and then I don't know what happened next, officer. I think Morella -- that is, the once-dead wife, strangles Price, but I'm not sure because, by this time, my usually normal head had an overheated merry-go-round inside it.Tale Number Two, "The Black Cat," is obviously meant as a traditional comic interlude because the central figure is the aging, blubbery, drunken, pop-eyed Peter Lorre. Now, I can't remember the original stories too well because it's been years since I've read them. But I think this one is what they call a "pastiche." Because I think I remember "The Black Cat," and in that one the dead body is buried under the floorboards, isn't it? The dead body gets walled up in the basement in "The Cask of the Amontillado." Peter Lorre doesn't do a drunk very well. It requires a certain finesse to undertake the role, which my Uncle Mort demonstrated to perfection. Lorre is obnoxious and mean, but Vincent Price is quite good as the dead body.The last tale is a souped-up version of "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," in which a "mesmerist" (Basil Rathbone) hypnotizes his patient, Price, at the moment of death and keeps him in a state of suspended trance. Price closes his eyes and reports that he is now dead. In the original, Valdemar is kept in this liminal state for seven months until, finally released, he crumbles into "a seething putrid mass" all at once. In the movie, Rathbone is evil and begins to make the dead Valdemar issue orders to Rathbone's advantage. Ultimately, the dead Price, all gray and red-eyed, as who wouldn't be, climbs out of bed and strangles the terrified Rathbone before crumbling into the seething, putrid, etc.I know Roger Corman operated with a tiny budget and all that, but his work was lurid and commercial too. Twenty years earlier, Val Lewton was working within similar financial strictures over at RKO and producing imaginative and respectable psychological horror stuff. Poe would have been an apt source for dark and carefully-crafted movies. Instead, Corman, like water, like a putrid seething fluid, always seemed to seek the lowest elevation.They didn't entertain me much but these tales must have worked with a lot of people at the time because there were a whole string of them. Boris Karloff was dragged into the stock company. If Corman could have done it, he'd have hypnotize Bela Lugosi's corpse and brought it back to life to play a few more parts. The end product was deliberate self parody which was no funnier than the first, serious productions.

Scott LeBrun Overall, this entry in Roger Cormans' cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations isn't as successful as the best of them. It drags too much in places and therefore doesn't get a good enough momentum going. Still, it's good looking stuff, as always, and does serve as a showcase for a top notch horror film cast.As scripted by Richard Matheson, these aren't necessarily very faithful adaptations, but expand on the stories in generally entertaining ways. Each runs a little over or a little under a half hour long, resulting in a 90 minute long film of merrily macabre doings. The payoffs are great, and worth waiting for in each instance.Tale One: "Morella". Vincent Price (who also stars in the other segments) plays Locke, visited by his long estranged daughter Lenora (Maggie Pierce) who wants to make up for lost time. However, even in death Lockes' late wife Morella (Leona Gage) bears a powerful resentment that hangs over everything.Tale Two: "The Black Cat". Peter Lorre, in a priceless comic performance, stumbles and mutters his way through the role of Montresor Herringbone, a hopeless alcoholic who decides to do something about the fact that his mistreated wife Annabel (Joyce Jameson) has taken up with the debonair wine taster (Price) who has entered their lives.Tale Three: "The Case of M. Valdemar". Basil Rathbone is wonderfully evil as an unscrupulous hypnotist who takes advantage of a dying man (Price), leaving the mans' mind in limbo while his wife Helene (Debra Paget) and a concerned doctor (David Frankham) fret over the situation.All three segments contain some effective horror imagery, along with the to-be- expected bizarre nightmare sequences. "The Black Cat" is by far the most utterly comedic of the trio, with some absolutely hysterical reaction shots from Price to the drunken antics of Lorre. It's also the longest, but as said before, the payoff still makes it quite worthwhile. The colours are gorgeous, the special effects decent, and the music by Les Baxter is effective throughout.Fans of filmmaker Corman and the actors involved should be satisfied with "Tales of Terror". It doesn't carry the same weight as, say, "House of Usher" or "The Masque of the Red Death", but it's still pretty fun, and that's what really matters.