Twice-told Tales
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Movie Reviews of Twice-told Tales
Movie Review: Trilogy With Vivid Mix Of Madness, Mayhem, And Murder
Summary: 4 Stars
This 1963 filmmization of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales", despite its very promising premise is in reality a bit of a mixed bag for horror lovers. For all fans of "terror" stories it has the always wonderful Vincent Price starring in each of the three individual stories which have a similar feel to them to the highly successful A.I.P stories that Price was filming in collaboration with director/producer Roger Corman around this time. However as pieces of suspense cinema they lack a certain bite to them that makes for ok entertainment but not really memorable horror viewing that would stay vividly in the mind after having seen them. On the plus side however along with Price's presense in all the stories, they have a plush look and feel to them with gorgeous colour photography, lavish sets and strong period feel and with a most interesting selection of gifted performers supporting Vincent Price including Sebastian Cabot, Richard Denning and Beverly Garland. All these individuals try hard with the material provided for them in their stories with the first segment "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", dealing with Vincent Price and Sebastian Cabot playing with the elements of life and death possibly coming off the best of the stories in this trilogy. This segment also boasts the startling and very ghoulish image of the skeleton in the wedding dress which has become the visual image most reproduced in the media for this trilogy.
Story One is "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", and has life long friends Alex Medbourne (Vincent Price), and Dr. Carl Heidegger (Sabastian Cabot), celebrating the latter's birthday and reflecting on their long life together. Carl is living in a world of constant mourning for his fiancee Sylvia (Mari Blancard) who died just prior to their marriage 38 years previously. A thunderstorm disturbs Sylvia's near by tomb and when the men investigate the damage they discover a strange liquid substance that has preserved Sylvia's body and might just be the much sort after fountain of youth. Both men try the liquid themselves and amazingly revert to their youthful selves. Carl gets the desperate idea of possibly reviving his long dead but perfectly preserved fiancee with the substance as well however while the miracle liquid succeeds in bringing her back to life it also unleashes the dark secret that Alex and Sylvia shared all those years ago which brings tragic results for all three of them.
Story Two is "Rappaccini's Daughter", and has a highly possessive man called Rappaccini (Vincent Price), taking parental protection too far when he injects his only daughter Beatrice (Joyce Taylor), with a strange substance that kills anyone who touches her. Supposedly designed to stop his daughter from being subjected to the evils and bad treatment that his former wife suffered it has the opposite effect on Beatrice who hates her father for what he has done to her in particular when she forms an attraction towards student Giovanni Guasconti (Brett Halsey), who lives next door. After futile attempts to form a relationship with the obviously in love but distant Beatrice, Giovanni manages to extract from her the real reason why she wishes him to go away. Rappaccini in an misguided effort to win his daughter's love drugs Giovanni and injects the same elements into him making him the only person now who can touch Beatrice without dying a horrid acidic death. Giovanni however seeks a cure for the both of them so that they are able to go away together however when he drinks the supposed antidote created by his College Professor Professor Baglioni (Abraham Sofaer), it instead poisons him and not wanting a life without him Beatrice also drinks it leaving a distraught Rappaccini to comtemplate the cruel irony of what he has done just before he ends his own life.
Story Three is The House of the Seven Gables", and finds Gerald Pyncheon (Vincent Price), returning to his ancestral home with new bride Alice (Beverly Garland). All is not well at the Pyncheon estate as a centuries old curse rests on the property cast by Mathew Maulle the man who's land was stolen by the Pyncheons, and the house itself is presided over by Gerald's cold and ambitious sister Hannah (Jacqueline deWit)who hates gerald and wants him gone. Alice begins to have strange feelings of a presense around her and she is able to recall indiduals and features of the house she could not possibly know. Gerald has returned to the house with the sole purpose of finding a hidden fortune however he finds much more than he bargained for when Jonathan Maulle (Richard Denning), a descendant of Mathew's arrives and discovers a long lost connection with Alice which results in the raising of the vengeful ghost of his ancestor Mathew. Just when the frenzied and greed driven Gerald kills Hannah and believes he has found the key to the lost fortune he falls foul of the ghost's vengenance dying as was prophesized when the curse was first laid on the family, with blood coming from his mouth as he lies in a chair like all his ancestors did. That accomplished the curse then destroys the Pyncheon mansion freeing Jonathan and Alice to start their own life together free of the curse of the House of the Seven Gables.
I personally enjoy these multi story movies which remind me somewhat of the great anthologies produced by Britian's Amicus Prouctions in the late 1960's to early 1970's. If you can look past the obvious weaknesses in the content of each of the stories there is still alot to enjoy in "Twice Told Tales". The films impeccable performances by the leads despite the often slim material they have to work with, the lavish sets and costumes, interesting musical score, and good for the time special effects in a beautiful colour production certainly help to make it a good but not great edition to any horror lovers collection of horror anthologies. Vincent Price alone is always worth watching in efforts such as this and the similar "Tales of Terror" and in "Twice Told Tales", he achieves the rare distiction of not only starring in each of the three stories but also in being interesting and highly believable as the three seperate and very different characters he plays. "Twice Told tales", with it's goodlooking production is definately worth a look for horror movie lovers despite it being not terribly frightening in it's storytelling. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Interesting Tales with Vincent Price
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a screen adaptation of "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", "Rappaccini's Daughter", and The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Director Sidney Salkow's telling of these tales is pretty dry stuff. However Vincent Price is always a pleasure to watch and he has a great cast to work with including Sebastian Cabot, Bret Halsey, Richard Denning, Mari Blanchard, Beverly Garland and Edith Evanson. The sets by Charles Thompson, art designs by Franz Bachelin and colorful cinematography by Ellis W. Carter were very effective. "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" was my favorite tale. This is a good DVD.Movie Review: Twice watched flick
Summary: 4 Stars
Nice flick, and yes, reminicent of Corman in a slightly more straightforward way. Not only does it lack Corman's dreamy camerawork, but the picture also seems by bits to be suffering from too much bright lighting, where there should be shadows and mid-tones. The film is well presented, the copy is very good, with probably the best picture / sound quality available. Definitely not terryfying to modern viewer, but worth buying, if you have all the Corman films, and still want more!Movie Review: A TRIO OF HORROR, GHOSTS AND GREED!
Summary: 4 Stars
Three short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne tailored for
Vincent Price.A must-buy for a fan of this genre.
Movie Review: Classic tales of the supernatural
Summary: 3 Stars
Though the three stories contained in this collection are by no means good adaptations of the original sources,they are still worth viewing if only to watch the incomparable Vincent Price. The stories here are very loosely adapted from the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The first story "Dr Heidegger's Experiment" is perhaps the best of the three - it centers around two old friends who suddenly find the source of life and youth dripping from the ceiling of a crypt. Before long, the two friends restore their youth and also bring a long-dead corpse back to life but discover that some things are best left as is. "Rappacini's Daughter" is the weakest of the three - Vincent Price stars as Dr Rappacini, whose possessiveness of his daughter goes to literally toxic lengths with predictably tragic consequences. The plot here was rather plodding and lacked credibility as the story felt rushed through.
Finally,in "The House of the Seven Gables", Gerald Pycheon returns to his cursed ancestral home much to the chagrin of his estranged sister and the horror of his wife, who senses a strange affinity to the place. This story would have played out a lot better if it were not confined to the ridiculous length of abt 35 minutes [imagine an entire novel being shortened into a short story] and everything plays out so quickly and abruptly that the story ends up being more of a farce than true horror.
All in all, I'd recommend this to fans of Vincent Price and those who get a kick out of the classic horror movies of yesteryear.
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