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Tales of Terror

Tales of Terror

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Five Stars...
Review: Being a fan of Vincent Price and Peter Lorre for that matter, this was just priceless (no pun intended). Aside from Peter Lorre not aging well at all, this just makes his "tale" all the more realistic.
The first tale is called Morella where Vincent Price blames his visiting daughter for the death of his wife. Yet there is a twist to the story regarding the daughter. Really well done.

The second tale is The Black Cat with Peter Lorre as the main character here in one of the best parts I've seen him play.
He puts pathetic, mean and humorous into one role and is hysterical doing the classic wine testing scene with Vincent Price. I was truly laughing out loud. The facial expressions that Price has in this one when acting with Lorre are worth this DVD alone.

The third and last tale is the scariest in my view. It is called the Case of M. Valdemar where Basil Rathbone plays a man who tries to gain control over a dying Vincent Price. This is a pretty scary one, and Rathbone completes his role nicely.

The ladies in these tales (Maggie Pierce, Joyce Jameson and Debra Paget) are all absolutely stunning. You just can't compare the beauty of that day with today.

Get this DVD, especially if you like Price and Lorre....not to mention Poe. I promise you it is something you will watch over and over again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Five Stars...
Review: Being a fan of Vincent Price and Peter Lorre for that matter, this was just priceless (no pun intended). Aside from Peter Lorre not aging well at all, this just makes his "tale" all the more realistic.
The first tale is called Morella where Vincent Price blames his visiting daughter for the death of his wife. Yet there is a twist to the story regarding the daughter. Really well done.

The second tale is The Black Cat with Peter Lorre as the main character here in one of the best parts I've seen him play.
He puts pathetic, mean and humorous into one role and is hysterical doing the classic wine testing scene with Vincent Price. I was truly laughing out loud. The facial expressions that Price has in this one when acting with Lorre are worth this DVD alone.

The third and last tale is the scariest in my view. It is called the Case of M. Valdemar where Basil Rathbone plays a man who tries to gain control over a dying Vincent Price. This is a pretty scary one, and Rathbone completes his role nicely.

The ladies in these tales (Maggie Pierce, Joyce Jameson and Debra Paget) are all absolutely stunning. You just can't compare the beauty of that day with today.

Get this DVD, especially if you like Price and Lorre....not to mention Poe. I promise you it is something you will watch over and over again.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tales of Terror
Review: Classic Corman at its finest.Tales is a three story flick with horror master Vincent Price starring in all three.The first is called "Morella" & I feel is the best of the lot. Next "The Black Cat" adds some humor with Peter Lorre.All in all a fun fright feast!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of the Creepy Corman Classics
Review: Directed by the venerable king of quality low-budget filmmaking, Roger Corman, and scripted by the prolific and popular SF and horror writer Richard Matheson, TALES OF TERROR is comprised of three vignettes based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. The incomparable Vincent Price stars in all three, with Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone each co-starring (separately, alas) in one of the others. Any knowledgeable horror fans should be nearly euphoric after reading the credentials behind this flick--and they won't be disappointed!

The first story is based on Poe's "Morella," but Corman and Matheson take great liberties to make the tale darker and scarier than the original. Unfortunately, the altered plot and its resolution (?) are a bit hard to follow, and it is therefore the weaker of the three plays.

The second--and best!--vignette, "The Black Cat" is actually a composite of Poe's story of the same name and his "The Cask of Amontillado." Peter Lorre hilariously hams it up as the cuckolded Montresor Herringbone, and Vincent Price is also a riot as Herringbone's nemesis, Fortunato. In spite of the humor, however, there are still plenty of chills when Lorre builds a wall around his "problems."

The final vignette, based on Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar," features the wonderful Basil Rathbone as the hypnotist who uses his powers to put the titular character, Valdemar (portrayed by Price), in a sort of limbo between life and death. Again, Corman and Matheson have taken liberties with the original story (e.g., making the hypnotist malevolent and self-serving), but this time it's to great effect, as Rathbone makes a delightfully devilish villain. The make-up job on Price in the final scene is pretty creepy, too, in spite of the film's low-budget effects. Good old-fashioned frights in this one.

The DVD edition of TALES OF TERROR is short on extras (trailer only)--it would've been great to have a Corman commentary on this one, which many of the other MGM releases of Corman's films DO have--but seeing this film in widescreen makes it well worth the reasonable cost. A worthy addition to any fan of classic horror.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Vincent Price Film Feast
Review: Do you like stories of the macabre? Enjoy reading Edgar Allen Poe while a storm vents its fury outside your window? Like watching Vincent Price do what he does best?

If you answered yes to any of these, you'll want to own this trio of tales based on the works of EAP.

Price is a 'priceless' actor when it comes to films of gothic horror. Somehow, he can dramatise horror and revultion as no other can -- truly he is a master of the macabre.

The film itself consists of three spooky tales which will enthral the watcher (assuming this is your sort of chosen entertainment). There is virtually no bloodletting in these tales, but they strike a deeper note than Freddy ever has.

Not for younger children unless you want to sit up with them all night for their dreams, mature audiences should find this trilogy great for an evenings diversion.

** Recommended **

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: GARBAGE
Review: Don't waste your time or money with this DVD. The best part of the DVD is probably the Trailers and most of those are Garbage also. My DVD came loose in the package and scratched, too bad it didn't do any damage to ruin the Movie. I couldn't wait until the Movie was over, I would have stopped it earlier, but wanted to see if any damage was done. You'll be counting the minutes and seconds after watching the first half or even earlier. The last story was stupid and horrible and should have been left off. Don't waste your money, spend it on the cheap $5-6 horror DVD's, because at least those can be somewhat entertaining.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: GARBAGE
Review: Don't waste your time or money with this DVD. The best part of the DVD is probably the Trailers and most of those are Garbage also. My DVD came loose in the package and scratched, too bad it didn't do any damage to ruin the Movie. I couldn't wait until the Movie was over, I would have stopped it earlier, but wanted to see if any damage was done. You'll be counting the minutes and seconds after watching the first half or even earlier. The last story was stupid and horrible and should have been left off. Don't waste your money, spend it on the cheap $5-6 horror DVD's, because at least those can be somewhat entertaining.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Vincent Price is the man!!
Review: First of all, let me say that Mr. Price was incredible on all three stories. Although the movie scripts of Matheson didn't convince me, Price saves the movie. I thought that all three stories were from Poe, and I think, after I saw the DVD, that they are like a 30% or so of Poe. I have read E. A. Poe since I was on Junior High, and I didn't remember "the black cat" as in the movie, but Price is superb!! Outstanding!! His face changed a lot through all Tales of terror!! And his interpretation of Valdemar was ultra cool!!

Bravo, Mr. Price. There aren't many artists like U right now (besides Jack Nicholson, that is!!).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The movie to scare the love out of you
Review: I like the way Vincint Price and Bazzle Rathbone perform in this video. The three poe stories are great. This is one of the finest horror films I have found to date. I love the way Vincint Price turns into a monster in the story of The Black Cat. I also love the way he scares the love out of anyone who watches his horror films. This film is the example of his blood-chilling works. This film is highly recommended to all future fans. Buy it and be scared. I give you the feeling of nightmares. Buy this film! This is the movie to scare the love out of you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is Vincent Price's own film.
Review: In my view, "Tales of Terror" has every allure a "Corman&Poe&Price" could possess: eerie setting (art director Daniel Haller's merit), gorgeous directorial style, apt score by Les Baxter, a clever sript by Richard Matheson... I think that this film brings to the mind most of what one feels when one reads Poe's tales. Yes, Matheson added plots of jealousy but the result has Poe's flavor everywhere. "Morella", for example, is an excellent mixture of several tales by Poe: "The Black Cat", "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-tale Heart", with bits of black humor very fitting.

But it is Vincent Price who shines like the icon of the genre he deservedly was -and he deserved more than that-: in each of the three segments he creates a character with its own personality. In "Morella" he is Locke -in Poe's tale he has no name- the man torn apart and dejected by the death of his young wife. And he assists to the tragedy of "revivification" so dear to Poe, who coulnd't stop using it once an again. In "The Black Cat" he is an extraordinarily amusing foppish dandy (Fortunato), a wine taster, who steals Montresor "Herringbone"'s -this surname is a present from scriptwriter Matheson- wife, only to find himself together with the corpse of his mistress walled up in a cellar by the vengeful Montresor (Peter Lorre). And in the "Strange Case of Mister Valdemar" two other tales are reworked and we have Basil Rathbone hypnotizing "in articulo mortis" Vincent Price, now Valdemar, a good-natured old man. He comes back from the dead when he knows of Rathbone's efforts to coerce his widow to marry him, or make his lover of her.
I prefer "Morella". In spite of the light touch and facile dramatics of the script, the two characters sound sometime as Greek tragic figures.
Then, good entertainment and enough basic respect to the literary original.


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