An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe (1970)

Kenneth Johnson(Creator of "The Incredible Hulk" & "V") directed this verbal adaptation of four Edgar Allan Poe stories. Vincent Price reads all four tales and plays out the roles in dramatic and professional fashion, making the viewer forget that he is on a stage, and pulling you into the skill and terror of the original stories, told in their entirety.'The Sphinx', 'The Cask Of Amontillado', 'The Tell-Tale Heart' & "Pit and the Pendulum' are all good choices, and Price had previously played in Roger Corman directed versions of two of them.At about an hour, this is a fun view/listen any time of year, but especially at Halloween, or a rainy day!

What this film is: Vincent Price, alone, on a stage, reciting four Edgar Allen Poe stories: Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, Cask of Amontillado and Pit and the Pendulum. Why "Sphinx" instead of "Black Cat" or "Raven", I do not know, but there it is.Why this film exists, I am not really sure. It is an AIP picture, the same company Price had previously worked with to make the Poe films, so that makes sense. But what this amounts to is Price sitting in a room (well, four rooms) in various costumes (designed by his wife Mary Grant) reading the works of Poe in a very dramatic fashion -- especially "Tell-Tale Heart". It would make a great one-man stage show, but seems very strange for a film.What apparently happened is that director Kenneth Johnson developed this idea, and Price was quite interested. But because he was under contract to AIP, they had to bring AIP on board. This is probably for the best, as they already knew how to market Price-Poe films, and it also brought on board the composer Les Baxter, who is one of the greatest (yet unsung) composers of the 20th century.The picture quality, at least on the copies I have watched, is shoddy. Even the Scream Factory release is only in standard definition, which leads me to believe that there is no other way to present it. It looks like it was taped off the TV, which I suppose is not too far from the truth considering they were using TV-quality cameras rather than film cameras. And the pauses between acts are unusually long. But it was still enjoyable... Price knows his Poe, and you can tell he is doing most of it from memory.The film appears on Scream Factory's Vincent Price Collection, Volume 3. The film itself is not improved from the MGM release, but it does have a few special features to bolster it. Steve Haberman's audio commentary focuses less on the film itself and much more on the writing of Poe. This is interesting, in that we find where the stories came from -- they were not all just inventing out of thin air. Haberman's commentary style is a bit dry, as he apparently just reads his notes and has a tendency to recite the career highlights of people. But it is still nice.Interestingly, there is a 20-minute interview with director Kenneth Johnson, whose memory is incredible in his recollection of what was necessary to do each of the four stories. Who knew you could put makeup on a rat? It would have been nice is Johnson had provided the audio commentary rather than Haberman, because if he had 50 minutes to talk rather than 20, it would be quite informative on the process. But maybe I am just being picky. The Vincent Price Collection (Volume 3) is well worth owning. This might be the least best in the set, but if the worst film is one of Price reciting Poe tales, that is still better than most of the fluff being made these days.

The Master expressing faithfully his Master, what more needs to be said? Perhaps the fact that the Master's grand performance gives aw and chill to the stories, makes them come alive, yes, dauntingly alive for the masses, as if spoken by his Master himself, from beyond the Tomb of Ligeia.The title of the movie says it all: it is an evening OF Edgar Allan Poe, not an evening with Edgar Allan Poe. This is no arrogance, just plain sincerity, as only one person on this godforsaken planet had the right to say and do so.I have been tormented in Beauty many times. Thank you, my Masters, for tormenting me once again.Dixit.

I really couldn't believe my eyes as I started to watch this. The thought of an actor (even someone as iconic as Mr Price) simply reading Poe made me wary - I've heard it done often, and not well at that (why do actors always seem to get hysterical when reading Poe?!)! But from the first few words of The Tell Tale Heart I was, as the previous comment stated, absolutely mesmerised. Transfixed. And very probably sat with my mouth hanging open. It was magnificent. Poe in its truest form. Spell-binding, macabre, poetic, horrifying, all of it. However - the greatest revelation was the man himself. Boy, could he act! I never realised this. Why, oh why didn't directors push him more?! He was capable of so much more... I've always enjoyed his performances, glorious in their over-the-top ripeness, but never, ever, dreamed he was capable of such control and such intensity...I remained stunned and awed by the experience!