Alicia I love this movie so much

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Woodyanders Legendary horror icon Vincent Price narrates four tales of terror written by the great Edgar Allan Poe. The show starts off with a very passionate and riveting reading of "The Tell Tale Heart." Next we have a perfectly whimsical telling of "The Sphinx," a comical anecdote that builds to one doozy of a funny punchline. "The Cask of Amontillado" receives a beautifully chilling rendering. The program concludes on a properly unnerving note with a positively marrow-freezing rendition of "The Pit and the Pendulum." Director/co-writer Ken Johnson keeps the pace rattling along at a snappy clip and allows Price full reign to really strut his sensational show-stopping stuff. Price is in exceptional form throughout and acts with tremendous verve, intensity and conviction; his rich, plummy voice in particular rarely sounded more sonorously sinister than it does here. The lively and restless prowling cinematography adds a considerable amount of crackling energy to the deliciously macabre proceedings. Les Baxter's splendidly spooky and shuddery score likewise hits the spine-tingling spot. But what truly makes this affair so fine and effective is its refreshing faithfulness to the original material: There's no unnecessary padding or filler to speak of; instead we get extremely stark and straightforward presentations of Poe's stories that go right to the black heart of the matter with often genuinely scary and unsettling results. Essential viewing for both Vincent Price fans and Edgar Allan Poe aficionados alike.

spookypurple7 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!

The_Void I wasn't expecting much from this film. It comes in a double pack with Roger Corman's "The Tomb of Ligeia", which is how I came across it. I bought the DVD purely for the Corman film and saw this merely as a bonus - but to my surprise, it almost surpassed the film I bought the double pack for. The idea of an actor sat on a set reading out stories doesn't sound particularly fascinating; until you consider that the writer of the stories is the magnificent maestro of the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe and the actor doing the reading is the one and only Vincent Price: then, suddenly it becomes rather more intriguing. An Evening of Edgar Allen Poe features Vincent Price reading four of Poe's stories - The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask of Amontillado and The Pit and the Pendulum.The first story on that list is perhaps my favourite of Poe's works, and Price does a great job of reading it. The malevolent tones of his voice draw you into the story and don't let go until it ends. The Tell-Tale Heart sees Poe at his most adept, and the way the story moves echoes the beating of the heart in the story. We then move on to The Sphinx, which is definitely the weakest of the four stories; but that's not to say it isn't a great little tale. It's surprisingly funny for Poe, and Price does another excellent job of reading it. The Cask of Amontillado sees Poe back to his most devilishly wicked, and features the common Poe theme of being buried alive. The story features lines of dialogue between two characters, which means Price has to read both out and the way he does it is superb. You get all the madness of the central character, and the menacing tones of the story from the sound of his voice. The final tale is 'The Pit and the Pendulum', and this is a Poe classic that speaks for itself. Many will remember Corman's excellent take on it, but here we get the original story just as Poe wrote it - and it's quite different from Corman's! The Pit and the Pendulum features what is maybe Poe's finest line ever, and you're guaranteed to get a chill down your spine when Price delivers it - "the agony of my soul found vent in loud, long and final scream of despair".Price really proves his worth as an actor in this movie. It takes a lot of talent to keep the audience's interest when all you're doing is sitting and reading out stories - but Price does it. He doesn't just deliver the stories; he practically becomes them. He's the perfect storyteller, and he shows us that here. Maybe it's his voice, or perhaps it's the obvious love he had for the material but whatever the reason; this is an excellent telling of Poe's works and if you get the chance to see it - I insist that you take it.

livia1881 I just saw this tonight on AMC (American Movie Classics) Vincent Price, I just couldn't take my eyes off him. He really is a GREAT actor. Edgar Allen Poe's stories that are used here are such cliff-hangers!! I've never read anything of his in print. There are other films with Price doing Poe's works, I've seen one or two of those and they are fine. But this has to be the best of those.