Tales of Terror (1962) is the fourth of eight films based on the stories of Egar Allan Poe, and like most of the others in the series this film stars Vincent Price. This film is a departure for the series however because unlike the previous films which would use one of Poe's stories and then stretch them to feature length this film uses 4 different Poe stories to tell 3 separate parts in one film. This film tells the stories of Morella, then combines both The Cask of Amontillado and The Black Cat, and finishes with the story of The Facts in the case of M. Valdemar. This film also has another departure: The Black Cat is the first story in the series that's been adapted into a pure comedy, this would lead the way for the next in the series The Raven (1963) also starring Peter Lorre.
Like many other horror films this one has very beautiful and detailed sets (it's only a pity they did not light them better). And consistently my favorite part of the Corman-Poe films (besides Vincent Price of course) is the very beautiful costumes, they may be a bit lavish or not actually historically accurate but they always seem to fit the hammy dialogue and the creepy stories wonderfully.
I assumed that because this film was going to tell multiple of Poe's stories in shorter time, this was to pick smaller stories that would have been harder to stretch to a feature running time, and therefore they would be more accurate to the actual stories. Unfortunately I was wrong. All of these stories are VERY loosely adapted and usually only carry the same themes or basic ideas of their originally written counterparts. Truthfully I didn't really care too much for the new versions either. The first one I liked mostly because of Vincent Price's acting (more on that later), but the second story seems more like a test to see if it was possible and barely resembles titular story at all, and I actually don't care for the third story in paper or on screen but I thought the climax at the end was handled nicely.
Also I find it weird that Vincent Price plays roles in each story and yet they switch out the entire female cast for each part. Maybe the actresses couldn't portray different enough acting but I would like to assume that they could have given the chance. I mean I like Vincent Price a lot, it just seems weird to me that he's is in each story and we switch between 3 different blondes for each part of the film. Funny.
And the magnificent thing about this story? Vincent Price. I got hooked into the first story on his acting alone. Usually in the Corman films I feel like his performance has an undertone of humor to it, often being very playful and "hammy" with the lines. But the first story felt like a change from that. His acting is very grave and fittingly solemn. The whole time I was just thinking, "man, this guy can really act!" And then he follows it up with probably one of the goofiest performance of his career as the expert wine taster in the next portion of the film.
Also I need to mention that the way the three stories interconnect is very simply done with a simple voice over from Vincent Price talking about, what else? Death. Loved it.
Tales of Terror (1962) plays out more like a test than anything else but the results are interesting enough to give it a watch. 3/5 stars.
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