TWICE TOLD TALES (1963)

In the early 60s, B-level horror movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe were consistent moneymakers, mostly for Roger Corman and American International Pictures. This anthology film is an attempt by independent producer Robert Kent to turn Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories into a similar money-making machine, going as far as featuring the star of most of the Poe films, Vincent Price. In the first story, "Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment," Alex (Price) and Carl (Sebastian Cabot) are old friends who have gathered to celebrate Carl's birthday. Chief among the memories brought up is the tragic death of Carl's fiancée Sylvia on the eve of their wedding almost 40 years ago. When the two visit her crypt, they discover that some water which has been seeping onto her coffin has kept her body preserved. When they drink the water, they grow 40 years younger, and Carl decides to inject Sylvia with the water. She returns to life and the ecstatic Carl makes plans to marry her right away. What Carl doesn't know is that Sylvia and Alex had been carrying on an affair, and Alex poisoned Sylvia before the wedding so she couldn't marry Carl. When Carl overhears them talking, the urge for revenge leads to an unhappy end for all three. The second story, "Rappaccini’s Daughter," features Price as scientist Giacomo Rappaccini whose wife ran off with a lover years ago, leaving him alone with their daughter Beatrice. In a misguided attempt to save her from the disappointments of love, he injects her with a serum that makes her very touch poisonous to other living things, plants as well as people, and she grows up essentially a prisoner in her father's home. But when Giovanni, a new neighbor, sees her wandering in her garden (careful not to touch plants lest they wither and die), he falls in love, and when he discovers her sad secret, he gets a scientist to come up with an antidote to the serum. Things go well for a minute or two, but....

These two sequences work fairly well, although in their staginess and lack of visual style they have the feel of episodes of a TV anthology series. The third story is a drastic condensation and reworking of Hawthorne's novel The House of the Seven Gables (which had been filmed a bit more faithfully in 1940 with Price in the lead). Though this has a nice gothic feel and some OK shock effects involving blood and skeletons, it's too long and has a too-leisurely pace. The narrative, about family curses and hidden property deeds, is deadly dull. Price is fine, and Cabot's solid performance helps Heidegger stand out as the best of the three. In Rappaccini, Brett Halsey is fine as the would-be hero and Joyce Taylor acceptable as the damsel in distress. In Seven Gables, Price has the support of Beverly Garland and Richard Denning, but the sequence is just too sluggish to sustain much interest. Actually, the entire film (two hours) could be trimmed by quite a bit. As other online critics have noted, Corman would have produced a lean 90 minute movie with much better pacing. Imagining that I was watching something produced for live TV (which it sometimes looked like) helped me get through the rough patches. Pictured are Halsey and Taylor. [DVD]