MovieChat Forums > Tales of Terror (1962) Discussion > Mixing Stories

Mixing Stories

posted 19 years ago by Baravelli_the_ice_lady
16 replies | jump to latest

I thought this film was pretty good, but the mixing of stories really bugged me. Morella is mostly "Ligeia"; The Black Cat is two-thirds "The Cask of Amontillado"; and while The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar was the closest of the three segments to its original story, that weird subplot about the mesmerist wanting to marry the widow just threw it off, I think. And, of course, the ending is different.

Anyroad, I did enjoy this film, but it made me want to go back and read the real stories again--they're so much better untampered-with.

"And now, I'm going back in the closet...where men are empty overcoats..."

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Baravelli_the_ice_lady 19 years ago

**Spoilers here in case anyone reading this doesn't want to know these endings**

In Poe's story, the mesmerist realizes that Valdemar's soul is trapped in his body, and releases him from the trance, causing the body--which has been dead for several months--to instantly decay into "a nearly liquid mass of loathsome--of detestable putrescence." This jazz about the body getting up and murdering the mesmerist is all Hollywood.

The original Poe stories are a lot darker than this film. I was reading the engrossing (if twisted) "Berenice" one day at my grandmother's house, and she asked me what was so interesting. I read it to her, and she looked a little green afterwards.

"And now, I'm going back in the closet...where men are empty overcoats..."

[–] Miss_October 19 years ago

This isn't the weirdest "mixture" in the Corman "Poe" series, Baravelli! That title would have to go to The Haunted Palace, whose title is taken from a poem which appears in "The Fall of the House of Usher", but whose script is actually an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The only connection to Poe is that the poem is quoted at the very end of the movie!

Here's the link to its IMDB page: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0057128/

Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.

[–] jonschaper 19 years ago

Marketers. They simply have no shame. I sometimes don't know if I should revile them or admire them.

One of my favourite stories is about this one roadshow impresario (maybe Claude Alexander, but I can't be bothered to look it up right now) advertised that an audience member would win a 100% real life dead body. At the end of the show a ticket would be drawn and the winner received a frozen chicken. Unlike Corman, he couldn't be accused of false advertising!

[–] Miss_October 19 years ago

It may have been William Castle. He was well-known for stunts like that, such as free life insurance policies for anyone who died of fright during the picture!

Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.

[–] jonschaper 19 years ago

Definitely not Castle (although I love that guy!). I would love to see a William Castle film festival, complete with Emergo, Percepto and his other gimmicks re-created!

This was one of those traveling "monster" shows during which they had things like magicians performing on stage and kids dressed as monsters running out into the audience in between cheap old prints of b-movies. They largely died out in the early 1960s when audiences became too savvy (or cynical) to appreciate them anymore.

[–] Miss_October 19 years ago

Wow, I've never heard of those shows! Do you have a book or a link where I could read about them?

My favorite Castle moment is, I think, the one at the end of Sardonicus, where he supposedly takes an audience vote on Sardonicus' fate! His best movie, though, is definitely The Night Walker with Barbara Stanwyck, which actually has some genuinely scary moments, not to mention a truly creepy score by Vic Mizzy.

Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.

[–] jonschaper 19 years ago

Whoops! It's "spook show", not "monster show". Something Weird (www.somethingweird.com, God bless them) released a DVD called "Monsters Crash the Pajama Party" which does its best to recreate the experience. The quality of the content is questionable, but it is an excellent piece of history:

"Grab the kids, lower the lights, and turn every night into Halloween with the Monsters Crash the Pajama Party Spook Show Spectacular! It's a Spookaroo Whoop-de-doo with this Terrorific 3-hour-plus Spooktacular containing everything you need for your very own Spook Party! First, join some terrified teens who spend a night in a haunted house and get spooked by a mad doctor and his ghoulish gang when the Monsters Crash the Pajama Party, a hilarious 1965 theatrical featurette complete with werewolf, gorilla in a fur coat, and goofy gimmick! Then, feel your eyes pop out of their sockets when you check into The Asylum of the Insane, a startling short subject with monsters in 3-D Spookarama (3-D glasses included)! But that's not all! This scary, screwy, chill-arious fright show includes bonus shorts, Spook Show previews, audio commentaries, How to Put on Your Own Spook Show, music by The Dead Elvi, and much more--plus the bonus feature-length chiller-diller Tormented!

Free 3-D glasses; 2 Audio Commentaries by ghostmasters Philip "Dr. Evil" Morris and Harry "Dr. Jekyl" Wise; Short subjects Don't Be Afraid, Spook House Ride, Drive-In Werewolf and Chased by Monsters; Horror Home Productions from the 1920s, '40s and '60s, including London After Midnight, The Mummy, Mr. Hyde and more, with musical accompaniment by the Chiller Theatre house band, The Dead Elvi; Spooky Musical Soundies; Spooks-a-Poppin' Trailer Show, containing over 45 minutes of rare Spook Show previews including The Great London Ghost Show, Dr. Evil and His Terrors of the Unknown, Dr. Jekyl and his 'Real Gone' Weird Show, and many more; Gallery of 300 Spook Show Stills and Exploitation Art; Radio-Spot Rarities; Illustrated essay How to Put on Your Own Spook Show; Secrets of the Spook Show booklet by ghostmaster Jim The Mad Doctor Ridenour; Bonus feature: Musician Richard Carlson is haunted by a ghostly girlfriend in director Bert I. Gordon's chiller-diller Tormented (1960, 72 min.); plus a special introduction in Hypnoscope will give you the courage to face the terror!"

Note: The 3D isn't very good :( They have even better DVDs of an "adult" nature featuring Roadshow material from the 1930s (i.e. films about VD, drugs, childbirth, etc., complete with full frontal nudity and graphic medical images).

[–] Baravelli_the_ice_lady 19 years ago

Miss October, johnschaper, that's all very interesting stuff! I'd never heard of the Haunted Palace film, but it hardly surprises me that they'd go as far as they did in tampering with it. I suppose they just figured that "Poe" would be a name that would draw more horror fans into a theatre than "Lovecraft."

"And now, I'm going back in the closet...where men are empty overcoats..."

[–] jonschaper 19 years ago

I wouldn't be surprised if they were also worried that some people would interpret "Lovecraft" to mean "porn". Keep in mind that years after Tales of Terror came out, some newspapers still had strange restrictions on advertising. Some papers would, e.g., black out the name of the film "Succubus", so the distributor just ran the photo and with a line advising readers to phone the theatre to ask for the title of the film and what it meant.

A popular, early sex shop in Toronto was actually called Lovecraft. A bit before my time, but I'm sure one could find tentacle shaped products there.

[–] vpilutis 9 years ago

Keep in mind that years after Tales of Terror came out, some newspapers still had strange restrictions on advertising

For porn titles they had to leave out the word S E X in same.
How silly

on location with SUPERMAN I,& OTHER STARS
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] Miss_October 19 years ago

"I suppose they just figured that "Poe" would be a name that would draw more horror fans into a theatre than "Lovecraft.""

Lovecraft wasn't well known any more by the early '60s; his revival started a few years later. Nowadays, of course, it's Lovecraft's name which is used to sell movies that bear little resemblance to his stories!

Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.

[–] STEVE-1559 19 years ago

I think that switching the title to Poe was just an example of last-minute cowardice. After the filmmakers decided to do something different (adapting Lovecraft instead of Poe), the distributor thought the Poe title would sell better. To be fair, the story is set in a magnificent mansion that, figuratively at least, could be considred a "haunted palace." And let's not forget, at least in some of his early work, Lovecraft was heavily influenced by Poe, so it's not as if Hollywod is inventing a connection that did not previously exist.

Getting back to TALES OF TERROR, you can read more about it here:
http://www.hollywoodgothique.com/talesofterror1962.html

[–] live-a-lifestyle 17 years ago

I think this film is very underapreciated, but as I watched it for the fourth time last night i really enjoyed it. I tryed to focus on each segment indvidually-towards the end when I watch 'The M. valadimar case' I felt that I was still thinking about the prevoius two segments.

I really liked this film. I love it how Price plays a completely different character in each segment, in addtion hid acting was very good even though you don't get to understand the character as thrurly as in other full lenght films. I also like it how the storys cover a wide range of ideas.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] profh-1 9 years ago

Richard Matheson really worked some miracles with his scripts. Take "HOUSE OF USHER" for starters. Although the structure of the story remains identical, the character relationships are turned completely upside-down. Instead, of a man visiting an old friend and never getting to know the man's sister (who is buried alive accidentally), you have a man going to visit his fiancee, who winds up being deliberately buried by her insane brother.

Now look at "PIT AND THE PENDULUM". This film has in common with the "007" film "OCTOPUSSY" in that they're both sequels to short stories, rather than adaptations. Vincent Price's character in "PIT" is actually much more like "Roderick Usher" in the original story "House Of Usher" than he was in that movie. Breaking down the wall to discover the body of someone buried alive actually came from the story "The Black Cat". On top of this, I recently read the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED comic-book adaptation of "House Of Usher", and noted that Roderick's physical appearance, the design of the staircase in the main hall, and the character of the visiting doctor all found their way into the film "PIT AND THE PENDULUM". One might think production designer Daniel Heller must have seen the comic! (Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED were possibly the most-reprinted comics in the history of that industry.)

"The Premature Burial" has been described as more of a "factual article" than a fiction story. The movie actually manages to combine elements of the two earlier films, while including details from the original story and adding more of its own. It's not until the very end you find out that the main mystery plot is a redo of the 2nd film, in both cases a wife deliberately trying to drive her husband to madness & death-- and having it backfire on her. Further, the sub-plot of the medical student in love with the rich married woman was carried over into the 3rd segment of "TALES OF TERROR".

It should be obvious why I love watching these films IN ORDER. Otherwise, I'd really get confused!