October Movies: Making a Plan for Fall Evenings

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Finding something to watch on TV has been a challenge in recent years. During the month of October, I like to turn to my favorite movies from Vincent Price. While I used to enjoy a larger selection of 'horror' movies in the past, I find that, as I get older, I like my scary movies to be less gory and less scary. So, very often, Vincent Price movies make for a great choice. 

Movies Based Upon Edgar Allan Poe Tales 

Many of the movies in which Vincent Price starred were loosely based upon the works of Edgar Allan Poe. As a fan of the 19th-century author (and being a former volunteer at the Edgar Allan Poe Site), I have always enjoyed watching these movies and comparing and contrasting them to the actual poem or short story. Many of these movies are brought to viewers by Roger Corman (who is known for low-budget movies, which oftentimes had a huge impact).

Part of the reason why Roger Corman made the series of eight movies based upon Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems is because, as Corman stated in How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood, "Poe has a built-in audience. He's read in every high school" (78). If you watch all eight Poe movies by Corman, you may notice similarities as he reused sets and scenes in each film. 

The Tomb of Ligeia 

In the original short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in 1838, the narrator of the story is in love with and marries Ligeia, who eventually falls ill and dies. After a brief period, he moves to England and remarries. His second wife falls ill after a time, and it is with her illness and death that we read of an unusual occurrence.  

According to the Fun Facts of the double feature DVD, "Roger Corman referred to the movie as the biggest and most exciting of his eight Edgar Allan Poe adaptions." To be honest, this one does not rank high on my list, as I do not watch it as often as some of the other movies. 

An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe 

On Side B of the double feature with The Tomb of Ligeia is An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe, where Vincent Price narrates four tales of Edgar Allan Poe: 

• The Tell-Tale Heart 
• The Sphinx
• The Cask of Amontillado 
• The Pit and the Pendulum 

This is another movie that I do not often watch, but two of the four tales are among my favorite Poe short stories. From the "beating of his hideous heart" to the thousand injuries born by the narrator of The Cask of Amontillado, these are perfect stories of revenge and madness. And both The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado really do lend themselves for reading aloud. 

The Oblong Box 

The story of The Oblong Box centers around the narration of a voyage from Charleston, South Carolina to New York City. The box of the title is a piece of baggage of Cornelius Wyatt, his wife, and his two sisters. It has a very peculiar shape and emits a strange odor, but no one on board the vessel knows what is in it. Readers will discover the answer to the mystery when reading this short story. 

Two horror legends team up in The Oblong Box directed by Gordon Hessler. Vincent Price stars as a plantation owner, and Christopher Lee plays a doctor. While the movie takes common themes from Poe stories such as premature burial, there is also a voodoo theme woven into this movie. 

The Raven 

The original poem is probably very familiar to many. A man mourns the loss of his love, Lenore, and a raven visits him and taunts him in his sadness. The movie would only loosely use this theme, as it brought together three of the most well-known and popular horror legends of the day – Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre.  This particular Roger Corman movie is more of a comedy than a horror movie, as Price and Karloff are two dueling wizards.  For a movie shot in just three weeks, though, it does exhibit a great production for the money and time spent on it. 

It is interesting to note that the three main actors all had very different acting styles. Peter Lorre was more extemporaneous, as Corman noted, and Lorre would improvise. Price was trained classically, so he tended to do scenes exactly as they were scripted, but he was open to changes. Karloff, on the other hand, as Corman shared, "knew his lines and expected to do his scenes as written and no other way" (85). It is also entertaining to see how these three actors, along with Jack Nicholson, came together to make the movie. 

The Haunted Palace 

The original poem was originally released separately but was then incorporated into The Fall of the House of Usher by Poe. The Haunted Palace describes an ideal and exotic setting where art flourishes among the royals. However, there is eventually sorrow, and death finds its way.

Even though this Corman film is entitled after the Poe poem – and even uses some of the stanzas within the movie – The Haunted Palace is actually based upon the H.P. Lovecraft novella, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The back of my VHS tape describes the plot of the movie as showing a grandson whose ancestor was kidnapping young girls and was eventually burned alive. This grandson, Charles Dexter Ward, returns to the village and is suspected by the villagers of doing evil himself. "Will Charles Dexter Ward, and the villagers, survive the evil that lurks in the darkness of that Haunted Palace?" 

Other Horror Films 

Scream and Scream Again 

This 1969 movie brings together Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing in a movie where madmen are attempting to take over the world. This is another Price movie that I do not watch every year as it does cross a bit more into the horror side than I prefer now. 

Theater of Blood 

This black comedy inspired me to read many William Shakespeare plays that I had not read yet in school or after college. In 1973, Vincent Price and Diana Rigg star as a father and daughter team who seek revenge upon the "nine London critics who denied him the Best Actor of the Year Award."  Price, as Edward Lionheart, uses the murders in Shakespearean plays as models for the murders of the critics.

Movies That Have Had Remakes 

House on Haunted Hill 

Another film director who brought many B-movies to the screen is William Castle, who directed House on Haunted Hill. In this story, Price stars as an eccentric millionaire who wishes to do away with his greedy, gold-digging wife. He invites several supposedly random individuals to a birthday party for his wife in which they are all locked in the haunted house. The guest who survives the night will win $10,000. Plot twists make for an interesting movie. 

William Castle also directed another Vincent Price movie that employed a different gimmick from House on Haunted Hill (which had a skeleton fly through the theater on a wire). The Tingler was a movie in which a creature attached itself to the spine of a human. It came alive when the person was scared and destroyed with screaming. In locations where The Tingler played, technicians attached objects to the bottom of some theater seats that would vibrate to scare the viewers. 

The Last Man on Earth 

This is such an interesting look at vampires. Price stars at scientist Robert Morgan who is immune to the plague that has swept across the world. The victims of the plague are transformed into vampires who seek out the blood of Morgan. As The Last Man on Earth, Morgan wanders around empty streets and fortifies his home against the nightly attacks while also trying to destroy those who might wake as vampires. 

The movie was based upon the 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, I am Legend, which was adapted two other times and inspired many of the popular television series and movies in the zombie/vampire genre. 

House of Wax 

This is one of my favorites starring Vincent Price. Even with all the hokey 3D parts – the man playing with a paddle ball or throwing popcorn at the audience – the movie is still a wonderful production, mixing horror and sadness. The movie was based upon the 1933 movie, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and has been remade since (which I refuse to watch due to its focus on gore). 

More and More Movies 

There are many more movies starring Vincent Price that are part of my collection. From my old VHS tapes that I am slowly trying to replace to the classic releases of the more popular movies, there are many good ones such as The House of the Seven Gables, The Bat, and The Masque of the Red Death. And if you are interested in just some of Price's smaller roles, don't forget to check out Edward Scissorhands and Michael Jackson's Thriller. Do you have any favorite Vincent Price movies?