Corman, Poe & Price.

The fourth venture into Poe adaptations for Roger Corman and Vincent Price sees them taking on the portmanteau format with a trilogy of creepers.

First off is Morella, which finds Price as a typecast loner living in a big old mansion with the dead corpse of his wife! Enter his daughter, who at birth was the reason for Morella’s death and thus Price originally holds a grudge, but of course there is a twist in the tale.

Secondly is The Black Cat, with Peter Lorre joining Price in the best of the three tales. Price is a wine tasting dandy, Lorre a complete drunk and once Price meets Lorre’s beautiful put upon wife, things are going to end badly.

Finally is The Case of M Valdemar which pits Basil Rathbone into the mix as a devious hypnotist who uses his powers for what he thinks will be sexually tinged deeds. Price is in this as well, but spends most of the story as a corpse.

It’s a short sharp shock piece of film making, fun and sometimes stylish, it doesn’t however have the requisite scares to marry up with the welcome black humour that makes the second instalment the standout.

Still, having three legends of cinema in one picture has to be a bonus, and The Black Cat alone is worth investing time with this one. 7/10

My obsession with anthologies grows even more after watching Roger Corman's "Tales of Terror". This Vincent Price vehicle is geared toward horror but adds some humor to the mix.

Of the three stories here I'll give the nod as the best to the funny and eerie "The Black Cat". The story stars Price and Peter Lorre. Lorre is an always drunken husband who is mostly abusive to his beautiful wife. One day Lorre stumbles into a wine-tasting competition and matches skills with the overly-stuffy and elite Price who plays a wine-tasting expert. The techniques of the two are so totally different and Price is so awesomely outrageous that it makes the film worth watching on it's own.

The final tale called "The Case of Mr. Valdemar" features Price and Basil Rathbone. It is a genuinely spooky tale about keeping a man alive at the very moment of his death. Price's telepathic telling of his afterlife experiences as they are happening is chilling stuff.

The first act is called "Morella" which is tragic but kind of stuffy and overly-dramatic. There's nothing very scary about it but it is entertaining enough as it moves toward it's climax.

I like some of the camera tricks scattered throughout the three stories. They were fun even though they did distract me from time to time.