Sky Classics (Sky 308, Virgin 408)9pm, Tuesday 28 July 2009
Once again Vincent Price stars for director Roger Corman in the last of his eight Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, a film graced by a script from Robert Towne (Chinatown) and moody cinematography by Arthur Grant (Demons of the Mind).
Price plays the wealthy Verden Fell, who buries his wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd) in a churchyard despite the fact she's an atheist. Months later, he marries the Lady Rowena (also Shepherd), but as they newlyweds settle down in Fell's gloomy abbey, Ligeia's spirit threatens to tear them apart.
On location at Castle Acre Prior in Norfolk, Corman lensed his best Poe/Price film. Although the story is just a tad too similar to the short Morella in Tales of Terror, the film is still a magical, evocative and a creepy descent into madness. And once again, Price (as the drug addicted Fell) shows us that the course of love is a sick and sordid journey. No other film could contain necrophilia, sado-masochism, drug taking and hypnotism without sinking into a mire. A masterpiece.
Don't forget to check out: The Sound of Vincent Price
