“The Tomb of Ligeia” was released in November of 1964. The last of director Roger Cormans popular series of eight Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, the sumptuous production boasts a script by future Oscar-winning “Chinatown” (1974) screenwriter Robert Towne, and location shooting at Englands Castle Acre Priory - a historical abbey that dates to the 12th century. It was the only film in the series that Corman didnt shoot entirely on a soundstage. The story, like all the Corman Poe adaptations, is more inspired by than based on the tale from which it takes its name, and incorporates elements from other Poe works - in this case, the story “Ligeia” and the poem “The Black Cat”. A sort of supernatural take on Hitchocks “Rebecca” (1940), the film stars Vincent Price as older newlywed Norman Fell. When Fell and his young bride Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) move into his gothic abbey, Rowena is haunted by the ghost of Fells late first wife, Ligeia. Shepherd also plays Ligeia. Corman aficionados compare “Ligeia” favorably to what are commonly regarded as the best entries in the series, “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1960) and “Masque of the Red Death” (1964). Glenn Erickson, editor of online DVD review site DVD Savant calls it Cormans masterpiece. I dig the narrators voice in the trailer below. Hes so over-the-top, at times sounding like an understudy for James Earl Jones voicing Darth Vader, and at others like hes narrating a romance novel that might have a Fabio cover.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:23:45 +0000