THE TELL-TALE HEART/THE OVAL PORTRAIT

Two Classic Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe

I’m a huge fan of Poe and a huge fan of Poe on film but, once you’ve seen a few adaptations, it’s pretty plain that Poe’s stories as written are more or less unfilmable. His prose was usually brief, fragmentary, with a limited back story, and it often takes the form of the internal monologue of the protagonist - not an easy thing to relay on-screen, which is why the best of the bunch, like Corman’s Poe movies, do a great deal to develop on the original tales. These two rare examples of Poe adaptations do the same thing and draw upon Poe in some interesting ways, and, although they lack the grandiose Gothic of the better-known adaptations they’re fun in their own right, even while flawed in the delivery.

The Tell-Tale Heart (1960) unusually places love and sex at the heart of the protagonist’s murderous behaviour, rendering itself uniquely adult in theme and, although tame by today’s standards, it’s pretty racy considering how early it was made. The studio obviously thought so too, as they delayed the film’s release for a full three-year period after it was completed. It subverts the structure of the original tale, pitching itself as one of Poe’s fever dreams (much like the Masters of Horror version of the Black Cat which appeared a few years ago). Poe becomes Edgar Marsh (Laurence Payne), a reclusive, shy and sexually-frustrated character who falls in love with Betty Clare, a woman who moves in across the street (played by the lovely Adrienne Corri of Hammer’s Vampire Circus and, of course, A Clockwork Orange). After stammering out a dinner invite, he gets a largely uninterested Betty to accompany him to dinner - where they meet Edgar’s friend Carl (Dermot Walsh), and it’s soon obvious that Betty would prefer the attentions of Marsh’s more dashing friend. Although Carl initially tries to resist her attentions, it isn’t long before she seduces him - although neither of them realise that Edgar can see their tryst from his window…

The heartbroken Edgar has murder on his mind after this betrayal, and the original tale now comes into play - except it is Carl, not the elderly neighbour who ends up under the floorboards in a decidedly nasty sequence. This time, however, it is Betty who plays sleuth and seeks to catch out her one-time admirer. The conclusion is classic Poe, and the overblown theatrics are classic Poe too - Payne does a good turn as a man going out of his mind. This is an intriguing film, both very English and reserved (though set in the Rue Morgue, Paris) but also seething with sexual undercurrents. It is a slow moving piece of cinema nonetheless, and some of its pacing problems can only be forgiven for the remarkably grisly scenes which are in here if you wait for them (such as Marsh cutting out a still-beating heart which, even in a black and white, I didn’t expect to see so clearly in a film of this era). The print quality here is not too bad; the blacks and whites are rich and the film looks quite sharp, although there are some periods of noticeable print damage.

The Oval Portrait (1972) is an unusual experiment: it’s a Mexican movie made with a North American cast, and again this film plays with the (brief) plot line of the story itself to bring us another framing device - this time, a story of thwarted love during the American Civil War. A woman called Lisa (Wanda Hendrix, though credited as playing a character called ‘Genevieve’ elsewhere) arrives at the old ancestral seat for the reading of the will of Major Huntingdon, the house’s owner. She’s immediately on edge in the old place and grows obsessed with the portrait of the Major’s daughter, Rebecca Huntingdon, which hangs over the fireplace. She’s also frightened out of her wits by the presence of a mysterious man called Joseph, Rebecca’s old lover. The housekeeper, Mrs Warren, tells her the tragic story of Rebecca and Joseph’s love affair: he was a wounded Confederate soldier who Mrs Warren and Rebecca concealed in the house so that he could recover, keeping his presence secret as not only was the old Major a Yankee but he had sworn to kill any man whom Rebecca loved. Rebecca and Joseph planned to marry, but their wedding was interrupted by Joseph’s arrest, and when Major Huntingdon discovered Rebecca’s pregnancy he threw her out of the house. Her death shortly afterwards had sent Joseph demented and given rise to rumours of a haunting, so understandably Lisa and her family are quite content to leave the house to its various lovesick ghosts.

To start with, the print quality here is abysmal - washed-out blacks, faded colours and lots of evidence of damage, though it does improve as the film goes along. As with the first film in this double bill, The Oval Portrait devotes most of its time to crafting an interesting story and actually the horror elements are minimal, but when the film does go for Gothic then it has some good scenes, even turning up some well-handled Civil War combat scenes which I rather uncharitably assumed were cribbed from another film, although I can’t find evidence of that. The idea of unrequited love and madness reminded me of Wuthering Heights in places (even in the unearthing of Rebecca which the novel also goes for). This was a watchable, if rather slow Poe adaptation.

These films aren’t as high quality as some of the other Poe movies out there, but if you’re interested in seeing what can be done with the source material, as well as being an aficionado of rare, presumed lost takes on that source material, then do check these out. A definite bonus here is in the high quality, well-researched and written liner notes by Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog - he unearths some engaging info on each of these films which definitely adds an extra layer of interest to watching the films themselves. Independent Entertainment seems to specialise in releasing lesser-known B movies judging by their back catalogue, and I’m intrigued to see some of their other offerings in future. Slick, polished remasters might not be their forte, but credit to them for bringing some minor gems to the DVD market.

Review by Keri O’Shea