Perfect cast and a good story

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I'm not just a fan of Vincent Price's films, I really love him! In my humble opinion Vincent Price must have been one of the most fascinating people who ever walked the earth and one of my biggest wishes would be to have known him in person. When I was ten years old I first saw him on the big screen in "Edward Scissorhands" but I was too young to realize who he was. A few years later I watched "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" – arguably his most iconic role and performance – for the first time and I got hooked on his persona forevermore. The horror genre brought forward many legendary actors (Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing…) but there's only ONE Vincent Price! His bravura, his charisma, his grimaces and most of all – of course – his voice… This man was unique and I treasure each and every single one of his horror movies. He's also the only person in cinematic history that actually could have made the concept of "An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe" work! One and the same person narrating four (gothic) horror stories in front of a camera? Even with other acclaimed narrators/actors, like for example Morgan Freeman or Leonard Nimoy or James Earl Jones, this inevitably would have become tedious and monotonous. But not with Price. He is single-handedly responsible for making this movie almost as captivating and intense as a real action/horror movie. Two of the stories are very familiar to probably all fans of horror literature, namely "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Pit and the Pendulum". But although familiar and previously seen in other films, they still remain my favorite segments and particularly "The Tell-Tale Heart" because it provides our narrator with the ideal opportunity to go 100% mentally berserk during its climax! "The Sphinx" is only a very short interlude, but definitely sweet. The third tale is called "The Cask of Amontillado" and turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. It's a beautifully sinister and atmospheric tale thriving on vintage E. A. Poe themes like vengeance and immurement (being walled in alive). Highlight of this segment is a fierce dialog between two rivaling friends, brought by Vincent Price all alone. Magnificent decors and costumes too, by the way.

What this film is: Vincent Price, alone, on a stage, reciting four Edgar Allen Poe stories: Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, Cask of Amontillado and Pit and the Pendulum. Why "Sphinx" instead of "Black Cat" or "Raven", I do not know, but there it is.Why this film exists, I am not really sure. It is an AIP picture, the same company Price had previously worked with to make the Poe films, so that makes sense. But what this amounts to is Price sitting in a room (well, four rooms) in various costumes (designed by his wife Mary Grant) reading the works of Poe in a very dramatic fashion -- especially "Tell-Tale Heart". It would make a great one-man stage show, but seems very strange for a film.What apparently happened is that director Kenneth Johnson developed this idea, and Price was quite interested. But because he was under contract to AIP, they had to bring AIP on board. This is probably for the best, as they already knew how to market Price-Poe films, and it also brought on board the composer Les Baxter, who is one of the greatest (yet unsung) composers of the 20th century.The picture quality, at least on the copies I have watched, is shoddy. Even the Scream Factory release is only in standard definition, which leads me to believe that there is no other way to present it. It looks like it was taped off the TV, which I suppose is not too far from the truth considering they were using TV-quality cameras rather than film cameras. And the pauses between acts are unusually long. But it was still enjoyable... Price knows his Poe, and you can tell he is doing most of it from memory.The film appears on Scream Factory's Vincent Price Collection, Volume 3. The film itself is not improved from the MGM release, but it does have a few special features to bolster it. Steve Haberman's audio commentary focuses less on the film itself and much more on the writing of Poe. This is interesting, in that we find where the stories came from -- they were not all just inventing out of thin air. Haberman's commentary style is a bit dry, as he apparently just reads his notes and has a tendency to recite the career highlights of people. But it is still nice.Interestingly, there is a 20-minute interview with director Kenneth Johnson, whose memory is incredible in his recollection of what was necessary to do each of the four stories. Who knew you could put makeup on a rat? It would have been nice is Johnson had provided the audio commentary rather than Haberman, because if he had 50 minutes to talk rather than 20, it would be quite informative on the process. But maybe I am just being picky. The Vincent Price Collection (Volume 3) is well worth owning. This might be the least best in the set, but if the worst film is one of Price reciting Poe tales, that is still better than most of the fluff being made these days.

Evening with Edgar Allan Poe, An (1972) ** (out of 4) Vincent Price highlights this strange made for TV film that has him reading and acting out four different Poe stories. The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask of Amontillado and The Pit and the Pendulum are the four stories being done here and while Price is brilliant in all of them it's still rather hard to sit through this film on many repeat viewings. I think most of the charm comes from your first viewing and after that it's better to just check out other filmed versions of these classic stories. Price is really the only reason to watch this film as he dives head first into the readings and really makes them quite intense. My favorite is his reading of "The Tell-Tale Heart", which is already my favorite item from Poe. Price's narration of the beating heart is very well done and makes this first story the best. The biggest problem I have with this film is its direction, which in my opinion is pretty poor. I don't think the director had them filming everything very well and I found the editing of the performance even weaker. Still, for Price fans you should still see it once.

Originally aired on television, I caught it recently on AMC. Price is fantastic, as he enacts four Poe tales, alone. With just him and a small set, he manages to engross you completely in the tales he tells. A true testament to his ability as an actor and his superb storytelling skills. Highly recommended.