To me, this movie is perfection.

Absolutely Fantastic

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Don't you just love these old kooky horror pictures, look at this cast! Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone, three ghoulish tales with three epic stars. As I'm sure you all know this is one of Roger Corman's Poe movie adaptations that made up his eight movie series (give or take). Most of which all starred Price and a selection of the greatest horror icons of the silver screen.The movie is narrated by Price and all three tales star Price...so its a Price vehicle then. After the admittedly pointless narration we kick off with 'Morella' with Price. A young woman travels home to see her father (Price) who dwells on his own within a dusty cobweb ridden mansion. The woman wants to reconcile with her father after many years of no contact, the reason being her mother died giving birth to her and her father has never forgiven her for it. In fact he kept the young girls dead mother in the bedroom where she died, a rotting corpse, as you do. As the pair slowly grow closer together over time events take a turn for the worst as the spirit of the dead mother comes back for revenge.This entire story seemed totally ludicrous to me frankly. A woman dies giving birth to her daughter and blames the baby on her deathbed for her demise. I mean yeah sure the baby did cause it but that's not the babies fault sheesh. Then that child's father (Price) hates her for most of her young life because of it?! The ending is even more weird because I have no clue why the dead mother comes back from the dead and does what she does (kill her daughter and husband), I also have no real clue why the mothers resurrected body swaps places with her recently murdered daughter, and why they then swap back again once the husband is dead (Price). So the dead mother comes back from the dead and kills her daughter for revenge and kills her husband whom she loved very much for...? I don't know.I loved the visuals in this short tale. I adored the old creaking mansion set on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, the haunted house look with lush period interior decorations (whatever period it was). The whole atmosphere in this tale was perfectly creepy and just what you'd expect from this type of old fashioned spooky story, its just a shame the plot made no sense.The second tale was 'The Black Cat' which also incorporated 'The Cask of Amontillado', this starred Peter Lorre alongside Price. Here we see the drunken loutish Herringbone (Lorre) who abuses his wife by taking all her hard earned money and spending every night at the local pub. After stumbling into a wine tasting event he meets up with and befriends Fortunato Luchresi (Price) a wine expert. Herringbone invites Luchresi back to his place for drinks but Luchresi falls for Herringbone's wife and the pair have an affair. Herringbone gets his own back by luring Luchresi once again to his place for drinks, drugs him and walls him up in the cellar with his wife.Its called The Black Cat because Herringbone's wife has a black cat which Herringbone dislikes. In the end the cat gives his murderous game away but to be honest the cat doesn't actually feature much in the tale so it seems rather moot. This is the one story that is presented in a light-hearted way with silly humour. Both Lorre and Price really have a good time hamming it up something chronic, the best example being the brilliant wine tasting competition between the pair. Again there are so many plot holes and conveniences like how on earth Herringbone manages to get anything done when he's so utterly drunk. This short tale isn't exactly scary but more of a parody or spoof really, its a fun one.Lastly its 'The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar' with Basil Rathbone. Price's character of Valdemar is dying from a disease, Mr Carmichael (Rathbone) alleviates his pain through hypnosis. Carmichael does this as Valdemar passes away which traps his soul between the world of the living and the dead, in limbo as it were. Valdemar begs Carmichael to release him so he can pass over completely but Carmichael will not...for some reason. In the end Carmichael tries to force Valdemar's wife into marriage but she is rescued by the rotting corpse of Valdemar...somehow.Again the plot makes little sense with no proper explanations, it all just happens. This is probably the eeriest tale with Rathbone on fine form as the dastardly villain although I'm not really sure what his goal is here. He keeps Valdemar's soul trapped in limbo but I dunno why, dunno what he's trying to achieve. I'm not entirely sure if the hypnosis was meant to ease Valdemar's death or prevent it because when he does die everyone acts as though something has gone wrong. No clue how Valdemar's soulless rotting shell of a corpse manages to spring to life and save his wife from Carmichael either but hey ho.All in all I enjoyed this little anthology of horror, it wasn't scary or overly eerie but it was a barrel of high spirits. Some fantastic period set visuals with costumes and set details, some lovely old hokey special effects and hands-on practical makeup work and of course the three legendary movie icons. Probably one of the better anthologies I've seen mainly for visuals, its let down by the weak stories which other anthologies (Amicus) easily trump.6.5/10

Three short stories, all based on the collection of Edgar Allen Poe, are told in an anthology setting.The Good Stor(ies): Morella-Arriving from Boston, a young woman arrives at the castle home of her father to meet him after a lifetime of being away. Initially hostile to her and the idea, he agrees to let her stay. Still angry about his belief that she had killed his wife when she was a baby, she discovers the awful truth about what happened. Appearing one, she becomes possessed and goes after him through the castle. This is a pretty nice Gothic tale that really manages to entertain. There's a lot of the normal undertones, where the opening voyage through the fog-covered countryside, the castle itself which is just simply marvelous and features a lot of really nice scenery as well. The discovery of the shriveled corpse is pretty chilling, and it even looks quite spooky as well. The final confrontation is another fire-filled, action-packed house destruction that is so common that again comes into play. The only problem is that it feels really crammed. This easily could've been dragged out a little more and put into a feature-length rather than being in an anthology, but otherwise, this one's quite entertaining.The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar-Trying to cure his crippling pain, a man successfully concludes that hypnosis works. Knowingly dying, he asks a mesmerist to hypnotize him at the moment he dies, much to the chagrin of his wife and doctor who hope to get him to change his mind. As he approaches his deathbed, the procedure begins and it's a success, only for the event to continue on after he has died. After several months, it continues on due to his insistent to discontinue the experiment. Fearing that control of his condition is being exploited, they soon learn what has really happened and try to stop the torment. This one's not all that bad, and is mostly all that for the ending. The constant voices of doom surrounding the entire thing, the spectacular make-up used on the participants and the pretty great resolving of it all leads to some really shocking conclusion. This one here wasn't that bad at all.The Bad Stor(ies): The Black Cat-Arriving home, a man complains to his wife about his hatred for her black cat and how it interferes with his drinking. Meeting up with a wine aficionado during a drinking game, and while drunk, the two begin to start an affair. Discovering the dirty deeds, he conspires to put the both of them out of his life, only for the cat to ruin it all and forcing him to take drastic action to prevent it. This is an incredibly flawed entry. The fact that this here isn't all that frightening is its biggest problem. Most of it deals with the drinking problem rather than focusing on the cat and the drinking situations, which are nowhere near being all that scary. The fact that they occupy so much time is a complete mystery, since there's nothing in it that really inspires fear. That there's almost nothing of interest is another one, where a dream sequence that starts off promising but soon becomes too silly to be frightening. This one is easily skip-able.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

"Tales of Terror" presents three adaptations of good stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by Roger Corman. (1) "Morella": The twenty and something years old Lenora (Maggie Pierce) returns to the derelict house of her estranged father Locke (Vincent Price). Her mother Morella (Leona Gage) died after giving birth to Lenora and Locke still grieves and blames Lenora for the death of his beloved wife. Lenora finds the corpse of Morella on her bed and Locke tells that he could not leave her in a coffin six feet under. Locke tries to make amends for abandoning Lenora but something supernatural happens. "Morella" is the weakest segment of this trilogy of horror tales. The good theatrical performances and the excellent sets make it worthwhile watching. My vote is six.(2) "The Black Cat": The drunkard Montresor (Peter Lorre) is an abusive man that spends the money that his wife Annabel (Joyce Jameson) earns working drinking wine in a tavern. He also mistreats her black cat. One day, Montresor meets the connoisseur of fine wines Fortunato Luchresi (Vincent Price) and he disputes his knowledge with him. Fortunato brings Montresor home and woos Annabel. When Montresor discovers that his wife is having a love affair with Fortunato, he plots an evil scheme to seek revenge. "The Black Cat" is the best segment of this trilogy. This story has humor and Peter Lorre's performance is very funny. The conclusion is hilarious with the cat's meow. My vote is eight. (3) "The Case of M. Valdemar": The wealthy Ernest Valdemar (Vincent Price) is terminal feeling great pain. He hires the hypnotizer Carmichael (Basil Rathbone) to relief his pain and asks his beloved wife Helene (Debra Paget) and his Dr. James (David Frankham) to get married to each other after his death. However Carmichael controls his mind and Valdemar dies but his soul stays trapped in his body. Carmichael tells Helene that he let Valdemar go only if she marries him but his attitude brings tragic consequences."The Case of M. Valdemar" is a creepy tale of terror. Debra Paget is very beautiful, the veteran Basil Rathbone is scary with his eerie power and the conclusion is great. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Muralhas do Pavor" ("Wall of Terror")

Overall, this entry in Roger Cormans' cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations isn't as successful as the best of them. It drags too much in places and therefore doesn't get a good enough momentum going. Still, it's good looking stuff, as always, and does serve as a showcase for a top notch horror film cast.As scripted by Richard Matheson, these aren't necessarily very faithful adaptations, but expand on the stories in generally entertaining ways. Each runs a little over or a little under a half hour long, resulting in a 90 minute long film of merrily macabre doings. The payoffs are great, and worth waiting for in each instance.Tale One: "Morella". Vincent Price (who also stars in the other segments) plays Locke, visited by his long estranged daughter Lenora (Maggie Pierce) who wants to make up for lost time. However, even in death Lockes' late wife Morella (Leona Gage) bears a powerful resentment that hangs over everything.Tale Two: "The Black Cat". Peter Lorre, in a priceless comic performance, stumbles and mutters his way through the role of Montresor Herringbone, a hopeless alcoholic who decides to do something about the fact that his mistreated wife Annabel (Joyce Jameson) has taken up with the debonair wine taster (Price) who has entered their lives.Tale Three: "The Case of M. Valdemar". Basil Rathbone is wonderfully evil as an unscrupulous hypnotist who takes advantage of a dying man (Price), leaving the mans' mind in limbo while his wife Helene (Debra Paget) and a concerned doctor (David Frankham) fret over the situation.All three segments contain some effective horror imagery, along with the to-be- expected bizarre nightmare sequences. "The Black Cat" is by far the most utterly comedic of the trio, with some absolutely hysterical reaction shots from Price to the drunken antics of Lorre. It's also the longest, but as said before, the payoff still makes it quite worthwhile. The colours are gorgeous, the special effects decent, and the music by Les Baxter is effective throughout.Fans of filmmaker Corman and the actors involved should be satisfied with "Tales of Terror". It doesn't carry the same weight as, say, "House of Usher" or "The Masque of the Red Death", but it's still pretty fun, and that's what really matters.