I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
... View MoreFantastic!
... View MoreThe movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
... View MoreThis movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
... View MoreEdgar Marsh became insanely jealous of Betty, his girlfriend, who he believes might have had an affair with his best friend Carl. Edgar murdered Carl and buried him under the floor of his piano. Edgar becomes almost insane with the guilt of his crime. What will Edgar do about it? This film is a fine example of Poe's tale put on screen. Deeply Gothic, beautifully filmed and a well acted and written script. The movie is slowly paced but builds into terrifying horror story of guilt and madness. I believe Poe himself would have enjoyed this adaptation of his story. I am impressed at how good this film is.A great late at night film - *clichéd* on a dark and stormy night.8.5/10
... View MoreEven though the opening warning addressed to "those who are squeamish" etc, and with the sound of a heartbeat on a black screen now seems a cheesy gimmick (think William Castle), overall the film is quite a scary experience. You know it's going to be good when you realise it is an early Brian Clemens (he of "The Avengers" and "Thriller" fame) script.Laurence Payne's haggard looks gave dimension to his performance as the shy Edgar, a reference librarian, whose hobby is chess and who is desperate to find his ideal love. He contrasts strongly with his Carl (stalwart of British Bs, Dermot Walsh) who has all the charm and worldliness that Edgar lacks. They both fall for the same girl, Betty (pretty Adrienne Corri,) and she is attracted to Carl's ease of manner - next to him Edgar appears like a neurotic wimp. Within the first ten minutes you realise Edgar has a drug addiction, he has almost an aversion to women in the flesh but has a need for pornography - did I say he also has a mother complex!!Betty is a flower seller who moves in across the road from Edgar who, in taking tips from Carl, attempts to sweep her off her feet. His manic enthusiasms turn her off but she is more than willing to be romanced by Carl who tries to warn Edgar about her flirtatious ways. Edgar takes a voyeuristic delight in watching her undress - their windows face each other across the street but one night he sees more than he wants to when Carl keeps a midnight rendezvous with Betty.The murder of Carl is particularly vicious as Edgar, blood spattered and wild looking, drags his body down the stairs. Jenny seems to show undue concern when after three days Carl has still not shown up. Meanwhile, back at Edgar's residence, the cleaner has been given strict instructions not to enter a locked room. Ticking clocks, dripping taps - even rocking vases, chess pieces and metronomes do their best to send Edgar completely around the twist. He removes the heart, takes it to the parkland and buries it - all very grisly. Observing Edgar, Betty feels he is at the bottom of Carl's disappearance but the police laugh at her complaints, thinking she can't get over the fact that she was thrown over!! And even though the ending is a major let down it still doesn't take away from what is an unsettling, horrific movie!!Throughout the movie Edgar's sexual repression was pounced on by the censors who apparently removed scenes involving a brutal murder with a poker, the resurrection of the victim's body from it's hiding place and the removal of the heart - all to do with sexual arousal through violence, something the British Board of Film Censors wouldn't put up with. Just a couple of years previously there had been a huge controversy over Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom" (1960) that was finally given an X certificate which may explain why the release of "The Tell Tale Heart" was delayed for two years.
... View MoreThis low budget Gothic movie is an adaption of an Edgar Allan Poe short story. I'm not sure if I ever read this one but other reviewers have stated that it isn't the most faithful adaption in any case. Going by what I know of Poe, this isn't exactly surprising as most of his stories were very sparse and to-the-point. The basic premise has a man murdering his best friend through a fit of jealousy due to the said friend copping off with his girlfriend. The murderer is then haunted by the sound of the dead man's beating heart, leading him to madness. While the story is very simple and the cast is very small, I thought the film as a whole was well handled. Laurence Payne is good as the central character Edgar. He seemed to be a somewhat troubled character even before the murder and Payne depicts the man well. I was also pleasantly surprised to see some scenes of gore and violence in such an old movie – the central murder is quite vicious, Edgar later cuts out the dead man's heart and we even have a character fall from a balcony onto a spike! This all adds a welcome schlock factor to proceedings.While The Tell-Tale Heart may not be anything overly special, it does entertain and it has a fairly effective atmosphere at times. For anyone who doesn't mind cheap Gothic productions or who is a Poe completist then this is a film you may enjoy.
... View MoreThe fifth version of the venerable Poe horror tale I have watched: two shorts, one cartoon and two full-length adaptations; the latter both emanated from Britain: for the record, I had watched the 1934 version at London's National Film Theatre in January 2007 during their "Quota-quickie" season. This one, then, is not very well-thought of – but the result (though departing from the original text in most respects) is interesting and decidedly underrated. It starts out with a prologue involving a cocaine-sniffing Poe (also played by suitably austere lead Lawrence Payne) having the story come to him in a nightmare. The anti-hero of the main narrative itself, then, is also called Edgar and he lives in the Rue Morgue(!!): an introvert, he falls for sensuous neighbor Adrienne Corri; however, when he introduces her to his best friend, they start an affair behind his back and, when he finds out, his jealousy turns homicidal.The plot (as reworked by Brian Clemens of "The Avengers" fame) has therefore been fleshed out but also rendered somewhat ordinary; that said, the stylized approach successfully evokes the author's psychological 'landscape' – most memorably, the 'pulsating' carpet above the floorboards where the body is hidden.
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