Such a frustrating disappointment

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Three stories make up "Twice Told Tales", and only the first is worth mentioning. That's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", and all three were written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Vincent Price is in all three, but none of these stories have any visible scare quotient. In fact, the stories aren't horror stories but melodramas put on screen by MGM. No atmosphere, no moody photography and no scary moments."Rappaccini's Daughter" is the second and is about a radioactive plant and a girl infected by it and is not that interesting. The third is a truncated version of "The House Of The Seven Gables", which does not stick to the original story and is the least scary - and the least interesting of the three. You can read other reviewers for a summary of the three but the entire product is not worth the trouble to record it, much less watch it.

Trio of horror stories based on works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first story is "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," about two elderly friends, Dr. Carl Heidegger (Sebastian Cabot) and Alex Medbourne (Vincent Price) who discover magical water that they use to become young again. Heidegger decides to use the water on the corpse of his long-dead love Sylvia (Mari Blanchard), with surprising results. The second story is "Rappaccini's Daughter." Giovanni Guasconti (Brett Halsey) falls in love with beautiful Beatrice Rappaccini (Joyce Taylor) at first sight. Beatrice is the daughter of scientist Giacomo Rappaccini (Vincent Price) and, much to Giovanni's horror, her father has injected her with plant toxins that make her deadly to touch. The third, and most famous, story is "The House of the Seven Gables." Gerald Pyncheon (Vincent Price) returns to his ancestral home with his new bride (Beverly Garland). Ignoring warnings of a family curse he scours the house looking for a treasure reportedly buried somewhere inside.All of these stories are loosely adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne stories. The segments are of varying quality but they are all watchable and enjoyable enough. The first story is probably my favorite, helped in large part by Sebastian Cabot's sensitive portrayal of Heidegger. The second is my least favorite and the third is OK. Price is in all three and, as usual, is excellent. Price was also in the 1940 film adaptation of "The House of Seven Gables." It was far superior to this version so please check it out if you can. Twice-Told Tales is an enjoyable time-killer but nothing exceptional. Vincent Price fans will love it more than most.

Vincent Price heads up a B-cast in this middle-drawer trilogy of not-so-terrifying tales from writer Nathaniel Hawthorne's dark side. Price stars in all three stories and manages to retain his dignified air, even if there isn't a whole lot for him to do other than look wide-eyed. The opener, "Dr. Heidigger's Experiment", is probably the best of the lot, with Price and Sebastian Cabot acting wonderfully persnickety as a couple of old codgers living together like sisters; they discover a "virgin spring" in the mausoleum of Cabot's deceased sweetheart and use it to bring back their youth...and re-animate the corpse! There isn't much to the story, which is heavy on unfair irony instead of shocks, but the actors make it enjoyable. The second episode, "Rappaccini's Daughter", has Price playing a great scientist/hermit who has replaced his beautiful's daughter's blood with the acidic juice from a Chinese plant, causing her to be untouchable without the proper gloves; the story doesn't bear close scrutiny, but the set design here is interesting. Director Sidney Salkow, apparently saving the 'best' for last, lets loose with "The House of the Seven Gables" (previously filmed as a feature in 1940, co-starring Vincent Price!), a haunted house meller with bleeding walls and a skeleton's arm in the secret vault; it is unintentionally hilarious, leaden-paced, woodenly acted, and enjoyably ridiculous all at the same time. ** from ****

"Twice-Told Tales" is a trio of Gothic horror stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorne (who is considered a classic American writer), all starring Vincent Price. The first story, "Dr. Heidigger's Experiment", revolves around two men who discover a potion late one stormy night that can revive age. The second story, "Rappucini's Daughter" is about a woman who shares the same biological qualities as a beautiful but poisonous plant that was created by her father. And the third story, "The House of the Seven Gables" is about a family curse placed upon the Pyncheon family, and the curse makes itself known late one night when the remaining family gathers on the property to discuss inheritance.Sometimes funny, sometimes ridiculous, but always entertaining is the way I'd describe this movie. By today's standards, this film is unbelievable in more ways than one. The movie was made in 1963, which actually surprised me, because the quality was quite poor considering the time - most films after 1960 were much higher quality (take "Psycho" as an example). The acting (mainly centered around Vincent Price) isn't convincing at all, even Price himself has that unbelievable, campy quality in this film - but hey, it's a rather old movie, so I have to take it easy on it. I have read all three of the stories featured in this film, and they are mostly nothing like the actual books themselves. Especially the last segment, "The House of the Seven Gables". I actually enjoyed that book (although I'm not the hugest fan of Hawthorne's work), but the film translation was rather ridiculous. It was as if they took the basic idea of a curse and an old house, and fused them together with some common elements of old-time horror films, and came up with this story that is light years different than the actual novel. The special effects are anything but mind blowing, and are bordering (if not crossing into) laughable. Everything looks very fake, but again, for it's time, it probably wasn't considered bad - I'm going to take it easy on this film.Overall, "Twice-Told Tales" is a movie that will probably gain no respect by the majority of today's audiences. It's far too dated and the quality isn't believable enough anymore, and most people who are shown it nowadays would laugh at it, and I can understand why. But if you are a fan of the old-time classics, and are familiar with older films, you'd probably like this. But for most people, it'll be hard to take it seriously. 6/10.