Customer Reviews

Twice Told Tales [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an obvious attempt by another filmmaker to copy the success of the Roger Corman/American International/Edgar Allan Poe tales starring Vincent Price. They even went so far as to cast Price in the lead role. The anthology of three tales based on the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne is worth viewing, but you have to be a determined collector of gothic horror flicks to take an interest in this one. The movie suffers in comparison with the Poe product. Instead of Corman's creepy camp worthy of multiple viewing, we have straight-faced tales of the supernatural. The first story, "Dr. Heidigger's Experiment" fares the best. Price and Sebastian Cabot discover the secret of rejuvenation and resurrect Cabot's love of 38 years ago. Instead of a dusty skeleton in a grungy gown, we now have a dishy blonde in a plunging negligee. Combined with the color photography and period detail, the mood here begins to resemble the heaving bosoms of Hammer. "Rappacini's Daughter" plods along, slow paced and poisonous, with its tragic romance. "The House of Seven Gables" tries to capture the mood of the classic novel, but it only achieves modest results before it collapses on itself. The supernatural overtone of the stories is subdued. Vincent Price grimaces and tries to look tragically sorrowful. The no frills Midnite Movies edition of the DVD includes the original trailer, but no bonus extras. Proceed at your own risk. ;-)

Scoff all you want to about whether or not this movie is scary by todays terms. I haven't see the DVD but I saw the original movie back in 1963 as a six year old. First movie I think I ever saw in a theater and it gave me nightmares for YEARS. I have searched for this movie for years in ANY format to see (as an adult) what so terrified me in my youth. After 40 years I have finally found it available in a format I can purchase and view - and have just ordered it. After a long search, glad I finally found it.

Twice Told Tales was released in 1963 during an era in which the Anthology was quite popular and would remain that way until about the early 70s when they were being produced few and far between. Twice Told Tales stars horror legend Vincent Price and all 3 stories are written by Robert E. Kent based off the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and all 3 segments are directed by Sidney Salkow who also worked with Price on The Last Man on Earth.

The biggest complaint when it comes to Anthology's is a lot of the times people feel the stories needed to be longer, but in the case of Twice Told Tales I felt the opposite, with 3 stories in 120-minutes they seemed to drag on a bit longer than they needed to be. Despite my rating I did enjoy Twice Told Tales, but I do feel as if the running time on each story could have been cut down a bit and while it wouldn't make this a classic of the genre it would make it more enjoyable.

The first story was Heidegger's Experiment and in my opinion was the best of the three. This story is about a potion that can restore youth and not only preserve a body in perfect condition, but can also bring them back to life. This one is mostly filled with talk, but it's quite interesting and the potion leads to secrets, betrayal and murder. I quite enjoyed this story a lot, but in all honestly it could have been cut down by a few minutes to help the pacing. But when all is said and done this was highly enjoyable.

The 2nd story was Rappaccini's Daughter; Price plays Rappaccini and he infects his daughter with a poison, so she can never leave the garden and anything she touches dies. A young Brett Halsey also stars. Like the first story, this one tends to drag in some areas and while editing would have helped the pacing unlike the first story it wouldn't help that much. Rappaccini's Daughter is a good story, but also kind of boring at times. This one has Romeo and Juliet type ending and again is good, but slightly boring and a little on the slow side at times.

The last story is The House of Seven Gables and was probably the most interesting of the three, but doesn't quite work; it's slightly slow paced and at times just not that interesting where as other times it is very interesting. This one though is growing on me after another viewing or so, I would possibly rate this higher.

Overall Twice Told Tales is a fun Anthology, but has some pacing problems I would recommend this to those who like Anthology's and or Vincent Price. It's a decent watch, but doesn't hold up as well on repeated viewings in my opinion. The biggest problem really is the pacing. Like I said most complaints with Anthology's is the stories need more time where as in this one, they might have been better off with a lesser running time; Still worth checking out at least once.

Though the three stories contained in this collection are by no means good adaptations of the original sources,they are still worth viewing if only to watch the incomparable Vincent Price. The stories here are very loosely adapted from the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The first story "Dr Heidegger's Experiment" is perhaps the best of the three - it centers around two old friends who suddenly find the source of life and youth dripping from the ceiling of a crypt. Before long, the two friends restore their youth and also bring a long-dead corpse back to life but discover that some things are best left as is. "Rappacini's Daughter" is the weakest of the three - Vincent Price stars as Dr Rappacini, whose possessiveness of his daughter goes to literally toxic lengths with predictably tragic consequences. The plot here was rather plodding and lacked credibility as the story felt rushed through.

Finally,in "The House of the Seven Gables", Gerald Pycheon returns to his cursed ancestral home much to the chagrin of his estranged sister and the horror of his wife, who senses a strange affinity to the place. This story would have played out a lot better if it were not confined to the ridiculous length of abt 35 minutes [imagine an entire novel being shortened into a short story] and everything plays out so quickly and abruptly that the story ends up being more of a farce than true horror.

All in all, I'd recommend this to fans of Vincent Price and those who get a kick out of the classic horror movies of yesteryear.

This 1963 filmmization of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales", despite its very promising premise is in reality a bit of a mixed bag for horror lovers. For all fans of "terror" stories it has the always wonderful Vincent Price starring in each of the three individual stories which have a similar feel to them to the highly successful A.I.P stories that Price was filming in collaboration with director/producer Roger Corman around this time. However as pieces of suspense cinema they lack a certain bite to them that makes for ok entertainment but not really memorable horror viewing that would stay vividly in the mind after having seen them. On the plus side however along with Price's presense in all the stories, they have a plush look and feel to them with gorgeous colour photography, lavish sets and strong period feel and with a most interesting selection of gifted performers supporting Vincent Price including Sebastian Cabot, Richard Denning and Beverly Garland. All these individuals try hard with the material provided for them in their stories with the first segment "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", dealing with Vincent Price and Sebastian Cabot playing with the elements of life and death possibly coming off the best of the stories in this trilogy. This segment also boasts the startling and very ghoulish image of the skeleton in the wedding dress which has become the visual image most reproduced in the media for this trilogy.

Story One is "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", and has life long friends Alex Medbourne (Vincent Price), and Dr. Carl Heidegger (Sabastian Cabot), celebrating the latter's birthday and reflecting on their long life together. Carl is living in a world of constant mourning for his fiancee Sylvia (Mari Blancard) who died just prior to their marriage 38 years previously. A thunderstorm disturbs Sylvia's near by tomb and when the men investigate the damage they discover a strange liquid substance that has preserved Sylvia's body and might just be the much sort after fountain of youth. Both men try the liquid themselves and amazingly revert to their youthful selves. Carl gets the desperate idea of possibly reviving his long dead but perfectly preserved fiancee with the substance as well however while the miracle liquid succeeds in bringing her back to life it also unleashes the dark secret that Alex and Sylvia shared all those years ago which brings tragic results for all three of them.

Story Two is "Rappaccini's Daughter", and has a highly possessive man called Rappaccini (Vincent Price), taking parental protection too far when he injects his only daughter Beatrice (Joyce Taylor), with a strange substance that kills anyone who touches her. Supposedly designed to stop his daughter from being subjected to the evils and bad treatment that his former wife suffered it has the opposite effect on Beatrice who hates her father for what he has done to her in particular when she forms an attraction towards student Giovanni Guasconti (Brett Halsey), who lives next door. After futile attempts to form a relationship with the obviously in love but distant Beatrice, Giovanni manages to extract from her the real reason why she wishes him to go away. Rappaccini in an misguided effort to win his daughter's love drugs Giovanni and injects the same elements into him making him the only person now who can touch Beatrice without dying a horrid acidic death. Giovanni however seeks a cure for the both of them so that they are able to go away together however when he drinks the supposed antidote created by his College Professor Professor Baglioni (Abraham Sofaer), it instead poisons him and not wanting a life without him Beatrice also drinks it leaving a distraught Rappaccini to comtemplate the cruel irony of what he has done just before he ends his own life.

Story Three is The House of the Seven Gables", and finds Gerald Pyncheon (Vincent Price), returning to his ancestral home with new bride Alice (Beverly Garland). All is not well at the Pyncheon estate as a centuries old curse rests on the property cast by Mathew Maulle the man who's land was stolen by the Pyncheons, and the house itself is presided over by Gerald's cold and ambitious sister Hannah (Jacqueline deWit)who hates gerald and wants him gone. Alice begins to have strange feelings of a presense around her and she is able to recall indiduals and features of the house she could not possibly know. Gerald has returned to the house with the sole purpose of finding a hidden fortune however he finds much more than he bargained for when Jonathan Maulle (Richard Denning), a descendant of Mathew's arrives and discovers a long lost connection with Alice which results in the raising of the vengeful ghost of his ancestor Mathew. Just when the frenzied and greed driven Gerald kills Hannah and believes he has found the key to the lost fortune he falls foul of the ghost's vengenance dying as was prophesized when the curse was first laid on the family, with blood coming from his mouth as he lies in a chair like all his ancestors did. That accomplished the curse then destroys the Pyncheon mansion freeing Jonathan and Alice to start their own life together free of the curse of the House of the Seven Gables.

I personally enjoy these multi story movies which remind me somewhat of the great anthologies produced by Britian's Amicus Prouctions in the late 1960's to early 1970's. If you can look past the obvious weaknesses in the content of each of the stories there is still alot to enjoy in "Twice Told Tales". The films impeccable performances by the leads despite the often slim material they have to work with, the lavish sets and costumes, interesting musical score, and good for the time special effects in a beautiful colour production certainly help to make it a good but not great edition to any horror lovers collection of horror anthologies. Vincent Price alone is always worth watching in efforts such as this and the similar "Tales of Terror" and in "Twice Told Tales", he achieves the rare distiction of not only starring in each of the three stories but also in being interesting and highly believable as the three seperate and very different characters he plays. "Twice Told tales", with it's goodlooking production is definately worth a look for horror movie lovers despite it being not terribly frightening in it's storytelling. Enjoy!

Being a fantasy and Science Fiction film fan, i have to put this
one close to the top. Great to see Sebastien Cabot and Vincent
Price together in the first of 3 short stories. The costumes,
the color, the music and the mood makes it a entertaining film.
Sure, its not like todays film with blood and guts, and special
effects galore...but it still pleases if you have a good imagination.

This is a screen adaptation of "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", "Rappaccini's Daughter", and The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Director Sidney Salkow's telling of these tales is pretty dry stuff. However Vincent Price is always a pleasure to watch and he has a great cast to work with including Sebastian Cabot, Bret Halsey, Richard Denning, Mari Blanchard, Beverly Garland and Edith Evanson. The sets by Charles Thompson, art designs by Franz Bachelin and colorful cinematography by Ellis W. Carter were very effective. "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" was my favorite tale. This is a good DVD.

This film takes its title from Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories, and is really three short films, all of which keep your interest, yet none of which one really needs to see that often. The first deals with raising the dead, the second weaves a tale of poison plants and forbidden love, the third is loosely based on House of the Seven Gables, and all have (none too) unexpected outcomes. The stories are well-acted, there is an acceptable amount of atmosphere, and fans of Vincent Price may well raise the rating by a star, but they are just a tad tame. They are literate and entertaining but ultimately nothing special. Each may have worked a little better as a separate film scripted by Richard Matheson, to flesh out the scenarios and heighten the chill factor.

Nice flick, and yes, reminicent of Corman in a slightly more straightforward way. Not only does it lack Corman's dreamy camerawork, but the picture also seems by bits to be suffering from too much bright lighting, where there should be shadows and mid-tones. The film is well presented, the copy is very good, with probably the best picture / sound quality available. Definitely not terryfying to modern viewer, but worth buying, if you have all the Corman films, and still want more!

in the 8 midnight movies releases the class acts are theatre of blood and it! the terror from beyond space... there are also a few mediocrities, twice told tales being the most mediocre of the mediocrities
this must have been the longest price horror film ever made...
As the back of the box says it was made in a busy year for price along with the haunted palace, diary of a madman, the raven and comedy of terrors, which are all better than this one (cept the raven which is a dire spoof)
of the three stories there is very little drama or tension or even the glorious photography and colours of the price/corman films... only the final story offers any real drama, the other two being more whimsical than usual for this type of film. I now know why i never heard of this one before, is staid, arch, dull, run of the mill etc etc.
Why then am i giving it 3 stars and better films like the dunwich horror the same? well it gives what it promises, three price stories and even though they aren't great, they pass the time... and finally, i gave it 3 cos i'm nice, but go buy 'it! the terror from beyond blah blah' and 'theatre of blood' first