Tales of Terror

For the fourth of his Poe films, Corman adopted a portmanteau front and introduced, into the second of his three stories, a vein of grisly black comedy that would reappear more successfully in the later The Raven. The first tale, Morella, has Price as a typically necrophile introvert mourning the death in childbirth of his mummified wife until his long banished daughter returns to the fold; in The Black Cat, Lorre dominates as the drunkard who reacts to Price's adulterous liaison with his wife by walling the couple up in his wine cellar; and in The Case of M Valdemar, a dead Price exacts revenge on the hypnotist who sent his soul to eternal limbo with a view to stealing his wife. Stylish and fun, but the short story format denies Corman the stately, melancholy pace that distinguished his best work in the cycle.