Henry M
Eastman color film is put to full affect in this campy but cool Poe adaptation. The outfits are brilliant reds and blues. The green grass is vivid and nice to look at. I enjoyed the ruined church they filmed at. In general the locations and sets were very pleasant and well done.
Vincent Price played a good melancholy, reclusive lord.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
08/30/23
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sean s
Neat old Roger Corman movie based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story. The acting and photography have held up well for being from 1964. The original story is from 1838. Wrap your mind around that if the dialogue seems a little out dated and hammy at times coming out of Vincent Price. I remember seeing most of these Poe inspired Roger Corman movies on TV in grade school in the early and mid 1970s. It is neat to be able to see them again...and they have mostly held up well. I would guess that many of the movies being made today won't be as good 60 years from now.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
Unfunny and unoriginal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
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dave s
Roger Corman's Tomb of Legeia, his last entry in the entertaining but inconsistent Edgar Allen Poe series, turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. Vincent Price plays Verden Fell, a distraught widower who bounces back quite nicely when he marries the alluring Lady Rowena. Unfortunately for Rowena, her new husband is not quite over the death of his first wife, who seems to linger about the abbey they inhabit. It's a nonsensical and somewhat confusing plot that seems to get lost in its own absurdities. Despite that, it's not all bad – Price is entertaining, as always, and the sets are great, but there are just too many shoulder- shrugging, eyebrow-raising moments of confusion to recommend it.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Based on Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia" and adapted by Robert Towne, this is the last of the Roger Corman Poe films. Because Poe's story was so short, Towne expanded on the themes of mesmerism and necrophilia. The result? "Literally being controlled by someone who was dead, which is gruesome notion but perfectly consistent with Poe." said Towne to John Brady in The Craft of the Screenwriter.
In that same book, Towne confessed he thought that "…it would have been better if it had been with a man who didn't look like a necrophiliac to begin with. I love Vincent. He's very sweet. But, going in, you suspect that Vincent could bang cats, chickens, girls, dogs, everything. You just feel that necrophilia might be one of his Basic Things."
Corman agreed, as he was thinking Richard Chamberlain would be perfect. Yet American-International Pictures wanted Price and Corman had to break the news to Towne.
The film starts with a casket on display with a young woman's face visible through a window in the pine box. A black cat jumps on the coffin and takes her soul, which belonged to Ligeia, the wife of Verden Fell (Vincent Price). He's troubled by her death, as she refused to die and was blasphemous about God to the end of her life.
Despite his strange appearance — he must wear special glasses as he is allergic to sunlight* — he meets another woman at the grave, Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd, The Kidnapping of the President, The Omen II). They fall instantly in love and he moves her into his home which is haunted by the spirit of his wife in the form of that black cat. By the end of the film, we learn that he's been mesmerized by his dead wife and can only love her, yet he battles the cat that has her soul until her tomb burns around them.
As for his new wife, well, she goes back to the man she left at the start of the movie and has a happy future, which is pretty sad for poor Vincent Price.
*Poe invented being goth.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
matthew d
Roger Corman's finale Poe feature is a real dreary one.
Roger Corman's Gothic horror drama picture The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) is a sad reminder of those we've said farewell to, while almost hopeful for a brighter future with a new love. Edgar Allan Poe's story is just a bitterly forlorn and deeply torn about finding new love after losing someone precious to you. His writing is timeless, relatable, and morbid as Corman directs his horror film with a reverence for the departed and a gleeful whimsy for terrorizing his audiences. Roger Corman is a fantastic horror director, especially as he directs his longtime collaborator Vince Price to fearsome stardom.
Daniel Haller and Colin Southcott's art direction and set decoration sees a ruined abbey set in Norfolk, England is made grim with countless cobwebs and infinite faded stones. All the ancient artifacts look perfect for some eerie atmosphere. They even visit iconic druid grounds of Stonehenge. Roger Corman could even direct atmospheric horror features like The Tomb of Ligeia within daylight hours. Gone are his foggy nighttime moods, and we are given shivering cold Sunlight with a foreboding chill instead of warmth.
Vincent Price's lead acting in The Tomb of Ligeia is quite interesting as Vernon Fell. His sudden mood swings to manic violence are juxtaposed to his sullen melancholia over his grieving of his dead wife Lady Ligeia. Elizabeth Shepherd is quite charming and lively as Fell's newer blonde bride Lady Rowena Trevanion. Their dramatic scenes are the heart of The Tomb of Ligeia. Kenneth V. Jones' score is equally compelling with a majestic airy grace and a haunting sonic presence.
Price and Shepherd have a nice romantic chemistry when they are flirting together, but Price's commanding sternness feels too harsh for her to have fallen in love with Fell. Poe's stories often end up or begin with deceased ladies and hardened men, who've known loss, so The Tomb of Ligeia feels much in line with Corman's other Poe adaptations. John Westbrook, Derek Francis, and Oliver Johnston are all serviceable in their respective supporting roles.
I must say I adored the trained cat running around this ruined abbey for some cute laughs. Vincent Price whipping a head of cabbage at the retreating feline is quite fun. Alfred Cox's editing is keen on keeping the drama gripping, so he only cuts when necessary around scenes. I found The Tomb of Ligeia to be steadily paced and engaging for 81 brief minutes. Arthur Grant's cinematography has gorgeous close-up shots with mostly these strikingly real wide shots. He establishes the spooky disquiet of the abbey with these wide shots and isolates characters in its stone covered presence with an overbearing feeling of death.
In all, The Tomb of Ligeia is another classic Price picture as he never acted in a bad film.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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