Part of 2024 In Tribute
In celebration of the life and work of legendary filmmaker and producer Roger Corman whose sets were the de facto film school for some of the greatest film artists of the New Hollywood era and beyond, we present a snapshot of his iconic Edgar Allan Poe cycle with this magnificently macabre, Vincent Price-starring double feature.
From 1960 to 1964, Corman created eight impressive adaptations of (and riffs on) Poe’s work, often pairing up with influential writers and budding filmmakers to create exquisitely gothic worlds of terror. Showcasing his signature low-budget approach at its most effective, these period pieces are a testament to the talent behind the camera and the wonderful stable of character actors Corman gathered at American International Pictures. The financial success of this series of films at a time when bigger studios were struggling to connect with modern audiences served as an auspicious sign of things to come in a flailing Old Hollywood.
THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
Dir. Roger Corman | USA | 1961 | 80 min. | NR | DCP
A young Englishman travels to Spain and the castle of his brother-in-law to investigate his sister’s mysterious death. There, he encounters conflicting stories about what happened and a sinister torture chamber presided over by the son of a notorious agent of the Spanish Inquisition. Featuring the always magnificent Vincent Price alongside scream queen Barbara Steele, this baroque torture chamber drama — the second in Corman’s cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations — written by the prolific and inimitable genre novelist Richard Matheson, had a noted influence on the work of Italian horror maestros Mario Bava and Dario Argento.
“Corman at his intoxicating best….” —Time Out “[Vincent] Price was a master of the grand gesture, and Corman gives him the room, whip-panning to huge facial close-ups for his entrances and letting him emote in a slyly camp, outrageously melodramatic, psychologically acute manner; that is to say, the exact equivalent of Poe's rapid, fevered prose.” —Kim Newman, Empire Magazine
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
Dir. Roger Corman | USA | 1964 | 89 min. | NR | 35mm
Prince Prospero (Vincent Price), a Satan worshipper, savagely razes a local village and then invites area nobility to his castle to quarantine themselves from a supposed plague referred to as The Red Death. The atmosphere turns debaucherous and sadistic as Prospero toys with an innocent village girl (Jane Asher), but a strange red-draped figure walks the land, seeking to teach Prospero a lesson. A phenomenal color palette beautifully lensed by none other than British auteur Nicolas Roeg highlights Roger Corman’s fantastic re-telling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story.
“Roger Corman’s 1964 adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story is a work of consummate imaginative power and originality.” —Don Druker, Chicago Reader “THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH is a film that expands our visual vocabulary as we watch it. It creates (where most films simply reflect) a fresh way of seeing…. A film that defies both categories and critics.” —David Melville, Senses of Cinema
