The Pit and The Pendulum [VHS]

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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Anders, Carbo, Kerr, Price, Steele
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Color, NTSC
Release Date: 2001-05-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Good Times Video
Studio: Good Times Video

VHS Movie Reviews of The Pit and The Pendulum [VHS]

Movie Review: Classy slice of period horror
Summary: 4 Stars

This was the second Egdar Allan Poe story to be directed by Roger Corman with Vincent Price in the leading role ,and ,as ever,the director id indebted to his star for the quality of his performance and magnetism of his personality in helping make it a quality little movie.
Price is " Nicholas Medina " owner of a large and spooky castle in sixteenth century Spain ,which comes complete with its very own well equipped torture chamber ,courtesy of his late father ,a torturer with the Spanish Inquisition and a man who relished his work .(Price gets to play his father ,in one of the several flashback scenes ,and eploys a limp and a minor facial deformity to good effect in doing so )
He is in the depths of despair at the death of his young and beautiful wife ,Elizabeth and obsessed with the notion that he may have interred her alive ,just as his father did to his mother on discovering her adultery .In vain do his family doctor(Anthony Carbone)and daughter ,Catherine (Luana Anders) seek to ease his mind on that score .
Elizabeths' brother Francis (John Kerr) travels to the castle determined to get to the bottom of his sister's death .Sopon the residents and servants begin to hear strange noises -a harpsichord which only Elizabeth could play -and a maid claims Elizabeth spoke to her .Medina feels his grip on reality loosen ,a situation not helped when they open her tomb to see what appears evidence of premature burial .
Then screenwriter and adaptor Richard Matheson pulls out a neat double reverse twist ending as Price spirals into outright madness .
Price is wonderful -arch ,camp and knowing he revels in the flowery dialogue and chews the scenery with elegance and wit .Its a bravura performance and he is well matched by Barbara Steele as Elizabeth -more a presence than an acting talent ,she gives a compekking account of herself .The rest of the players are capable but dull by comparison .
Fluid and inventive camerawork by Floyd Crosby helps as does the splendid art direction by Daniel Haller who creates a memorable castle on very little money-cobweb festooned and with torches and castles flickerinfg sinisterly in their sconces
The climax is effective and my only real reservation is the way flashbacks dissipate tension slightly .This is a minor quibble and the movie is atisfying and stylishly done with a great star turn as the icing on the cake .
Enjoyable movie and well recommended

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