The Tomb of Ligeia (1965)

Excellent adaptation.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Verden Fell (Vincent Price), a recently widowed man is convinced his wife Ligeia is still alive. Even meeting another woman Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd who also fills the Ligeia's part) and marrying her, the man quite get over the death of his first wife. Eerie tale comes to tragic end when Vernon fights with the ghost and his own growing madness.The film is visually rich with every inch of the screen filled with the ruins of abbey and spooky interiors of Verden's mansion. The bright outdoor scenes and dark rooms combines nice contrast that illustrate the Poe's words that end the movie - "The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends and where the other begins." The many usage of sunlit countryside scenery wasn't very usual in '60s horror films and some of the most haunting scenes take place in bright daylight. Constantly eerie mood flows through the film without giving much rest to the viewer.Perfect finale to Corman's Poe themed series.

The films that immediately come to mind when considering Roger Corman's considerable cycle of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations are undoubtedly titles such as The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) and The Pit and The Pendulum (1961), both starring Vincent Price as a man psychologically torn by a past event or his looming fate, and both featuring the Gothic, set-based atmosphere that is now so celebrated by movie fans. The Tomb of Ligeia may be one of Martin Scorsese's all- time favourite horror movies, but it has been strangely, and unfairly, overlooked in the horror cannon.Price once again plays a man, Verden Fell, haunted by the death of his wife. While out fox-hunting one day, the young and boisterous Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) comes across Verden in a graveyard, apparently looming over the grave of his wife, the mysterious Ligeia, and forced to wear protective glasses due to his failing eye sight. Rowena takes pity on him, and witnesses his psychological torment first hand, which is mainly due to the presence of a threatening cat and the idea that his dead wife is haunting him from the grave. The two eventually marry, but Rowena finds herself the subject of increasingly strange goings-on.Ligeia is noticeably different to the other entries into the Corman- Poe cycle, mainly due to it's use of exterior filming. While this causes it to lose the claustrophobic, and beautiful, sets of the likes of Usher and Pendulum, it makes for a spookier atmosphere. Price is excellent as always, as is Shepherd, but the blooming romance between their two characters suffers from a distinct lack of chemistry and the niggling problem of the glaring age-gap. However, Ligeia was written by Chinatown (1974) scribe and all-round Hollywood titan Robert Towne, so the absorbing dialogue more than makes up for the awkwardness between the two leads. Certainly a different experience, but Ligeia is up there with the very best of Corman's output.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Director Roger Corman claimed He had done it all in the Poe Series and this was to be the Last for Him (but not Price it turned out) and this was His Swan Song. It also was the Last Horror Movie Corman would Direct until Frankenstein Unbound (1990).This is as Good, some say the Best, of the Corman Cycle with Price. The other Contender for the Best is Masque of the Red Death made the Same Year. This one could be called the most Restrained for both Price and the Approach. That is Ironic because most of the Series went Outdoors Infrequently and here there is quite a bit of Open Air and some Stunning Locations.There is, however, enough Gloomy Castle and Dusty Corridors for the Suffocating Poe Atmosphere and its Theme of Possession from Beyond the Grave is Typical EAP/Corman. Vincent Price is at His most Laid-Back here (with Mod glasses) mostly because the Character is Insane/Haunted and mostly doesn't know what's going on most of the Time.It all Works Wonderful with Elizabeth Shepard a Stand-Out matching Her Dominant Co-Star with equal Dread and Confusion. The only Flaw in the Film is the Overuse of that darn Cat that stops the Movie in its Tracks with annoying Leaping and Screeching.

The Tomb of Ligeia was yet another in the long line of Corman horror flicks with Vincent Price. This one aimed for a sumptuous Gothic romance look despite a low budget and mostly pulled it off. The production design work was surprisingly sharp for a B-picture. Everything has a nice murky gloom to it, nice and creepy, very goth. All of the usual story tropes appear here: Price as a brooding widower, unable to let go of his dead wife, and unwilling to believe wife #2 when she claims wife #1 has returned as something... unnatural! Dusty, unused staircases, locked rooms never to be opened, screams in the dead of night etc. abound and it all seems terribly clichéd forty years later, but the atmosphere of gloom and dread carries through to the modern viewer and the results are fairly entertaining. The script tends a bit toward the hysterical, and some of the performances get overcooked, but this is nothing too unusual for the time and genre. Worth a look.