The Tell-Tale Heart (1962)

How sad is this?

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Blistering performances.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Edgar is a right fud living on Rue Morgue with no clue whatsoever when it comes to woman. He also lacks the social skills and has to rely on his playboy mate for advice. When a young chick moves in across the road from him, Edgar immediately endears himself with the audience by standing at his window watching her disrobe (and probably knocking one out in the process).Edgar's all 'she must be mine' but his approach of 'staring at her, then running away' doesn't quite work for some reason. So, he goes to his mate and is all like 'how do I get chicks to dig me?' and his mate's all 'Y'all gotta play it cool, blood'. Edgar plays it cool by heavy duty stalking until the girl relents, goes out for dinner, then rebuffs his light-hearted sexual assault later that evening.Taken aback, Edgar steps up his stalking methods until she relents once again. By this point Edgar's mate is all 'Bra, you gotta lay off a little' so Edgar of course does the opposite and buys the biggest diamond in the world. By this time the chick has met Edgar's mate and giving him the glad eye, but the mate is all 'bros before hos' at first, but there's only so much a playa can take before jack the one-eyed pirate wants to go looking for treasure.Next thing you know the mate and the chick is playing tonsil hockey on the dance floor while poor, stupid Edgar fetches their jackets. The chick gets escorted home by Edgar before he once again tries to put the moves on her in a way that looks like drunken John Hurt fighting a photographer. Rebuffed again, he heads home to his favourite spot: the window where he can watch her get undressed.At that point the mate shows up in the window and the next thing you know Edgar's blowing a gasket as his mate is getting some and he ain't. It's also implied here that Edgar goes on some sort of onanistic frenzy as the next time we see him he's laid out in a chair with a blanket over his crotch.Just in case you've been held captive in a German guy's basement for most of your life and don't know how this story turns out, Edgar kills his mate and is from then on tormented by the constant beating of his dead mate's heart, but will the police and the chick find the body with the help of a black cat and the entire house of Usher and Arthur Gordon Pym? Yes, yes they do, as you know already.We're all familiar with Edgar Allan Poe's 'Tell Tale' series (Tell Tale Heart, Tell Tale Japanese Love Eggs, Tell Tale Danny Dyer) so the real question is how good is the film at telling the story? Well, Edgar's an absolute moron from the start of the film, and his mate genuinely makes an effort to distance himself from the upcoming love disaster, so aye it's not bad

When beauty Betty Clare (Adrienne Corri) moves into the building opposite introvert Edgar Marsh (Laurence Payne), the shy young man seeks advice from his friend Carl Loomis (Dermot Walsh) on how best to romantically approach the young woman. Edgar's attempts at wooing Betty are clumsy, and his feelings unreciprocated, and when Edgar introduces Betty to Carl, he really sets himself up for a fall: one evening, he sees Carl and Betty together in her apartment, and they're not talking about the weather! Enraged, Edgar lures Carl to his home, bashes his head in with a fire poker, and stashes the body under his floorboards, but his guilt over the terrible crime manifests itself as a incessant, pounding heartbeat.A loose adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-tale Heart (a story familiar to me through an episode of The Simpsons), this film opens with a warning for the squeamish, although for the most part the action is far from horrific, revolving around Edgar's obsession with Betty (on whom he spies from his first floor window) and his unsuccessful attempts at getting to first base. Things get far more interesting when Edgar eventually loses the plot: we get a surprisingly vicious murder scene, Ed giving Carl numerous hefty whacks that leave him spattered with blood (gruesome stuff for a film from 1960); the young man's descent into complete and utter madness is handled well by director Ernest Morris, with dripping taps, pulsing floorboards and a ticking metronome pushing him even further over the edge; and in the film's juiciest scene, Edgar clutches the still beating heart that he has cut from Carl's chest and buries it in the garden.I rate The Tell-Tale Heart 6/10, which I might have raised to a 7 if it hadn't been for the trite, cop-out ending in which it all turns out to be a dream (that might just become reality).

Low budget but spirited adaption of Edgar Allan Poe's short story, this came around the time that American International was doing their own Poe films, ableit in color and with a cast of veteran horror stars. Lawrence Payne is the handsome Edgar Marsh who lives through a real nightmare when he murders a romantic rival and places the dead man's corpse under his floor board. It isn't the smell of rotting flesh that keeps him awake at night but the sound of a loudly beating heart that seems to get closer with each beat. Is it guilt, insanity or real horror approaching? Or possibly all three?Poe's story has been filmed dozens of times, but this version seems the most likely to be true. Various short versions only tell one side of the tale, with an MGM short indicating that the victim was the killer's boss. Even Vincent Price would get in on it by doing a dramatic reading that showed Price in the background bring the terrorized murderer losing his sanity, if he ever had it that is.This version may be cheaply made, but there's a sense of romance in the more complete tale. Payne shows much vulnerability and Adrienne Cori makes a lovely heroine. In a sense, this is more a Gothic thriller with elements of horror, and at times, I think the heart is beating for color like the SIP and Hammer horrors which were breathtaking to look at. A sometimes inappropriate musical score reminds Mr of carousel music, but the period details are excellent. I have seen a musical about Poe's life Off Broadway which touched on his stories (in addition to his madness) but if it ever does make it to the musical stage, this would be a fabulous basis for it.

When Edgar sees his girlfriend Betty getting up close and personal with his best friend Carl, he murders Carl in a jealous rage and hides the corpse under the floor of his piano room. Comes the night, and Edgar begins to hear strange sounds coming from under the floor...The problem with this film is that it apparently fell into the public domain, so the DVD copies floating around are pretty rough, and make the film look much cheaper than it really is. A better version (which may never happen), might reveal this to be a lost classic, actually predating Roger Corman's Poe films by a few years.The costumes and such are very nice, and the story is well-written to build up to the part that Poe covered. While this is obviously a Poe tale, the writer (Brian Clemens) deserves much credit, as the bulk is his creation.