- Director: Roger Corman
- Writers: Richard Matheson
- Stars: Vincent Price, Maggie Pierce, Leona Gage
- Run Time: 1 Hour 29 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3tmaJ9v
Synopsis
Morella
Lenora returns home after a long absence. The house is covered in cobwebs and extremely neglected. Her father doesn’t even recognize her at first. He doesn’t want her there, and he blames her for the death of his wife, Morella, who died just a few months after giving birth to Lenora. He sent her away as a baby, and this is her first visit back.
She goes exploring in the old house, and then she finds her dead mother in her bedroom. She’s all mummified and gross, and Lenora is terrified. “When she died, I died with her,” says Mr. Locke.
Lenora explains that she has a terminal disease and only has a few months to live. He apologizes and asks for her forgiveness. They make up a little bit, but she dies that very night. No, no she doesn’t- she gasps a breath. She’s alive; no, wait, she really is dead.
Then she sits up, and it’s not Lenora, it’s Morella! Now it’s Lenora who’s mummified in Morella’s bed. Locke drops the candle, which ignites the bed.
Morella’s not happy to be home, and she wants her revenge. She strangles Locke as the house burns…
The Black Cat
Montresor (Peter Lorre) is a silly alcoholic. He has a wife who adores her black cat and refuses to give him any money to drink. He hasn’t worked in 17 years. He bumbles around searching for a hidden stash, but he really hates that damned cat. He passes out without finding anything. Next morning, he wakes up and takes her last money.
He spends the money quickly and get thrown out of the bar. He wanders around, begging until he finds a wine merchants convention. They have Fortunato, a wine tasting expert, to do a demonstration of wine tasting. Montresor challenges him to a drinking contest.
Both Lorre and Price ham it up over the wine tasting. They’re very different in style, but they are both wine experts of a sort. They drink until Montresor passes out. Fortunato walks him home because there’s no way Montresor could get there on his own. He introduces Fortunato to his wife Annabel.
She thinks Fortunato’s a classy guy. He loves cats, and the two hit it off just before Montresor passes out for good. They cart him off to bed, and then one thing leads to another…
Over the next few weeks, she gives Montresor all the money he asks for, and he can stay out all night! Could she be misbehaving? He decides to go home early that night and catches them in the act. She mocks him. “You and I are finished. I am going to leave you and become Mrs. Fortunato Lucresi!”
The next evening, Fortunato comes to the door, and Montresor answers. The two men go in for a drink. They drink to each other’s long lives. Naturally, the drink is drugged, and when Fortunato wakes up, he’s been chained to a wall in Montresor’s basement.
Montresor is putting up bricks and mortar to wall in Fortunato into a room in the basement with Annabel’s corpse. Fortunato laughs and tries to talk his way out of this predicament.
Afterwards, Montresor goes out and gets plastered himself. When he returns, he dreams of a giant cat. When he wakes up, the police are there. He’s starting to have hallucinations from drinking so much, and the he starts to hear Fortunato, Annabel, and the cat meowing from inside the walls. Except the policemen hear the cat as well…
The Strange Case of M. Valdemar
Old man Valdemar is a great hypnosis subject. The doctor says he has no pain, and Valdemar accepts it. When he wakes up, the pain is gone. “Mesmerism works,” claims Valdemar. Mr. Carmichael is the mesmerist, while Dr. James has a lot of worries about the dangers of the process. Valdemar is dying of an incurable disease, but the pain can be lessened with hypnosis.
Carmichael has an idea. He wants to be mesmerized at the point of death to see what happens; can a hypnotized man delay the moment of death? Dr. James does not approve and thinks it might be dangerous. Not only that, but both he and Carmichael have the eye for Helene, Valdemar’s young wife. Valdemar actually wants her to marry Dr. James after he dies.
Valdemar’s condition worsens, and they call in Mr. Carmichael to begin the hypnotic process. Carmichael starts hypnotizing Valdemar, and quickly puts him to sleep.
The doctor examines Valdemar and pronounces him dead. Except he’s not dead, not exactly. “I have been asleep, but now I am dead,” says Valdemar without moving his mouth.
“Tell me what you see,” commands Carmichael. “I see only darkness, and multitudes of people,” Valdemar responds.
Months pass, and Valdemar is still semi-awake and very unhappy with the situation. His body is decomposing, but he’s still trapped in the unmoving body.
Helene offers to marry Carmichael if he just lets her husband die. Carmichael tries to rape Helene, and Valdemar sits up and comes after Carmichael.
Dr. James downstairs hears Carmichael scream. When he breaks in the door, he finds Helene and two dead men.
Commentary
Morella was a decent story, but there’s nothing special or memorable about it.
The Black cat mixes three Poe tales in one: The Black Cat, A Cask of Amontillado, and the Tell-Tale Heart. It’s the funniest of the three as well, very well done!
Valdemar was the closest of the three stories to the original Poe story.
Overall, it’s a fun trilogy, but it is a little on the tame side.