Evening of Edgar Allan Poe, An (1972)

An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe (1972), directed by Kenneth Johnson.

Vincent Price reading and performing four stories. It's like a one-man stage play and the acting is exaggerated and overblown like stage acting, but this is appropriate to the material.

The stories:

• The Telltale Heart

• The Sphinx

• The Cask of Amontillado

• The Pit and the Pendulum

This could be a good introduction to Poe for those who have not read him. The language of that period can sometimes be ornate and certain literature (Shakespeare, for example) is much easier to read after you have seen it performed.

"The Sphinx" is one of his weaker stories, relying on an impossible optical trick.

I read Kenneth Silverman's biography Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance a few years ago. His was a sad, tragic story. Always struggling, often ill, never successful or recognized.

Fifty-three minutes long, shot on video for TV.