cinema history class: the pit and the pendulum

Session: Price and Poe -- a Match Made on Heaven, Week 1
Movie: The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
Directed by Roger Corman
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A man, grief-stricken over his sister's untimely passing, visits his brother-in-law to understand what actually happened. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
I had a really hard time getting around the fact that this movie felt like a live-action episode of Scooby Doo. I kept expecting someone to pull some mask off and say "It was the groundskeeper all along!" On the other hand, the flashbacks reminded me of dream sequences from Gilligan's Island. That said, the use of color -- Corman shot some scenes in monochrome and then printed on color stock --was inspired at times.

I knew going in that the movie's connection to the classic Poe story would be tenuous at best. And Richard Matheson's script didn't surprise me in that respect. But it was a decent story with some very good twists. Dave noted the wonderful irony of Elizabeth, having pretended to have been entombed while still alive, actually did get entombed alive.

The fact is, I'm not a huge Vincent Price fan. Unlike Ethan, who counts Price among his favorite actors. But I do have to hand it to the man -- he was perfect for this role -- especially the part at the end when his grip on sanity dissolves. This was a better movie than it should have been.

Ratings:
Me: 7
Dave: 9.9
Ethan: 9
Sean:2 out of 4