cinema history class: an evening of vincent price

Session: Price and Poe -- a Match Made on Heaven, Week 4
Movie: An Evening of Edgar Allen Poe (1970)
Directed by Ken Johnson
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
1) Our protagonist is driven to a murderous rage by an old man's eye. Hilarity ensues.
2) Our protagonist mistakes a normal-sized bug for a giant. Hilarity ensues.
3) Our protagonist, hurt by countless insults, plots the death of an acquaintance. Hilarity ensues.
4) Our protagonist tries to escape a painful death. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
Vincent Price, alone, performing four Poe stories as monologues. I was actually kind of skeptical going in. I'm not nearly as enamored of Vincent Price as some of the other guys in the class -- notably Ethan -- are. And I don't think of myself as being positively inclined toward one-man shows.

But this was a tour de force. Price had me rapt as he performed these pieces, turning him into Poe's tortured protagonists. Price contorted his face as he transformed himself into these characters. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," he seemed like a patient in an insane asylum describing his crime. His transformation was complete, down to the rocking motions he affected.

The fact is, Poe's work lends itself to this kind of performance, being that it was written in the first person. But this performance gave me a newfound respect for both author and actor. While I'd enjoyed the movies in the first three weeks of this session, nothing really got me saying "Wow!" about Price. But this did it. And, similarly, this forced me to realized how well-chosen Poe's words were. I think it was Sean who observed that this performance had the gravitas of a Shakespearian performance.

Ratings:
Me: 10
Dave: 10
Ethan: 8
Sean: N/R

Extras:
Because this was on the shorter side, Keith added some extras -- short interview segments about Vincent Price's career, and a collection of horror movie trailers.