Twice-told Tales (1963)

After the horror-triptych format proved a box-office winner in Tales of Terror, Twice Told Tales repeated the idea… this time not with Edgar Allan Poe stories, but the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Good idea, as Hawthorne delivered some eerie stories in his time, but the execution here is less than scintillating. The first story, "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," is the most entertaining of the bunch, in part because Vincent Price (the star of all three stories, natch) and Sebastian Cabot appear to be enjoying the premise: two old friends discover a Fountain of Youth elixir. This will come in handy in erasing their own wrinkles and gray hair, as well as reviving the corpse of Cabot's long-dead bride… but be careful what you wish for. The second is "Rappaccini's Daughter," with Price as an overly protective father with a novel way to keep his daughter from the sins of the flesh. It is fatally dull, and the final segment, a severe condensation of Hawthorne's novel "The House of the Seven Gables," is even more annoying, although at least it moves along a bit. The story does offer foxy scream queen Beverly Garland in her prime. Journeyman director Sidney Salkow is responsible for the deadly pace, which leaves only Vincent Price as the reason to watch the proceedings. He's just dandy, but the Roger Corman films of the same era are the ones to see. --Robert Horton Amazon.com

Despite the 2-star rating, Twice Told Tales is a decent watch

Twice Told Tales was released in 1963 during an era in which the Anthology was quite popular and would remain that way until about the early 70s when they were being produced few and far between. Twice Told Tales stars horror legend Vincent Price and all 3 stories are written by Robert E. Kent based off the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and all 3 segments are directed by Sidney Salkow who also worked with Price on The Last Man on Earth.

The biggest complaint when it comes to Anthology's is a lot of the times people feel the stories needed to be longer, but in the case of Twice Told Tales I felt the opposite, with 3 stories in 120-minutes they seemed to drag on a bit longer than they needed to be. Despite my rating I did enjoy Twice Told Tales, but I do feel as if the running time on each story could have been cut down a bit and while it wouldn't make this a classic of the genre it would make it more enjoyable.

The first story was Heidegger's Experiment and in my opinion was the best of the three. This story is about a potion that can restore youth and not only preserve a body in perfect condition, but can also bring them back to life. This one is mostly filled with talk, but it's quite interesting and the potion leads to secrets, betrayal and murder. I quite enjoyed this story a lot, but in all honestly it could have been cut down by a few minutes to help the pacing. But when all is said and done this was highly enjoyable.

The 2nd story was Rappaccini's Daughter; Price plays Rappaccini and he infects his daughter with a poison, so she can never leave the garden and anything she touches dies. A young Brett Halsey also stars. Like the first story, this one tends to drag in some areas and while editing would have helped the pacing unlike the first story it wouldn't help that much. Rappaccini's Daughter is a good story, but also kind of boring at times. This one has Romeo and Juliet type ending and again is good, but slightly boring and a little on the slow side at times.

The last story is The House of Seven Gables and was probably the most interesting of the three, but doesn't quite work; it's slightly slow paced and at times just not that interesting where as other times it is very interesting. This one though is growing on me after another viewing or so, I would possibly rate this higher.

Overall Twice Told Tales is a fun Anthology, but has some pacing problems I would recommend this to those who like Anthology's and or Vincent Price. It's a decent watch, but doesn't hold up as well on repeated viewings in my opinion. The biggest problem really is the pacing. Like I said most complaints with Anthology's is the stories need more time where as in this one, they might have been better off with a lesser running time; Still worth checking out at least once. November 19, 2008

Classic tales of the supernatural

Though the three stories contained in this collection are by no means good adaptations of the original sources,they are still worth viewing if only to watch the incomparable Vincent Price. The stories here are very loosely adapted from the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The first story "Dr Heidegger's Experiment" is perhaps the best of the three - it centers around two old friends who suddenly find the source of life and youth dripping from the ceiling of a crypt. Before long, the two friends restore their youth and also bring a long-dead corpse back to life but discover that some things are best left as is. "Rappacini's Daughter" is the weakest of the three - Vincent Price stars as Dr Rappacini, whose possessiveness of his daughter goes to literally toxic lengths with predictably tragic consequences. The plot here was rather plodding and lacked credibility as the story felt rushed through.

Finally,in "The House of the Seven Gables", Gerald Pycheon returns to his cursed ancestral home much to the chagrin of his estranged sister and the horror of his wife, who senses a strange affinity to the place. This story would have played out a lot better if it were not confined to the ridiculous length of abt 35 minutes [imagine an entire novel being shortened into a short story] and everything plays out so quickly and abruptly that the story ends up being more of a farce than true horror.

All in all, I'd recommend this to fans of Vincent Price and those who get a kick out of the classic horror movies of yesteryear. November 1, 2008

Trilogy With Vivid Mix Of Madness, Mayhem, And Murder

This 1963 filmmization of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales", despite its very promising premise is in reality a bit of a mixed bag for horror lovers. For all fans of "terror" stories it has the always wonderful Vincent Price starring in each of the three individual stories which have a similar feel to them to the highly successful A.I.P stories that Price was filming in collaboration with director/producer Roger Corman around this time. However as pieces of suspense cinema they lack a certain bite to them that makes for ok entertainment but not really memorable horror viewing that would stay vividly in the mind after having seen them. On the plus side however along with Price's presense in all the stories, they have a plush look and feel to them with gorgeous colour photography, lavish sets and strong period feel and with a most interesting selection of gifted performers supporting Vincent Price including Sebastian Cabot, Richard Denning and Beverly Garland. All these individuals try hard with the material provided for them in their stories with the first segment "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", dealing with Vincent Price and Sebastian Cabot playing with the elements of life and death possibly coming off the best of the stories in this trilogy. This segment also boasts the startling and very ghoulish image of the skeleton in the wedding dress which has become the visual image most reproduced in the media for this trilogy.

Story One is "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", and has life long friends Alex Medbourne (Vincent Price), and Dr. Carl Heidegger (Sabastian Cabot), celebrating the latter's birthday and reflecting on their long life together. Carl is living in a world of constant mourning for his fiancee Sylvia (Mari Blancard) who died just prior to their marriage 38 years previously. A thunderstorm disturbs Sylvia's near by tomb and when the men investigate the damage they discover a strange liquid substance that has preserved Sylvia's body and might just be the much sort after fountain of youth. Both men try the liquid themselves and amazingly revert to their youthful selves. Carl gets the desperate idea of possibly reviving his long dead but perfectly preserved fiancee with the substance as well however while the miracle liquid succeeds in bringing her back to life it also unleashes the dark secret that Alex and Sylvia shared all those years ago which brings tragic results for all three of them.

Story Two is "Rappaccini's Daughter", and has a highly possessive man called Rappaccini (Vincent Price), taking parental protection too far when he injects his only daughter Beatrice (Joyce Taylor), with a strange substance that kills anyone who touches her. Supposedly designed to stop his daughter from being subjected to the evils and bad treatment that his former wife suffered it has the opposite effect on Beatrice who hates her father for what he has done to her in particular when she forms an attraction towards student Giovanni Guasconti (Brett Halsey), who lives next door. After futile attempts to form a relationship with the obviously in love but distant Beatrice, Giovanni manages to extract from her the real reason why she wishes him to go away. Rappaccini in an misguided effort to win his daughter's love drugs Giovanni and injects the same elements into him making him the only person now who can touch Beatrice without dying a horrid acidic death. Giovanni however seeks a cure for the both of them so that they are able to go away together however when he drinks the supposed antidote created by his College Professor Professor Baglioni (Abraham Sofaer), it instead poisons him and not wanting a life without him Beatrice also drinks it leaving a distraught Rappaccini to comtemplate the cruel irony of what he has done just before he ends his own life.

Story Three is The House of the Seven Gables", and finds Gerald Pyncheon (Vincent Price), returning to his ancestral home with new bride Alice (Beverly Garland). All is not well at the Pyncheon estate as a centuries old curse rests on the property cast by Mathew Maulle the man who's land was stolen by the Pyncheons, and the house itself is presided over by Gerald's cold and ambitious sister Hannah (Jacqueline deWit)who hates gerald and wants him gone. Alice begins to have strange feelings of a presense around her and she is able to recall indiduals and features of the house she could not possibly know. Gerald has returned to the house with the sole purpose of finding a hidden fortune however he finds much more than he bargained for when Jonathan Maulle (Richard Denning), a descendant of Mathew's arrives and discovers a long lost connection with Alice which results in the raising of the vengeful ghost of his ancestor Mathew. Just when the frenzied and greed driven Gerald kills Hannah and believes he has found the key to the lost fortune he falls foul of the ghost's vengenance dying as was prophesized when the curse was first laid on the family, with blood coming from his mouth as he lies in a chair like all his ancestors did. That accomplished the curse then destroys the Pyncheon mansion freeing Jonathan and Alice to start their own life together free of the curse of the House of the Seven Gables.

I personally enjoy these multi story movies which remind me somewhat of the great anthologies produced by Britian's Amicus Prouctions in the late 1960's to early 1970's. If you can look past the obvious weaknesses in the content of each of the stories there is still alot to enjoy in "Twice Told Tales". The films impeccable performances by the leads despite the often slim material they have to work with, the lavish sets and costumes, interesting musical score, and good for the time special effects in a beautiful colour production certainly help to make it a good but not great edition to any horror lovers collection of horror anthologies. Vincent Price alone is always worth watching in efforts such as this and the similar "Tales of Terror" and in "Twice Told Tales", he achieves the rare distiction of not only starring in each of the three stories but also in being interesting and highly believable as the three seperate and very different characters he plays. "Twice Told tales", with it's goodlooking production is definately worth a look for horror movie lovers despite it being not terribly frightening in it's storytelling. Enjoy! June 9, 2005

Classy and Satisfying

This is an utterly classy film based on two short-stories and a novel by Hawthorne (author of "Young Goodman Brown," among other superb works). I would highly recommend this film to any fans of horror or literature, both young and old; it will never lose its timeless appeal.

October 1, 2004

A TRIO OF HORROR, GHOSTS AND GREED!

Three short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne tailored for
Vincent Price.A must-buy for a fan of this genre. August 14, 2004

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