Three stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne converted into a horror film. Surprisingly, this works well, despite Hawthorne not being known for his horror material.
Vincent Price serves as the narrator, but also appears as the characters Alex Medbourne, Professor Giacomo Rappaccini, and Gerald Pyncheon.
"Dr. Heidegger's Tale": A doctor's wife is found in her tomb after 38 years, and never aged or decomposed a day. What keeps her this way? Some sort of purified water... a virgin spring? Decent special effects on the rose and elsewhere. The makeup department deserves some credit here.
One wonders how someone who has magic youth water dripping on them manages to stay a certain age rather than revert back to a baby or even a fetus. I mean, if it makes 70-year old men 40, should it not make 30-year olds infants? But I should not think about this too much.
"Rappaccini's Daughter": We find that Naples "shines like a necklace that should be hung around a pretty girl's neck" and is much bigger than Padua. But also, in twenty years, no visitor has ever entered the house of Rappaccini -- why? There is some connection between Beatrice Rappaccini and a noxious, smoking plant. What is it? The professor has the largest nose I have ever seen. The actress playing Beatrice (Joyce Taylor) is the most beautiful person in this film, far exceeding the wife of part one. We also see guinea pigs being used as guinea pigs, the only time I can ever claim to have seen that.
"House of the Seven Gables": Gerald and his wife return to his childhood home where his sister still lives and are not welcomed warmly. Every male member of the family has died the same way... is Gerald next? Epic, though slightly cheesy, use of a pickax. Beverly Garland claimed having seen Vincent Price expertly spotting parts of the prop furniture on the set of the film. When the shooting ended, those pieces of furniture "mysteriously" vanished.
Vincent Price serves as the narrator, but also appears as the characters Alex Medbourne, Professor Giacomo Rappaccini, and Gerald Pyncheon.
"Dr. Heidegger's Tale": A doctor's wife is found in her tomb after 38 years, and never aged or decomposed a day. What keeps her this way? Some sort of purified water... a virgin spring? Decent special effects on the rose and elsewhere. The makeup department deserves some credit here.
One wonders how someone who has magic youth water dripping on them manages to stay a certain age rather than revert back to a baby or even a fetus. I mean, if it makes 70-year old men 40, should it not make 30-year olds infants? But I should not think about this too much.
"Rappaccini's Daughter": We find that Naples "shines like a necklace that should be hung around a pretty girl's neck" and is much bigger than Padua. But also, in twenty years, no visitor has ever entered the house of Rappaccini -- why? There is some connection between Beatrice Rappaccini and a noxious, smoking plant. What is it? The professor has the largest nose I have ever seen. The actress playing Beatrice (Joyce Taylor) is the most beautiful person in this film, far exceeding the wife of part one. We also see guinea pigs being used as guinea pigs, the only time I can ever claim to have seen that.
"House of the Seven Gables": Gerald and his wife return to his childhood home where his sister still lives and are not welcomed warmly. Every male member of the family has died the same way... is Gerald next? Epic, though slightly cheesy, use of a pickax. Beverly Garland claimed having seen Vincent Price expertly spotting parts of the prop furniture on the set of the film. When the shooting ended, those pieces of furniture "mysteriously" vanished.