Myself, I just ran across a version of “The Cask of Amontillado” with John Heard and Rene Auberjonois.
I also enjoyed the 50’s animated version of “The Tell-Tale Heart” narrated by James Mason.
Oh, c’mon, I love the old Roger Corman/Vincent Price movies of the 60s. They had only the vaguest of realtionships to Poe stories except the title, and usually one quote, and some generalization, but they were a hoot. And still are.
Can we count the reading of The Raven from The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode?
I think it’s James Earl Jones’ narration which elevates it.
I was a second away from posting the exact same thing.
James Earl Jones made that entire segment unforgettable. It’s a shame he’d only return once more for Treehouse of Horror V (though even that small appearance was a classic).
Most Poe adaptations, like Verne and Wells adaptations, aren’t terribly daithful. Even allowing for changes necessary for adaptability to the medium, keeping the story moving and entertaining, and acceding to popular taste, most adaptations are still abysmal. I include the Roger corman versions, which I love in general, but recognize for what they are.
Of all the versions made, probably the most faithful, yet still entertaining, is An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe:
Vincent Price is dressed for each of the pieces, and the camera moves around to keep it from being boring. The movie is available on DVD. Here are links to it on YouTube:
Many years ago Dryden Theater in Rochester ran a series of different adaptations of the same story, and one night featured three different versions of “The Fall of the House of Usher”. One was Corman’s, another was a highly artistic (and boring) black and white version (to which I preferred Corman’s). The other was pretty good, but I admit that I can’t recall who did it.
The 1968 film Spirits of the Dead features three adaptations of Poe stories. It resembles the Corman films in having a multiuplicity of Poe stories, but the directors are different, and the segments are well-done. Og knows they’re not extremely faithful, but at least you don’t have to see another rehashing of the same burning building Corman used ad nauseum n his other adaptations. In particular, “Toby Dammit”, based on the Poe story “Never Bet the Devil Your Head”, directed by Federico Fellinni (!!!) is worth watching. Terence Stamp stars.
Of all of Corman’sversions, Masque of the Red Death is most interesting. Charles Beaumont did the screenplay (a writer of great short stories in the 1950s, he wrote LOTS of the original Twilight Zone episodes, along with The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and other random screenplays before dying at an early age), and it includes parts of the Poe story “Hop Frog” as well as the title story. For some reason, they clipped the number of “colored” rooms, but it’s an atmospheric piece.
I’m surprised that there are almost no versions of The Gold Bug on film There have been a couple of TV adaptations and a 1983 Jess Franco version in Spanish. I haven’t seen any of them.
It’s not a film, but I highly recommend the audiobook edition of Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone reading the stories of Poe. It’s particularly interesting bgecause the same actors appeared in the same stories directed by Corman, and you can contrast their performanmces on film with the accurate versions on tape or disc. Both Rathbone and Price are superb.
What’s interesting to me about the second segment of “Tales of Terror” is that even though they’ve ‘comedied it up’ (and combined The Black Cat with The Cask of Amontillado)…I think Peter Lorre is still damn horrifying in it.