Movie Review: Twice-Told Tales (1963) dir. Sidney Salkow
The book version of Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne was full of ghosts and supernatural occurrences, so it’s not surprising that a star vehicle for noted horror actor Vincent Price would dip into that well. It’s not a very deep dip, though, with only one story from that anthology, one from a different story collection, and the third from an independent novel. In addition, great liberties were taken to amp up the horror aspects.
“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” starts us off with Carl Heidegger (Sebastian Cabot) and his old friend Alex (Price) celebrating Carl’s 79th birthday. Carl still misses his late fiancee Sylvia, who died on the night before their wedding. A freak thunderstorm opens the crypt where Sylvia lays. The friends soon discover that a leak in the ceiling has been dripping a fluid that has somehow preserved Sylvia’s body without decay. Dr. Heidegger experiments with the fluid, and it turns out to have rejuvenating properties. It might even be able to bring back the dead! But with returned youth come old secrets and dark passions.
Front-loading the film with a story featuring another fine character actor was a good choice. Cabot is able to keep up with Price, increasing interest.
“Rappaccini’s Daughter” is the most faithful of the adaptations. When Giacomo Rappaccini’s (Price) wife left for another man, he locked himself and his daughter Beatrice away in a high-walled villa in Padua. There, among his garden of poisonous plants, Rappaccini turned Beatrice into someone who is immune to poison, at the cost of making her poisonous to everyone else. Thus she can never leave the garden, or be exposed to the evil of men.
But university student Giovanni happens to see Beatrice from a high window in the neighboring building and falls in love. Beatrice returns his feelings, but knows that she is deadly to the touch. Rappachini has a plan, but his misunderstanding of Beatrice’s best interests leads to tragedy. Some very nice poison effects.
“The House of the Seven Gables” begins with Gerald Pyncheon (Price) returning to the title house, his ancestral home, after many years away, bringing along his wife Alice. Gerald’s sister Hannah is none too pleased to see him as he gambled away the family money, and is now obviously after the last treasure rumored to be hidden away in a secret vault.
Gerald is defying a family curse that all the Pyncheon men will die “with blood on their lips”, of which he is the last survivor. It seems that the ancestor who had the house built had condemned a man to death for witchcraft. The strange supernatural things going on now suggest that perhaps Matthew Malle wasn’t quite as innocent of that charge as his family claimed. Naturally, Gerald’s greed dooms him and all in his vicinity to dangerous times.
The special effects team goes all out in this last segment. Just remember it’s the early 1960s.
Content note: One of the stories has on-screen suicide.
This is a fun movie if you like Vincent Price trying on three slightly different roles (elderly playboy, overprotective father, greedy husband.) If you’re not keen on him, this movie will be a bit much. I personally enjoyed it immensely.
