It’s Poe birthday!
Only Britain would rip off it’s own stuff. In this case, a production company, one of many, is copying Hammer Horror complete with a role for Peter Cushing. However, this film goes the Italian route of horror anthology so of the four stories I’m only going to focus on the one about Poe. By the way, just so I don’t ruin my own reputation as a bad horror film aficionado, I want to make it clear that I sit through the entire film. There’s killer kitty and it’s super cute.
The entire framing story is a group of people at a carnival are drawn into see their fate by Burgess Meredeth dressed like a Faustian gentleman devil. Each person witnesses possible terrors that could take place within their own lives, each one pushed too hard by a desire.
Jack Palance (who I always first think of as the crime boss from Tim Burton’s Batman - uh oh, my age is showing) sees a vision of himself being allowed to view one of the greatest Poe collections in the world belonging to Peter Cushing’s character. The scene where they passed around a first volume of poetry made me uncomfortable. Put on gloves! The oils in your hands are ruining them! Right, right. These are prop books. Not real first editions. I’m fine.
HOLY CRAP! Then they are smoking pipes and waving candlesticks over hundred year old manuscripts! These are the worst collectors of academia I’ve ever seen! Sorry. Sorry. I’m fine.
Some things I really liked in this segment were how the pair of fanatics gush over how Poe was a great writer of “fantasy”. They discuss his obsession with death, but still don’t call him a horror writer. Technically, Poe’s poems and most of his other stories besides the most famous ones are more in the realm of low fantasy or detective stories. The two men also point out that he played the flute (which I didn’t know, but according to several sources I found such as the Poe Society of Baltimore is totally true).
SPOILER ALERT:
Cushing, so impressed with Palance’s knowledge and shared obsession, agrees to show him the most valued part of his family’s Poe collection, items his father and grandfather gathered for decades. When Palance accuses Cushing of fabricating some of the original manuscripts since they are written on modern paper, Cushing finally reveals that his grandfather didn’t just collect Poe’s stuff, he collect the man himself. Turns out, he brought poor Poe back to life and the family kept him locked up in a basement surrounded by decor from a Spirit Halloween store. This Poe (played by B actor Hedger Wallace) is spooky, cryptic, and covered in dust. I find this simply rude. If you bring a guy back from the dead, at least clear the cobwebs off him every once in a while.
