El péndulo de la muerte

"The Pit and the Pendulum" is the second of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe's adaptations with a screenplay by Richard Matheson.Vincent Price's performance is an obvious highlight of the film.Legendary horror actresses Luana Anders("Dementia 13")and Barbara Steele("Shivers","Silent Scream","Black Sunday")co-star in this extremely atmospheric chiller.To sum up,"The Pit and the Pendulum" is one of Roger Corman's finest offerings-it's creepy,unsettling and extremely entertaining.A masterpiece that easily gets 10 out of 10!

The movie adapted from Edgar Allan Poe is par excellence a movie made up of sketches:for instance ,"tre passi nel delirio"(Fellini,Malle,Vadim,1968) encompassed three short stories.

The problem with Edgar Poe's short stories lies in the fact that they are...short!Here Richard Matheson double-jumped his contemporaries by combining elements from several Poe stories in a single classy film. Some kind of" the writer's greatest hits " so to speak.

The beloved late wife subject directly comes from "Morella" which will be filmed by Corman in "tales of terror" the following year.The doomed house which is slowly sinking down recalls "the fall of the House of Usher"."Burried alive" or "premature burial" plays a prominent part in the plot too.The walled up character was present in "the black cat" and "the cask of Amontillado".As for "the pit and the pendulum",it provides the movie with its final,but it's only a small segment of the whole.

The actors are excellent ,the sets wonderfully Gothic,but there's something hollow in these Corman movies.Fellini was able to transcend Poe (eg segment "Tobby Dammit" in "tre passi nel delirio") ,Corman remains a respectful director,and one sees little of the madness which emanates from Poe's best works.The same goes for such works as "premature burial" or "tales of terror".Outside technically,it does not show any improvement on,for instance Jean Epstein's (helped by Luis Bunuel)"chute de la maison Usher" a silent movie from 1928.

Watching this again after many years and with such a wonderfully clear print is a revelation. The story is slight but well told with stunning cinematography and a most impressive set, cleverly lit with colour tints, inspired perhaps by Mario Brava. Vincent Price has the time of his life, as impressive in close up as in medium. If he overdoes the old acting bit we love him for it because he does it so well. Certainly he makes most of the rest of the cast look a little wooden and we long for the arrival of Barbara Steele. Of course the wait is worth while but perhaps we could have had some flash backs early on in the film when we are gradually being let into the true horror of the situation. This is a very good solid Corman production, helped by decent script from Matheson but much reliant on the aforementioned, Price and Steele.

Even though it's not strictly faithful to Poe's original short story, The Pit and the Pendulum is still an effective and eerie adaptation. Vincent Price plays his part well, and the supporting cast is strong, too. This movie is able to create a suspenseful sense of fear and dread that you don't get from many horror films today. Well done, Roger Corman.

Three legendary figures, one in writing, and one in film-making, and one in acting are responsible for bringing The Pit and the Pendulum to life. It's Edgar Allen Poe's story about a brother struggling to come to terms about how his sister's untimely death happened. He goes to the mansion of Nicholas Medina, played by the magnificent Vincent Price, to look for answers. The Pit and the Pendulum for a 60's movie is attention getting by how powerful and mystique the actors and actresses characters are, and the brilliant story and script that intertwines very nicely. Roger Corman direction was astounding as well, making me realize why he's so acclaimed by his film-making peers. The Pit and the Pendulum is a nice little horror flick that I watched with no expectations and had no regrets spending the time and money to watch it.