The Tomb of Ligeia [Blu-ray]

Director: Roger Corman Roger Corman

Overview

Once again Vincent Price stars for director Roger Corman in The Tomb of Ligeia, the last of Corman's eight Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, a film graced by a script by Robert Towne and moody cinematography by Nicolas Roeg. Price has the creepy lead role of Verden Fell. In 1821, when Verden's wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Shepherd) dies, she is buried in a churchyard, despite the parson's objections that she can't be buried there since she isn't a Christian. Before the grave is closed, abetted by the screech of a black cat, Ligeia eyes shoot open, startling Verden, who becomes convinced that she is not dead. Months later, Lady Rowena (also played by Shepherd) is thrown from her horse and lands at the foot of Ligeia's grave. Verden tends to her and soon falls in love with her. They marry and move into Verden's gloomy Gothic abbey, where Rowena begins to have strange dreams involving Ligeia and a black cat. One night she awakens to discover a dead fox in her bed. When Ligeia's grave is exhumed, instead of Ligeia's corpse, a wax figure is discovered. Then Rowena finds, to her horror, Verden in the arms of his dead wife in a hidden room of the abbey. Having hypnotized Verden before she died, Ligeia had Verden convinced she will live forever. Verden, now possessed by the spirit of his dead wife, takes a torch to the abbey, trapping himself and Rowena in the flaming conflagration. But Christopher (John Westbrook), an admirer of Rowena, endeavors to rescue Rowena from the flames.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/07/2021
UPC:	0738329254964
Original Release:	1964
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:22:00
Sales rank:	17,820

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Vincent Price	Verden Fell
Elizabeth Shepherd	Lady Rowena/Lady Ligeia
John Westbrook	Christopher Gough
Oliver Johnston	Kenrick
Derek Francis	Lord Trevanion
Richard Vernon	Dr. Vivian
Ronald Adam	Parson
Frank Thornton	Peperel
Denis Gilmore	Livery Boy
Penelope Lee	Actor
Kenneth V. Jones	Composer

Technical Credits

Robert Towne

Edgar Allan Poe

Roger Corman	Director,Producer,Executive Producer
Robert Towne	Screenwriter
Ted Samuels	Special Effects
Edgar Allan Poe	Screenwriter
James H. Nicholson	Executive Producer
Samuel Z. Arkoff	Producer
David Deutsch	Producer
John Aldred	Sound Effects
Les Wiggins	Sound Effects
Pat Green	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Though it was the last of Roger Corman's eight films based on Edgar Allen Poe stories, The Tomb of Ligeia remains one of the finest in the bunch easily standing in the same territory as The Fall of the House of Usher and Masque of the Red Death. The final result has the feel of a scary supernatural take on Hitchcock's Rebecca. Tomb succeeds on a variety of levels including Robert Towne's excellent script, the use of widescreen photography, fantastic sets and locations that add to the scary atmosphere, and a great performance by Vincent Price. Here, Price plays a brooding widower (with a curious eye malady) whose obsession with his late wife takes a terrifying turn for the worse once he takes a new wife. Elizabeth Shepherd is also good as the frightened, but curious, bride who finds herself stalked by one of the nastiest cats in cinema history. In one excellent sequence, the evil black feline lures Shepherd deep into the maze-like catacombs of their abbey home while Price's voice-over reveals details about his late wife, Ligeia. The camera work by Arthur Grant is top-notch with outdoor lensing bright, but suitably grey and gloomy. Dark interior photography adds to the chilling atmosphere.

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