This anthology features adaptations of the stories "Morella", "The Black Cat", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", and "A Cask of Amontillado". As usual, they star Vincent Price, are written by Richard Matheson and come from Roger Corman's masterful hands.
The first story is a bit average, which is unfortunate for a Price/Poe tale. After that it takes off, especially with the Peter Lorre, Vincent Price wine-tasting competition. That is truly the highlight of this piece. The third tale is also quite good, though does not trump the second.
Ivan Butler points out this film has "a more generous budget" and that by use of an anthology, Matheson was able to construct "more concentrated, less padded versions, and the result was a noteworthy anthology." While I generally agree with this assessment, we should not discount "Pit and the Pendulum" as inferior simply because it is longer... in some cases, the "padding" was a worthy embellishment.
These same stories are told in "Two Evil Eyes", compliments of George Romero and Dario Argento. It would be hard to say which is better. The Romero part is quite weak, leading me to say this version is better, but they are from two different eras and composed of different sensibilities.
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