Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

Synopsis: Oscar-winning scribe Robert Towne (CHINATOWN) wrote the screenplay--based on Edgar Allan Poe's story "Ligeia"--for this moody, macabre romance starring Vincent Price. A fox-hunting accident introduces vivacious Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) to brooding neighbor Verden Fell... Oscar-winning scribe Robert Towne (CHINATOWN) wrote the screenplay--based on Edgar Allan Poe's story "Ligeia"--for this moody, macabre romance starring Vincent Price. A fox-hunting accident introduces vivacious Lady Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) to brooding neighbor Verden Fell (Price). They fall in love despite his penchant for sitting around his gloomy, cobwebbed abbey, obsessing over Ligeia, his dead wife. After they return from the honeymoon, Rowena finds life at the abbey pretty distressing, as the spirit of Ligeia keeps appearing in, among other guises, the form of a malicious black cat. It all leads to a kinky, ghoulish climax, with plenty of shocks, mesmerism, implied drug addiction, and necrophelia along the way. This was the last of the string of color Poe adaptations made by King of the B's Roger Corman. Stunning outdoor photography by Hammer Films veteran Arthur Grant gives it a more realistic look than most of Corman's pictures, and Shepherd is a great heroine, delivering a mature and sexy performance. Price is unusually restrained as Verden, helping to make this more of an in-depth, Freudian study of obsession as opposed to the usual straight-up gothic horror that fans may expect. [More]