The Pit and the Pendulum
00:38:11
About
Audience request month continues with Roger Corman’s “The Pit and The Pendulum”. A film in which a grief-stricken Vincent Price keeps his dead wife’s bedroom exactly as she left it, and similarly ensures that his dead father’s torture chamber is well oiled and fully functional; the local Doctor is a bit overfamiliar, and happy to sign off on DIY home internment; and we get the thesaurus out to namecheck all the synonyms for Hell. The second of AIP’s “Poe Cycle”, where Richard Matheson ditches Poe’s 2 pages of 19th Century torture porn and turns it into a 85 minute Medieval whodunnit - watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers, and join us.
I will tell you where you are. You are about to enter hell, Bartholomew. Hell!
Famous lines
- "She was enslaved by evil in a terror haunted castle."
- "Harlot! You will die in agony! Die!"— Don Nicholas Medina
- "I've waited too long already."— Elizabeth
- "And now, my dear Nicholas, I have you exactly as I want you - helpless."— Elizabeth
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Transcript
Show full transcript
LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisHi, I'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here this evening for the second of our listener request month episodes.
Leecourtesy of Dave.
LeeWho has asked us to cover the amazing 1961 Corman Poe adaptation as loosely as you can possibly put that, of The Pit and the Pendulum.
ChrisOh, is it?
LeeOh, we'll get into it.
Lee
LeeSo there will be spoilers, there will be swearing.
LeeAnd yeah, so for those of you who haven't seen it, totally go and watch it before we do this because it is a bit of a who done it and we will be spoiling that.
Leebut if you haven't and you're not going to go and watch it, just a very quick rundown.
Leea guy turns up at a castle, his sister has died and he's received a letter with not much information from her husband, who he's never met.
Leeso he's gone there to find out what's going on, only to find that it's a very strange household, and Vincent Price, who is the husband, his family have a history of torture and execution.
Adam
LeeSo,
AdamFirst point, first point of order on that one.
LeeYeah.
AdamTechnically, if you're a member of the Spanish Inquisition, you can't have kids.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause you have to be fairly sort of high-ranking, yeah, Catholic, so, so yeah.
LeeMaybe he was just doing it for fun.
ChrisPossibly.
LeeJust a hobby, we've all got to have a hobby.
ChrisWell, yeah.
AdamSorry.
LeeAll right.
Leeyeah, oh, and then it turns out that Vincent Price believes he's been haunted by said wife.
Lee
LeeSo, Chris, with this being I assume your first time watching.
ChrisIt is.
LeeHow do you?
ChrisIt is, yeah, and I hadn't heard of this, I don't think until it turned up in the, the spinner last, last two, last two episodes ago.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah, so, what you just ended on there, I thought was good.
ChrisI, as often do, I like the element of psychology, you know, he's going mad, is he really going mad, is she coming back from the dead, what's going on, you know, it's like that starts to get a nice little twisted story, you don't know quite which way it's going.
Chris
ChrisAnd, I don't, I don't think I recognized anyone except for Vincent Price, who again, once you know him, he could pretty much do anything and it would make a great film.
ChrisAnd,
ChrisThe way he turns in this and the different points at which he is going a bit mad, but then, you know, he comes into his full as the, when he takes on, is he this.
ChrisI'm going to mix up the names, so we've got Nicholas Medina and Sebastian Medina.
AdamYes.
ChrisSo it's like it's his dad that he then embodies.
AdamYeah, he takes on the persona of his father, who,
ChrisYeah.
AdamWho who's torture room it is because that is a fantastic way to show someone round their around your house.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd this torture chamber, it was my father's.
LeeYeah.
LeeI've got to admit, I mean, I've probably seen this film half a dozen times, I would have sworn blind when I sat down to watch it tonight that it was all in Vincent Price's head and he'd imagined the whole thing.
Chris
LeeBecause I just remembered the end scene and I'd forgot the twist before that.
LeeYeah, and I was, and the whole the whole way through to be fair, it it does play along that that could be the case.
LeeSo it's only when you know, the doctor walks down the stairs and bumps into the wife.
LeeAnd I was like,
LeeOh shit, no, I've totally misremembered this.
ChrisI wonder.
ChrisI wonder, yeah, I wonder if that happens to me.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause this this is probably I I watched it yesterday.
AdamAnd that was probably the first time in about nearly 20 years, I think.
LeeWow.
AdamI think I've seen it sort of like, I think I saw it once on Telly.
AdamSo I knew of it and I, you know, I I'd seen it and obviously I've seen the other Poe cycle stuff a lot more.
AdamI think this just didn't used to turn up as often.
LeeYeah.
Chris
AdamAs like mask of the Red Death or, the Raven.
AdamThe Raven's always on.
Adambut,
AdamYeah, it was a very, I know, I totally forgotten about that and I was, I was the same as you Lee.
AdamI was like, oh, they're going with the, you know,
Adameither either a haunting or madness plot.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamAnd, because I was also sitting there going,
AdamI remember Barbara still fucking talking.
LeeYeah.
Chris
AdamAnd I was like, you've made that up, you're you're getting confused with Black Sunday or something like that, you know.
AdamAnd,
AdamNo, as it turns out,
AdamYeah, she does actually appear.
AdamBut it's because it's, oh yeah, I think she's like third build.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd literally is in a flashback.
AdamAnd you do at that at that point until.
LeeYeah.
AdamThe whole thing unravels and you find out that, yeah.
AdamAlthough that is also the question of what a shitty person she is that it's like, yeah, and I'll let my brother think I'm dead.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah, she seems very put out that he's there.
LeeWhich you know,
LeeConsidering he's come all the way from England to come and, you know, find out what really happened because he cares so much and then she's like, oh, have you done away with that prick yet because he's just going to get in the way if he's still here.
AdamYeah.
Chris
ChrisNow, I wanted to check what are the other Edgar Allan Poe adaptations that we've seen?
Adam
AdamSo, of the Poe cycle, I got it all written down.
ChrisOh.
AdamWell done.
Adamwe we have we have scratched off the list.
Adam
AdamTales of Terror, which we did quite early on.
AdamWhich is the one that's it's an anthology one with, Vincent Price but also, Peter Lori, thank you, and.
LeePeter Lorre.
AdamPeter Lorre, thank you, and.
LeeBoris Karloff.
AdamYeah.
AdamSo,
Adamwe did that quite early on, and then reasonably recently we did the Raven.
AdamWhich was, Peter Lorre again and Boris Karloff with Vincent Price.
ChrisYes.
AdamAnd that was where he'd been turned into a raven.
AdamBecause I mean,
ChrisThat's right.
AdamThat's right.
AdamAgain, the whole thing of how much this is based on Poe.
AdamGo back to the Raven as well where it's like, this is a film that has nothing to do.
AdamWith.
ChrisYeah.
AdamRival magicians at war over a possibly dead, possibly possessed ghost wife who's actually just real and just ran off.
ChrisYeah.
Adamyeah, none of that is.
AdamSort of particularly in there.
Adambut they make a crack and good.
Adamfilm out of it, to be honest.
ChrisYeah, I wonder, I wonder how that works for for Poe official Autos, like do they also like this or does it, like they're like, oh, what are you doing?
AdamWeirdly enough, I think this came out, these came out where they were sort of like the first sort of, I don't know, not sort of modern adaptions of Poe because they've been sort of like stuff earlier, but like silent films and things like that as well.
ChrisOkay.
AdamLike so so a lot older.
AdamSo these were kind of the first run, so I think a lot of Poe fans just embraced the fact that, you know, they're doing Edgar Allan Poe.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut that but I I so, but now I think a lot of them it's very sort of like, you know, if you're a if you're a Poe-faced Poe fan, you probably go like, oh, you're going to like.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou probably gonna struggle.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, but I think anyone else is like it's a bit like, Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna when they do, Lovecraft.
Chris
AdamAnd it's that same thing of people just embraced them because they were the first kind of run of films that were adapting Lovecraft.
Adam
AdamBut actually when you watch him, they're like, no, you've really, you've just utterly fucked around with this, this is nothing to do with it.
Adam
AdamAnd similarly, so, I mean, the pit and the pendulum, this is so of the Komen cycle.
AdamThis is the second one.
AdamSo there's,
AdamJust to recap, The Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and Pendulum, Premature Burial, which doesn't have Vincent Price in it, Tales of Terror, The Raven.
AdamThe Haunted Palace, Mask of the Red Death and the Tomb of Ligeia.
AdamSo that's the sort of run of films, so we're we're three down.
AdamWhich is, not bad going.
ChrisPretty good, yeah.
Adambut,
LeeYeah.
LeeBut I think correct correct me if I'm wrong Adam, but the majority of them do stick fairly closely to the actual store the actual post stories with the exception of The Pit and the Pendulum and The Raven, which is just.
LeeIt's as if they've given the title to somebody who's never read them.
ChrisYeah.
LeeAnd just gone, write us a screenplay on this.
AdamWell, it's because it's Richard Matheson who's the script writer on this, who, and I I just had to jot it down because I know he's sort of like, so Richard Matheson wrote of what we've watched.
AdamDevil Rides Out, Legend of Hell House, wrote the book that that was based on, Tales of Terror, Night of the Eagle and The Raven.
AdamSo he does all the Poe adaptations.
AdamSo, but I think it's whether he, I think really it's whether they've got enough plot to get their teeth into.
LeeYeah.
Chris
AdamSo something like Mask of the Red Death, Fall of the House of Usher.
AdamAnd actually probably the cleverest thing is doing Tales of Terror where they just did it as an anthology.
AdamSo you got the Black Cat and, Cask of Amontillado and, you know, because it sort of suits that.
AdamSo the Raven I think was just because it was Poe's most famous poem, so they probably just thought that's next.
AdamI I personally think Roger Corman probably never read Poe.
Adambut he knew the titles.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd just was like, oh, so that's.
AdamThat's the one I've heard of.
AdamSo we'll make that.
Adam
LeeAnd.
LeeYeah.
LeeHe just.
LeeIt's a three-page story just of a man waiting to die.
LeeOh.
LeeOh, shit.
AdamLiterally.
AdamChris.
AdamClaire was watching this with me and she said, let me know when it gets to the bit that's the book.
AdamI was like,
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd literally the bit that's the book is once the,
Adamthe brother is strapped down under the pendulum.
ChrisOh, right, okay.
AdamBut,
AdamBut it more so than that, it's basically a three-page meditation on terror.
AdamBecause the reason Pit and Pendulum is like one of the big Poe stories because it is.
AdamA really concise but very good distillation of what he does.
ChrisOkay.
AdamSo it's basically very, you know, a touch melodramatic maybe, but.
AdamSomeone driving themselves insane through pure terror of being strapped under this torture device that slowly descends.
ChrisAnd this is.
AdamIn otherwise pitch darkness surrounded by rats.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisWell, this is sounding a little bit like an early torture porn story then.
AdamYeah.
ChrisIt's got, it's got.
ChrisIf that's the focus of.
AdamYeah.
ChrisTorture sending you mad and yeah.
AdamYeah, no, actually I think you're probably right, it's it's very much a short burst of torture porn.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisNow, I can see I can see why because I was sort of thinking they're definitely showing a lot of the pendulum swinging back and forth, and I suppose that could be a reason why they they had it in there significantly.
ChrisI mean, it is meant to be the.
AdamWell, it's the in the title as well, so.
ChrisYeah, yeah, no.
ChrisIt's, but I I suppose I was, I was perhaps taken by when Don Medina.
Chriswhen he changed, for me that felt like this is the peak bit.
ChrisAs opposed to necessarily the pendulum bit, it was like,
ChrisI guess that takes my attention when you start to see Vincent Price moving into his crazy, evil.
AdamIt's weird because that is the apex of the film of Yeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYou know, I think that they not necessarily on purpose, sort of but I think it was just the combo of that and Vincent Price.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisIt all suddenly.
AdamWho does I mean, I mean, obviously obviously it's Vincent Price, it's always going to get to big.
Chris
AdamIt's going to get to a big performance, let's be generous because we're enjoying it.
AdamYou know, it's not.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYou know.
Adam
AdamBut that first transition where he just grins.
Chris
AdamAnd he's just a bit sort of, oh yes, and quite every day when he's been this sort of this sort of very haunted figure all through it.
AdamAnd then.
ChrisYeah.
AdamSuddenly it's like, oh, it's pleasant trees in time of the day and you're like,
AdamOh fuck, he's gone.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeI his performance in this, I mean, I know we always gash about Vincent Price.
LeeBut his performance in this is absolutely outstanding, he really, really does.
LeeAnd it's like considering he has to play so many he has to put so many different hats on in this film, really.
Leeand he.
AdamAnd the cowards.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYes.
ChrisAnd I think that he, he definitely does do that well, he is good at having those different sides.
AdamBut that's kind of what you need for Poe.
Chrisokay.
AdamBecause because it's being because not being funny, it's like Poe writes madness well.
Chris
AdamAnd that's the art of it.
AdamSo it's not just a case of transition it onto the screen, you've got to get an actor who can handle that.
AdamBut it's also got to be, you know, I mean, you've then got to get to the point of him screaming his way through a thesaurus of words for hell.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamBut it's still I think it's like you say, it's because it's sort of like that turning point is the peak.
AdamAlthough again,
AdamSorry and sorry we're jumping around folks but also sorry we're spoiling things if you've decided to stay with us even though we told you not to.
Adam
AdamThe actual twist ending as well.
AdamWhere it's just like, right, we're going to leave this place and no one will come back in and, Elizabeth is still in the iron maiden.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd.
AdamAnd that's just.
LeeI thought that, yeah.
LeeBecause for those, for the people who survive, they don't know that it was all a ploy to send him mad, as far as they're concerned, he went mad and he had done it all.
LeeSo they just walked away at that point and were like, well, we've wrapped this up.
LeeAnd they haven't, they've all got completely the wrong end of the stick.
LeeWhich is, yeah.
ChrisWell,
Christhat is.
ChrisThat is a profound point.
ChrisI mean, you know,
ChrisI'd like to bring that back to how often does everyone get the wrong end of the stick?
ChrisYou see something and you think that's what that is.
ChrisAnd yet, if you can't find out the truth, you will blame that person and yet it was he was the victim.
LeeYeah.
AdamWell, I think it's, I can't it we were talking about, I think it might have been in our last.
AdamOh, it was because of, Horror Express.
AdamBut we were saying about watching something where you're in on the mystery rather than having to figure it out.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThis manages to give you both sides of that in a weird way.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamBecause it's you.
ChrisDefinitely, yeah.
AdamYou know more than any of the characters put together, but you are still.
ChrisNot for the whole film though, it's.
AdamYou know, you are still.
AdamIt's a mystery and a surprise and a twist.
AdamAnd so on, so.
AdamAnd,
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd I think actually the one thing that's a shame is that you don't you don't get more Barbara Steele.
AdamBecause I think her particularly her with fucking Vincent Price.
LeeYeah.
AdamThey are brilliant.
AdamYeah.
AdamYou know, they really, you know, because her face when he goes, when he's clearly snapped.
AdamIs it goes from gloating to like abject fear.
LeeYeah.
AdamLike where it's like, shit, we've bitten off more than we can chew.
AdamAnd,
AdamYou know, it's sort of.
AdamYeah, it's a really good performance within like what we see of her.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut.
AdamYeah.
ChrisI was thinking, I was surprised she hasn't been in anything else that I that I could think of.
ChrisI.
AdamShe was in, Curse of the Crimson Altar.
LeeYeah.
Adamshe played the bright green lady.
LeeLevinia, yeah.
Chrisright, okay.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd,
AdamBut again, kind of in that she's not really in it a lot.
AdamWe will do, we've got to do Black Sunday.
LeeYeah.
ChrisYes, okay.
AdamBlack Sunday is the she did that before, I think she did that before this.
Adambut she worked a lot with, there's an Italian director called Mario Bava.
AdamWho.
AdamThen kind of the Pit and the Pendulum particularly kind of fed back into them and they sort of started,
Adamgoing in the same direction as Roger Corman's stuff.
Adambut that, Black Sunday is like black and white, which, reincarnation film.
ChrisOkay.
Adambut it is really.
AdamIt's really good, it's really fucking dark.
ChrisYeah.
LeeIt is.
LeeYeah, it is.
ChrisWell, and yeah, 1960, so that must be quite relatively unusual.
ChrisTo for you to say it quite like that.
AdamWell, because it's, I think it's just it's unusual enough in every sort of sense, it's sort of because it's like I say, because it's in, I mean,
ChrisOkay.
AdamI mean, there's the there is the dub, I think I've watched the, I think I've watched the dub version of it rather than the subtitled.
Adam
AdamBut, yeah, there's just something about it, it's just very starkly filmed and weirdly it kind of I like, in the pit you've got the Inquisition painted on the wall.
LeeYeah.
AdamLike the figures of the Inquisition.
AdamWhich does come from the story.
AdamBecause there's in the story he.
AdamIt starts off with him saying that he's been held by the Inquisition and sentenced to death.
AdamAnd then it's just he's in the pit being.
Adamseeing the blind.
Adambut he talks about like when they say it, he basically blacks out.
AdamSo all he sees is them in silhouette.
AdamAnd just and I think it's just them in silhouette and their lips as they in intone his name.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd,
Adamyeah, that that sort of,
Adampainting that they've got round the pit of the various sort of like, creepy Inquisition figures and the pointy hats and everything and stuff like that.
AdamYeah, that that kind of feels like Black Sunday.
ChrisOh, right.
AdamOkay.
AdamBecause Black Sunday is very high contrast sort of black and white film.
AdamBut we'll we'll do it.
AdamSo we'll see you for Black Sunday.
ChrisYeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeAnd that's the thing with Roger Corman.
LeeI mean,
LeeYou know, everyone always talks about how he always got his films in the can long before deadline, they always came in under budget.
LeeBut he got so much out of his actors.
LeeAlways.
LeeI mean,
LeeI know he's seen as a bit of a schlock master.
LeeBut like, these films are masterpieces.
LeeThey're so beautifully shot.
LeeSo well put together.
Leethey always have that lovely dreamlike quality to them and the color palettes always really nice on them, they've got that really like that, not just when it's the super bright dreamy stuff.
LeeBut just the shots of the castles.
AdamYes.
LeeYes, yeah, exactly.
AdamTinter Quality Street.
LeeAnd I love the Matt painting stuff, so like the Matt painting of the pit and of the castle.
LeeI just think they're.
AdamThe oil the paint and oil stuff over the like over the opening as well.
Lee
AdamJust very abstract and really, really good.
LeeYes.
AdamReally good.
AdamBecause actually that's another thing sort of although like saying about the because that's something that he has in common with Mario Bava, definitely.
AdamIs.
AdamThe sequence when it starts going through all the color changes and the mad angles and everything and the, as the blade's coming towards him and it's all sort of kicking off for once in a bit of expression.
Adamyeah, that whole sort of it.
AdamIt just goes mad, you know, it's like the film goes mad to say this person's gone mad.
AdamAnd it's, yeah.
AdamIt but it just is so.
AdamYou know, I I agree with you.
AdamI think this is this this is what Roger Corman did best.
Adam
AdamIs these Poe adaptations are definitely his that that discovering basically the entire of seventies Hollywood royalty and eighties as well, you know, just like the amount of directors that he helped.
AdamBut, yeah.
AdamBut as as a director himself, I think these are the these this is the gold, you know, this is the really good stuff.
Leeand if you love all that imagery and the way it's all portrayed, it it still always reminds me, now I've seen it, I can't help but keep harking back to it just say specifically that opening as well with the multicolored twirls, second Elvira movie, Elvira's Haunted Hills.
Leeyes, is like it's a, it's a,
Leea loving kind of comedic version of an amalgamation of all of these Poe Corman films.
Lee
LeeBut they pull it off really well.
LeeLike some of the comedy falls a little bit flat, but to look at it, it's it's fantastic.
LeeThey do a really, really good job of sort of recreating it.
LeeAnd and I love the film.
LeeI've seen it half a dozen times.
ChrisShould we have watched an Elvira?
AdamWe probably should have done by now.
ChrisDo do they come under the right category?
AdamOh, absolutely.
AdamI think.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeAbsolutely.
AdamIt's, yeah, it's Elvira is definitely horror.
LeeYeah.
ChrisOkay.
LeeAnd that first film is so eighties and so.
AdamIt's also it's also good because if I watch that with Clare, she can see that that is literally Ru Paul's playbook.
LeeYeah.
AdamOf innuendo.
AdamAnd it's seriously the full works, how's your head, I've had no complaint so far.
AdamAnd, you know, all of it is just from Elvira.
AdamSo, yeah.
AdamNo, we we probably do need to do Alva.
LeeWe definitely need to get that on the list.
LeeAnd it's such a fun watch.
LeeWe, we watched it here actually, we had a party at Halloween.
Leeand we said, oh, you know, what does everyone want to watch?
Leeyeah, and that was one that got got the most votes, so we ended up watching that in its entirety.
LeeSo, yeah.
AdamSo not anti-Christ this time.
LeeNo.
AdamThat's one for Chris.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah, definitely.
Leebut yeah, I just I think they just, it's not just the way they're constructed, it's everything because obviously he used to carry his own team with him a lot.
LeeSo all of these films feel, that's why it's hard to tell what order they come in because they all feel so completely alike.
LeeLike you said Adam, like, you know, Mask of the Red Death and, and the others.
AdamHouse of Usher.
LeeHouse of Usher.
Leeyeah, and the Arrow releases of those are really good as well, like they're, their prints are phenomenally good considering their age.
AdamI don't think I've ever seen the one that doesn't have, Vincent Price in it.
AdamI don't think I've seen Premature Burial.
LeeI have that here on a Midnight Movies release, so it's one of those double-sided discs and it's I can't remember what's on the other side of it.
LeeIt might even be Mask of the Red Death and Premature Burial, but yeah, I I think I've only seen it the once.
ChrisOh.
LeeIt's it's very Roger Corman, it feels exactly like these, but because it hasn't got Vincent Price.
LeeIt's the one that I watched and enjoyed and haven't gone back to because.
AdamIt's the George Lazenby one.
LeeYeah.
LeeBasically.
LeeYeah, very good in its own right, but when you compare it to the others, you always watch Vincent Price.
AdamIt's not winning anything unless you're feeling very unusual.
LeeYeah.
AdamI do, yeah, I mean, it's, oh, did you know about the,
Adamthe extra bit, there's a prologue to this film.
Adambasically,
AdamI mean, obviously,
Adamnow, bear in mind, this film is 1961.
Adam
Adamin 1968, when it was sold to, I think, ABC for television.
Adamit wasn't long enough to fill up the two-hour slot, like if you you know, like obviously they chop adverts in, but it still wasn't long enough to fill the two-hour slot.
AdamSo they filmed a prologue to bring up the running time.
AdamAnd, where are we?
LeeDo you know what, it's funny you say that.
LeeSo I was discussing this with Dave today, who sent us the request for this.
LeeAnd someone on the video chat said, oh, I'd like to watch that.
LeeAnd he sent a photograph later of the fact that it's currently available on Sky Cinema.
Leeyeah.
LeeAnd it said an hour and 38 minutes.
LeeAnd I said, well, that's odd because I've just sat down to watch it and it was an hour and 20.
LeeSo where does the other 18 minutes come from, and I was like, I've not got Sky, but I'm pretty sure they don't stick adverts in the middle of it.
LeeSo, yeah, that would actually explain, all right, I need to go and track that copy down there and see that.
AdamYeah, it's, well, it's,
Adamfortunately it's on the arrow release.
AdamThey do have, oh, and I'll tell you there's another thing on there that's absolutely fantastic.
AdamBut, yeah, so it was, Corman's production assistant Tamara Azief, and she went and filmed it and it features, Luana Anders, who is,
Adamthe, sister Katherine, Katherine Medina.
AdamBecause she was like the only member of the cast they could get back to do it because obviously it was like eight years ago.
AdamAnd it basically starts with, her, it's it's her in an asylum where the events of the film have driven her mad.
AdamAnd then so she sort of like goes around this asylum.
AdamSid Hage's in it.
AdamVery briefly as a as a sort of molesti guard.
AdamBut yeah, Sid Sid Hage turns up in it.
Adam
AdamAnd basically, yeah, it's it's really weird because it's sort of it's obviously not.
AdamShot on at the same time.
AdamAnd Luana Anders looks, I mean, not different, but, you know,
Adamit's clearly not two days later or from when, you know.
Adamand,
AdamYeah, it's just very weird sort of like little thing that they've added in.
AdamBut basically, yeah, so she then goes up to someone and starts telling that, well, I'll tell you why I'm here.
Adamand then and the film and then the rest of the film's a flashback.
LeeOh.
LeeOh, yeah, I definitely need to track that down and see that.
LeeBecause that's very unusual.
AdamWell, I also I thought I would have to put down just in case.
Adamit had it had happened.
Adamwell done, Chris.
Adamfor not having this happen.
AdamBut, yeah.
AdamNot to be confused with The Pit and the Pendulum with Lance Henriksen and Poe.
Chris
Adam1990 1991.
LeeFull Moon production.
AdamOh no, that there's also Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.
AdamWhich is a low-budget erotic thriller adaptation apparently.
LeeOh dear.
Chris
LeeI don't quite know what you Oh, yeah, no, I don't want to think about it.
LeeI can't.
AdamThere's there's a French adaptation.
AdamThere's a German adaptation with Christopher Lee called The Blood Demon in 1967.
Adamyeah.
AdamAnd there is a reading of it by Vincent Price on An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe.
AdamWhich is basically a filmed TV special where he sits and performs for Poe stories.
LeeI have that on DVD as well.
LeeThat's also midnight releases, I think.
AdamYeah, that's on the that's on the arrow one as well, because I was like, I'd read about it and I thought, oh, I'll drop that down and then when I was going through the extras on this, because I thought, oh, well, they'll have the, I know they have the prologue in there.
Adam
AdamAnd yeah, suddenly I was like, oh shit, I've just had this.
AdamNice warm slice of entertainment set there for ages and I'm like, oh, look at it.
LeeI couldn't find my arrow release.
LeeSo I watched my.
LeeDodgy old DVD copy, you see, so I've missed all these extras.
LeeI don't know if I've actually watched my arrow release version, but yeah.
AdamAs as you guess, it looks incredible.
AdamBy the way.
AdamWe're not being paid by Arrow.
LeeNo.
AdamI mean.
AdamBut.
AdamThey can pay us if they want and they can send us free discs if they want.
AdamBut,
AdamYeah, we're not actually being paid by arrow.
AdamWe just like them.
LeeYeah.
LeeThey just they they always, it's one of those even if they've put a film out like this that they put out years later, they managed to get some really good stuff of the time, a lot of the time the documentaries and things that surround them are all, you know, like they make their own.
LeeYeah, and they're just really good, yeah, they they just put out really good, you know, stuff that even if you've got it on DVD already.
LeeIt's always worth getting anything that they released that you're interested in, but yeah, that's.
AdamYeah, they're they're always good value.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd a lot of it stuff you don't, I mean, in terms of streaming, you don't get many extras, any more that sort actually that got beat out of them.
AdamIt was like talking about extras, for fuck's sake, just show me the film, Jesus Christ.
Leebut yeah.
LeeRoger Corman's career has been.
LeeI know we discussed it in the previous episodes, but like the amount of stuff that he's done through the years, like the amount of famous films that are attributed to him, and I didn't know growing up, I didn't know who he was particularly.
LeeBut, you know, stuff like Death Race and although, you know, like big name stuff.
LeeLike he seemed to be able to turn his hand to almost anything.
LeeDidn't he do a load of softcore porn stuff and things as well?
AdamI I think I think everything, basically, if it was if there was exploitation, Roger Corman even directed or produced it in in some way or another.
AdamSo I think there's, I think there's definitely there's probably like, I think there's like bikini films and nudi films and stuff.
AdamAnd.
AdamI think it's just it's the thing of being a, what's the word for it?
AdamIt's the it's just.
AdamPart and parcel of just doing, well, we're throwing enough shit at the wall, make some money.
LeeYeah.
LeeActually, I did very.
AdamIn a lovely way.
AdamBut you know, you know, really.
LeeI did very nearly actually in the the run-up to this I,
LeeI was going through my collection, yeah, and I did find, you're saying about bikinis, the Doctor Goldfoot, the two Doctor Goldfoot movies.
AdamOh, yes.
Leeyeah, and I I think I watched half of the first one and didn't get to finish it.
LeeAnd I was tempted to watch it just to sort of, because it was an excuse to watch them really.
LeeBut, yeah.
LeeI didn't quite get around to it in the end.
LeeBut I definitely will watch the.
AdamHave they also got on there a film called Master of the World or something as an extra?
LeePossibly.
LeeI I think it's two films either one on one disc or the two films in one box, so yeah.
LeeI don't think there's many extras or anything, so they're.
AdamRight.
Adambut no, it might be worth checking.
AdamJust because that is a sort of a it's an adaptation of a Jules Verne story called Rober Master of the World.
AdamAnd it's Vincent Price is basically this steampunk Sky pirate.
LeeOh, wait, I've seen.
LeeI have seen that.
LeeYes.
Adam
LeeYes, I not sure if I saw it as an extra on the.
LeeBut I have seen that, yeah, it's very cardboard scenery and stuff.
AdamYeah, I still need to see it.
AdamI've never seen it to be honest.
AdamBut it's always just I and I like I like the the Verne, so, yeah.
LeeYeah, it was again, it was fairly entertaining, but yeah, it was one of those kind of, I don't think it was super low budget.
LeeI think it was just very early filmmaking, so yeah, it all just felt very, you know, plastic.
LeeAnd stuff.
LeeWhen they were supposed to be in this huge zeppelin flying around the world.
Leeyeah, and it looked like an office that had been built in a in a warehouse, funnily enough.
Leebut yeah.
LeeBut yeah, I just I need to watch more Vincent Price.
LeeBut I do go through phases of just getting swamped.
LeeAnd I keep going back to the same old classics again and again.
LeeSo.
LeeI do need to diversify a bit, I think, and, like I bought one of his pirate movies and I watched Dragonwick and,
AdamSome of his Noir's good.
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamThat that's some good stuff.
AdamBecause again, he's just very good at being a menacing bastard.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd actually if you're feeling really go and seek out.
AdamWhen he was egged on Batman.
LeeOh, yes, I never really watched Batman.
LeeSo I missed all of that.
LeeSo I think I might have to.
AdamI mean that that was the original series.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisThat was the the original series.
AdamYeah, the Adam West one.
AdamSo be prepared, it's basically him in a giant bald head making egg puns.
ChrisI think that that has got to be.
LeeThat's super bad.
AdamYeah, and that's exquisit.
LeeSo.
AdamSo.
LeeYeah.
LeeOkay.
LeeIt's super bad.
LeeRight.
Leelet's wrap this up.
LeeSo thanks very much for that Dave, that was a perfect excuse for us to go back to another Corman Poe film.
LeeQuite soon after we recently did, they're always good.
AdamI'm also very pleased because sorry, I was just going to say, I was very pleased to realize that the the wheel of horror had had thrown up to us.
AdamThe Holy Trinity of Cushing, Lee and Price.
ChrisYes, true.
AdamSo well done that wheel of horror.
ChrisIt's almost like it there was a spirit guiding it.
AdamYeah.
AdamGoogle.
LeeOkay.
LeeSo, we will be back in a fortnight's time with our what we've been watching, so I'd better knuckle down and watch something.
LeeBecause currently it's a very scant list.
Leeand after that, we will be on episode 150, and we've got something planned for that.
LeeWe're hoping it's going to be entertaining, but it might just entertain us and nobody else.
LeeSo we don't know, but we will definitely, let you know on the next episode what we've got coming.
LeeSo thanks very much for listening.
LeeGood night.
AdamNight.
ChrisGood night.
LeeI said good night a bit rush there.
LeeSorry.
ChrisEggy Poo gives boy one a shampoo.
ChrisI'm looking up at Vincent Price Batman.
LeeI'm hooked up.
AdamOh.
AdamPossibly.
LeeYeah.
ChrisOh.
