The Pit and the Pendulum

0:23 Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.

0:26 Chris Hi, I'm Chris.

0:27 Adam I'm Adam.

0:29 Lee And we are here this evening for the second of our listener request month episodes.

0:35 Lee courtesy of Dave.

0:37 Lee Who 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.

0:47 Chris Oh, is it?

0:49 Lee Oh, we'll get into it.

0:50 Lee

0:52 Lee So there will be spoilers, there will be swearing.

0:57 Lee And 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.

0:06 Lee but if you haven't and you're not going to go and watch it, just a very quick rundown.

0:11 Lee a 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.

0:18 Lee so 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.

0:38 Adam

0:39 Lee So,

0:41 Adam First point, first point of order on that one.

0:44 Lee Yeah.

0:45 Adam Technically, if you're a member of the Spanish Inquisition, you can't have kids.

0:50 Lee Yeah.

0:50 Adam Because you have to be fairly sort of high-ranking, yeah, Catholic, so, so yeah.

0:57 Lee Maybe he was just doing it for fun.

3:20 Chris Possibly.

3:21 Lee Just a hobby, we've all got to have a hobby.

3:23 Chris Well, yeah.

3:26 Adam Sorry.

3:27 Lee All right.

3:28 Lee yeah, oh, and then it turns out that Vincent Price believes he's been haunted by said wife.

3:34 Lee

3:36 Lee So, Chris, with this being I assume your first time watching.

3:41 Chris It is.

3:41 Lee How do you?

3:42 Chris It 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.

3:52 Chris Yeah.

3:53 Chris Yeah, so, what you just ended on there, I thought was good.

3:59 Chris I, 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.

4:16 Chris

4:17 Chris And, 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.

5:10 Chris And,

5:11 Chris The 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.

5:22 Chris I'm going to mix up the names, so we've got Nicholas Medina and Sebastian Medina.

5:27 Adam Yes.

5:27 Chris So it's like it's his dad that he then embodies.

5:31 Adam Yeah, he takes on the persona of his father, who,

5:33 Chris Yeah.

5:34 Adam Who who's torture room it is because that is a fantastic way to show someone round their around your house.

5:40 Chris Yeah.

5:41 Adam And this torture chamber, it was my father's.

5:44 Lee Yeah.

5:47 Lee I'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.

5:57 Chris

5:58 Lee Because I just remembered the end scene and I'd forgot the twist before that.

6:02 Lee Yeah, and I was, and the whole the whole way through to be fair, it it does play along that that could be the case.

6:08 Lee So it's only when you know, the doctor walks down the stairs and bumps into the wife.

6:12 Lee And I was like,

6:12 Lee Oh shit, no, I've totally misremembered this.

6:17 Chris I wonder.

6:18 Chris I wonder, yeah, I wonder if that happens to me.

6:19 Chris Yeah.

6:21 Adam Because this this is probably I I watched it yesterday.

6:25 Adam And that was probably the first time in about nearly 20 years, I think.

6:34 Lee Wow.

6:35 Adam I think I've seen it sort of like, I think I saw it once on Telly.

6:41 Adam So 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.

6:47 Adam I think this just didn't used to turn up as often.

6:50 Lee Yeah.

6:50 Chris

6:51 Adam As like mask of the Red Death or, the Raven.

6:56 Adam The Raven's always on.

6:58 Adam but,

7:00 Adam Yeah, it was a very, I know, I totally forgotten about that and I was, I was the same as you Lee.

7:07 Adam I was like, oh, they're going with the, you know,

7:12 Adam either either a haunting or madness plot.

7:15 Lee Yeah.

7:16 Adam You know.

7:17 Adam And, because I was also sitting there going,

7:21 Adam I remember Barbara still fucking talking.

7:23 Lee Yeah.

7:24 Chris

7:25 Adam And I was like, you've made that up, you're you're getting confused with Black Sunday or something like that, you know.

7:32 Adam And,

7:33 Adam No, as it turns out,

7:34 Adam Yeah, she does actually appear.

7:35 Adam But it's because it's, oh yeah, I think she's like third build.

7:39 Lee Yeah.

7:41 Adam And literally is in a flashback.

7:43 Adam And you do at that at that point until.

7:42 Lee Yeah.

7:46 Adam The whole thing unravels and you find out that, yeah.

7:51 Adam Although 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.

7:57 Lee Yeah.

7:58 Chris Yeah.

7:59 Lee Yeah, she seems very put out that he's there.

8:02 Lee Which you know,

8:03 Lee Considering 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.

8:11 Adam Yeah.

8:12 Chris

8:12 Chris Now, I wanted to check what are the other Edgar Allan Poe adaptations that we've seen?

8:17 Adam

8:18 Adam So, of the Poe cycle, I got it all written down.

8:21 Chris Oh.

8:22 Adam Well done.

8:22 Adam we we have we have scratched off the list.

8:26 Adam

8:27 Adam Tales of Terror, which we did quite early on.

8:30 Adam Which is the one that's it's an anthology one with, Vincent Price but also, Peter Lori, thank you, and.

8:37 Lee Peter Lorre.

8:39 Adam Peter Lorre, thank you, and.

8:40 Lee Boris Karloff.

8:40 Adam Yeah.

8:41 Adam So,

8:43 Adam we did that quite early on, and then reasonably recently we did the Raven.

8:47 Adam Which was, Peter Lorre again and Boris Karloff with Vincent Price.

8:54 Chris Yes.

8:55 Adam And that was where he'd been turned into a raven.

8:58 Adam Because I mean,

8:59 Chris That's right.

9:00 Adam That's right.

9:01 Adam Again, the whole thing of how much this is based on Poe.

9:05 Adam Go back to the Raven as well where it's like, this is a film that has nothing to do.

9:09 Adam With.

9:10 Chris Yeah.

9:10 Adam Rival magicians at war over a possibly dead, possibly possessed ghost wife who's actually just real and just ran off.

9:12 Chris Yeah.

9:17 Adam yeah, none of that is.

9:20 Adam Sort of particularly in there.

9:23 Adam but they make a crack and good.

9:25 Adam film out of it, to be honest.

9:28 Chris Yeah, 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?

9:38 Adam Weirdly 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.

9:51 Chris Okay.

9:52 Adam Like so so a lot older.

9:53 Adam So 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.

10:06 Chris Yeah.

10:06 Adam Yeah.

10:06 Chris Yeah.

10:07 Adam But 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.

10:18 Chris Yeah.

10:19 Lee Yeah.

10:19 Adam You probably gonna struggle.

10:22 Chris Yeah.

10:22 Adam Yeah, but I think anyone else is like it's a bit like, Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna when they do, Lovecraft.

10:34 Chris

10:35 Adam And it's that same thing of people just embraced them because they were the first kind of run of films that were adapting Lovecraft.

10:43 Adam

10:44 Adam But 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.

10:51 Adam

10:52 Adam And similarly, so, I mean, the pit and the pendulum, this is so of the Komen cycle.

10:58 Adam This is the second one.

11:01 Adam So there's,

11:02 Adam Just 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.

11:10 Adam The Haunted Palace, Mask of the Red Death and the Tomb of Ligeia.

11:15 Adam So that's the sort of run of films, so we're we're three down.

11:20 Adam Which is, not bad going.

11:22 Chris Pretty good, yeah.

11:23 Adam but,

11:24 Lee Yeah.

11:25 Lee But 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.

11:33 Lee It's as if they've given the title to somebody who's never read them.

11:36 Chris Yeah.

11:37 Lee And just gone, write us a screenplay on this.

11:39 Adam Well, 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.

11:49 Adam Devil Rides Out, Legend of Hell House, wrote the book that that was based on, Tales of Terror, Night of the Eagle and The Raven.

11:56 Adam So he does all the Poe adaptations.

11:58 Adam So, but I think it's whether he, I think really it's whether they've got enough plot to get their teeth into.

12:05 Lee Yeah.

12:05 Chris

12:06 Adam So something like Mask of the Red Death, Fall of the House of Usher.

12:08 Adam And actually probably the cleverest thing is doing Tales of Terror where they just did it as an anthology.

12:12 Adam So you got the Black Cat and, Cask of Amontillado and, you know, because it sort of suits that.

12:18 Adam So the Raven I think was just because it was Poe's most famous poem, so they probably just thought that's next.

12:25 Adam I I personally think Roger Corman probably never read Poe.

12:27 Adam but he knew the titles.

12:28 Lee Yeah.

12:29 Adam And just was like, oh, so that's.

12:31 Adam That's the one I've heard of.

12:32 Adam So we'll make that.

12:34 Adam

12:34 Lee And.

12:35 Lee Yeah.

12:35 Lee He just.

12:36 Lee It's a three-page story just of a man waiting to die.

12:38 Lee Oh.

12:39 Lee Oh, shit.

12:36 Adam Literally.

12:39 Adam Chris.

12:41 Adam Claire was watching this with me and she said, let me know when it gets to the bit that's the book.

12:47 Adam I was like,

12:48 Adam Yeah.

12:49 Adam And literally the bit that's the book is once the,

12:54 Adam the brother is strapped down under the pendulum.

12:59 Chris Oh, right, okay.

13:00 Adam But,

13:02 Adam But it more so than that, it's basically a three-page meditation on terror.

13:11 Adam Because the reason Pit and Pendulum is like one of the big Poe stories because it is.

13:16 Adam A really concise but very good distillation of what he does.

13:22 Chris Okay.

13:23 Adam So it's basically very, you know, a touch melodramatic maybe, but.

13:30 Adam Someone driving themselves insane through pure terror of being strapped under this torture device that slowly descends.

13:39 Chris And this is.

13:40 Adam In otherwise pitch darkness surrounded by rats.

13:43 Chris Yeah.

13:45 Chris Well, this is sounding a little bit like an early torture porn story then.

13:50 Adam Yeah.

13:51 Chris It's got, it's got.

13:52 Chris If that's the focus of.

13:54 Adam Yeah.

13:54 Chris Torture sending you mad and yeah.

13:58 Adam Yeah, no, actually I think you're probably right, it's it's very much a short burst of torture porn.

14:03 Chris Yeah.

14:04 Chris Now, 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.

14:16 Chris I mean, it is meant to be the.

14:18 Adam Well, it's the in the title as well, so.

14:19 Chris Yeah, yeah, no.

14:20 Chris It's, but I I suppose I was, I was perhaps taken by when Don Medina.

14:28 Chris when he changed, for me that felt like this is the peak bit.

14:33 Chris As opposed to necessarily the pendulum bit, it was like,

14:39 Chris I guess that takes my attention when you start to see Vincent Price moving into his crazy, evil.

14:49 Adam It's weird because that is the apex of the film of Yeah.

14:53 Chris Yeah.

14:54 Adam Yeah.

14:54 Adam You know, I think that they not necessarily on purpose, sort of but I think it was just the combo of that and Vincent Price.

15:03 Chris Yeah.

15:05 Chris It all suddenly.

15:05 Adam Who does I mean, I mean, obviously obviously it's Vincent Price, it's always going to get to big.

15:13 Chris

15:13 Adam It's going to get to a big performance, let's be generous because we're enjoying it.

15:18 Adam You know, it's not.

15:18 Chris Yeah.

15:19 Adam Yeah.

15:19 Adam You know.

15:20 Adam

15:22 Adam But that first transition where he just grins.

15:28 Chris

15:29 Adam And 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.

15:39 Adam And then.

15:39 Chris Yeah.

15:40 Adam Suddenly it's like, oh, it's pleasant trees in time of the day and you're like,

15:44 Adam Oh fuck, he's gone.

15:45 Adam Yeah.

15:46 Lee Yeah.

15:47 Lee I his performance in this, I mean, I know we always gash about Vincent Price.

15:51 Lee But his performance in this is absolutely outstanding, he really, really does.

15:56 Lee And it's like considering he has to play so many he has to put so many different hats on in this film, really.

16:03 Lee and he.

16:04 Adam And the cowards.

16:06 Lee Yeah.

16:07 Chris Yes.

16:08 Chris And I think that he, he definitely does do that well, he is good at having those different sides.

16:16 Adam But that's kind of what you need for Poe.

16:18 Chris okay.

16:20 Adam Because because it's being because not being funny, it's like Poe writes madness well.

16:26 Chris

16:26 Adam And that's the art of it.

16:28 Adam So it's not just a case of transition it onto the screen, you've got to get an actor who can handle that.

16:37 Adam But 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.

16:49 Chris Yeah.

16:50 Adam You know.

16:51 Adam But it's still I think it's like you say, it's because it's sort of like that turning point is the peak.

16:56 Adam Although again,

16:58 Adam Sorry 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.

17:04 Adam

17:06 Adam The actual twist ending as well.

17:10 Adam Where 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.

17:19 Chris Yeah.

17:20 Lee Yeah.

17:21 Lee And.

17:21 Adam And that's just.

17:22 Lee I thought that, yeah.

17:23 Lee Because 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.

17:34 Lee So they just walked away at that point and were like, well, we've wrapped this up.

17:38 Lee And they haven't, they've all got completely the wrong end of the stick.

17:40 Lee Which is, yeah.

17:42 Chris Well,

17:43 Chris that is.

17:43 Chris That is a profound point.

17:44 Chris I mean, you know,

17:45 Chris I'd like to bring that back to how often does everyone get the wrong end of the stick?

17:49 Chris You see something and you think that's what that is.

17:51 Chris And yet, if you can't find out the truth, you will blame that person and yet it was he was the victim.

17:57 Lee Yeah.

18:01 Adam Well, I think it's, I can't it we were talking about, I think it might have been in our last.

18:05 Adam Oh, it was because of, Horror Express.

18:07 Adam But we were saying about watching something where you're in on the mystery rather than having to figure it out.

18:13 Chris Yeah.

18:13 Adam This manages to give you both sides of that in a weird way.

18:16 Chris Yeah.

18:16 Adam Yeah.

18:17 Adam Because it's you.

18:19 Chris Definitely, yeah.

18:19 Adam You know more than any of the characters put together, but you are still.

18:26 Chris Not for the whole film though, it's.

18:26 Adam You know, you are still.

18:26 Adam It's a mystery and a surprise and a twist.

18:28 Adam And so on, so.

18:30 Adam And,

18:31 Adam Yeah.

18:32 Adam And I think actually the one thing that's a shame is that you don't you don't get more Barbara Steele.

18:37 Adam Because I think her particularly her with fucking Vincent Price.

18:40 Lee Yeah.

18:41 Adam They are brilliant.

18:45 Adam Yeah.

18:45 Adam You know, they really, you know, because her face when he goes, when he's clearly snapped.

18:53 Adam Is it goes from gloating to like abject fear.

19:00 Lee Yeah.

19:01 Adam Like where it's like, shit, we've bitten off more than we can chew.

19:05 Adam And,

19:06 Adam You know, it's sort of.

19:08 Adam Yeah, it's a really good performance within like what we see of her.

19:12 Chris Yeah.

19:13 Adam But.

19:13 Adam Yeah.

19:14 Chris I was thinking, I was surprised she hasn't been in anything else that I that I could think of.

19:18 Chris I.

19:18 Adam She was in, Curse of the Crimson Altar.

19:23 Lee Yeah.

19:23 Adam she played the bright green lady.

19:25 Lee Levinia, yeah.

19:26 Chris right, okay.

19:27 Adam Yeah.

19:28 Adam And,

19:28 Adam But again, kind of in that she's not really in it a lot.

19:31 Adam We will do, we've got to do Black Sunday.

19:35 Lee Yeah.

19:35 Chris Yes, okay.

19:37 Adam Black Sunday is the she did that before, I think she did that before this.

19:44 Adam but she worked a lot with, there's an Italian director called Mario Bava.

19:49 Adam Who.

19:51 Adam Then kind of the Pit and the Pendulum particularly kind of fed back into them and they sort of started,

20:01 Adam going in the same direction as Roger Corman's stuff.

20:06 Adam but that, Black Sunday is like black and white, which, reincarnation film.

20:10 Chris Okay.

20:13 Adam but it is really.

20:15 Adam It's really good, it's really fucking dark.

20:18 Chris Yeah.

20:18 Lee It is.

20:19 Lee Yeah, it is.

20:20 Chris Well, and yeah, 1960, so that must be quite relatively unusual.

20:25 Chris To for you to say it quite like that.

20:28 Adam Well, 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,

20:38 Chris Okay.

20:38 Adam I 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.

20:45 Adam

20:46 Adam But, 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.

20:55 Lee Yeah.

20:57 Adam Like the figures of the Inquisition.

20:59 Adam Which does come from the story.

21:01 Adam Because there's in the story he.

21:06 Adam It starts off with him saying that he's been held by the Inquisition and sentenced to death.

21:10 Adam And then it's just he's in the pit being.

21:14 Adam seeing the blind.

21:15 Adam but he talks about like when they say it, he basically blacks out.

21:20 Adam So all he sees is them in silhouette.

21:24 Adam And just and I think it's just them in silhouette and their lips as they in intone his name.

21:27 Chris Yeah.

21:27 Adam And,

21:28 Adam yeah, that that sort of,

21:30 Adam painting 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.

21:38 Adam Yeah, that that kind of feels like Black Sunday.

21:41 Chris Oh, right.

21:42 Adam Okay.

21:42 Adam Because Black Sunday is very high contrast sort of black and white film.

21:45 Adam But we'll we'll do it.

21:46 Adam So we'll see you for Black Sunday.

21:47 Chris Yeah.

21:47 Lee Yeah.

21:48 Lee And that's the thing with Roger Corman.

21:50 Lee I mean,

21:53 Lee You know, everyone always talks about how he always got his films in the can long before deadline, they always came in under budget.

22:00 Lee But he got so much out of his actors.

22:01 Lee Always.

22:02 Lee I mean,

22:03 Lee I know he's seen as a bit of a schlock master.

22:05 Lee But like, these films are masterpieces.

22:06 Lee They're so beautifully shot.

22:08 Lee So well put together.

22:11 Lee they 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.

22:20 Lee But just the shots of the castles.

22:20 Adam Yes.

22:20 Lee Yes, yeah, exactly.

22:22 Adam Tinter Quality Street.

22:24 Lee And I love the Matt painting stuff, so like the Matt painting of the pit and of the castle.

22:30 Lee I just think they're.

22:31 Adam The oil the paint and oil stuff over the like over the opening as well.

22:36 Lee

22:37 Adam Just very abstract and really, really good.

22:39 Lee Yes.

22:40 Adam Really good.

22:41 Adam Because 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.

22:50 Adam Is.

22:51 Adam The 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.

23:07 Adam yeah, that whole sort of it.

23:11 Adam It just goes mad, you know, it's like the film goes mad to say this person's gone mad.

23:17 Adam And it's, yeah.

23:17 Adam It but it just is so.

23:21 Adam You know, I I agree with you.

23:22 Adam I think this is this this is what Roger Corman did best.

23:25 Adam

23:26 Adam Is 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.

23:41 Adam But, yeah.

23:41 Adam But as as a director himself, I think these are the these this is the gold, you know, this is the really good stuff.

23:50 Lee and 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.

24:07 Lee yes, is like it's a, it's a,

24:10 Lee a loving kind of comedic version of an amalgamation of all of these Poe Corman films.

24:17 Lee

24:17 Lee But they pull it off really well.

24:20 Lee Like some of the comedy falls a little bit flat, but to look at it, it's it's fantastic.

24:24 Lee They do a really, really good job of sort of recreating it.

24:26 Lee And and I love the film.

24:27 Lee I've seen it half a dozen times.

24:28 Chris Should we have watched an Elvira?

24:32 Adam We probably should have done by now.

24:34 Chris Do do they come under the right category?

24:36 Adam Oh, absolutely.

24:37 Adam I think.

24:38 Lee Yeah.

24:38 Adam Yeah.

24:38 Lee Absolutely.

24:39 Adam It's, yeah, it's Elvira is definitely horror.

24:43 Lee Yeah.

24:43 Chris Okay.

24:44 Lee And that first film is so eighties and so.

24:48 Adam It's also it's also good because if I watch that with Clare, she can see that that is literally Ru Paul's playbook.

24:53 Lee Yeah.

24:54 Adam Of innuendo.

24:55 Adam And it's seriously the full works, how's your head, I've had no complaint so far.

25:00 Adam And, you know, all of it is just from Elvira.

25:03 Adam So, yeah.

25:05 Adam No, we we probably do need to do Alva.

25:06 Lee We definitely need to get that on the list.

25:07 Lee And it's such a fun watch.

25:09 Lee We, we watched it here actually, we had a party at Halloween.

25:14 Lee and we said, oh, you know, what does everyone want to watch?

25:18 Lee yeah, and that was one that got got the most votes, so we ended up watching that in its entirety.

25:22 Lee So, yeah.

25:23 Adam So not anti-Christ this time.

25:25 Lee No.

25:30 Adam That's one for Chris.

25:31 Lee Yeah.

25:31 Lee Yeah, definitely.

25:34 Lee but 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.

25:41 Lee So 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.

25:46 Lee Like you said Adam, like, you know, Mask of the Red Death and, and the others.

25:51 Adam House of Usher.

25:52 Lee House of Usher.

25:53 Lee yeah, and the Arrow releases of those are really good as well, like they're, their prints are phenomenally good considering their age.

25:59 Adam I don't think I've ever seen the one that doesn't have, Vincent Price in it.

26:03 Adam I don't think I've seen Premature Burial.

26:06 Lee I 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.

26:13 Lee It might even be Mask of the Red Death and Premature Burial, but yeah, I I think I've only seen it the once.

26:18 Chris Oh.

26:18 Lee It's it's very Roger Corman, it feels exactly like these, but because it hasn't got Vincent Price.

26:22 Lee It's the one that I watched and enjoyed and haven't gone back to because.

26:28 Adam It's the George Lazenby one.

26:30 Lee Yeah.

26:30 Lee Basically.

26:31 Lee Yeah, very good in its own right, but when you compare it to the others, you always watch Vincent Price.

26:36 Adam It's not winning anything unless you're feeling very unusual.

26:38 Lee Yeah.

26:42 Adam I do, yeah, I mean, it's, oh, did you know about the,

26:49 Adam the extra bit, there's a prologue to this film.

26:53 Adam basically,

26:55 Adam I mean, obviously,

26:56 Adam now, bear in mind, this film is 1961.

26:59 Adam

27:00 Adam in 1968, when it was sold to, I think, ABC for television.

27:08 Adam it 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.

27:17 Adam So they filmed a prologue to bring up the running time.

27:22 Adam And, where are we?

27:24 Lee Do you know what, it's funny you say that.

27:26 Lee So I was discussing this with Dave today, who sent us the request for this.

27:31 Lee And someone on the video chat said, oh, I'd like to watch that.

27:35 Lee And he sent a photograph later of the fact that it's currently available on Sky Cinema.

27:40 Lee yeah.

27:41 Lee And it said an hour and 38 minutes.

27:44 Lee And I said, well, that's odd because I've just sat down to watch it and it was an hour and 20.

27:48 Lee So 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.

27:51 Lee So, yeah, that would actually explain, all right, I need to go and track that copy down there and see that.

27:56 Adam Yeah, it's, well, it's,

27:58 Adam fortunately it's on the arrow release.

28:00 Adam They do have, oh, and I'll tell you there's another thing on there that's absolutely fantastic.

28:06 Adam But, yeah, so it was, Corman's production assistant Tamara Azief, and she went and filmed it and it features, Luana Anders, who is,

28:16 Adam the, sister Katherine, Katherine Medina.

28:19 Adam Because she was like the only member of the cast they could get back to do it because obviously it was like eight years ago.

28:25 Adam And it basically starts with, her, it's it's her in an asylum where the events of the film have driven her mad.

28:33 Adam And then so she sort of like goes around this asylum.

28:36 Adam Sid Hage's in it.

28:37 Adam Very briefly as a as a sort of molesti guard.

28:40 Adam But yeah, Sid Sid Hage turns up in it.

28:41 Adam

28:43 Adam And basically, yeah, it's it's really weird because it's sort of it's obviously not.

28:47 Adam Shot on at the same time.

28:50 Adam And Luana Anders looks, I mean, not different, but, you know,

28:54 Adam it's clearly not two days later or from when, you know.

28:57 Adam and,

29:01 Adam Yeah, it's just very weird sort of like little thing that they've added in.

29:07 Adam But basically, yeah, so she then goes up to someone and starts telling that, well, I'll tell you why I'm here.

29:11 Adam and then and the film and then the rest of the film's a flashback.

29:16 Lee Oh.

29:18 Lee Oh, yeah, I definitely need to track that down and see that.

29:19 Lee Because that's very unusual.

29:24 Adam Well, I also I thought I would have to put down just in case.

29:27 Adam it had it had happened.

29:30 Adam well done, Chris.

29:31 Adam for not having this happen.

29:33 Adam But, yeah.

29:34 Adam Not to be confused with The Pit and the Pendulum with Lance Henriksen and Poe.

29:39 Chris

29:40 Adam 1990 1991.

29:42 Lee Full Moon production.

29:44 Adam Oh no, that there's also Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.

29:47 Adam Which is a low-budget erotic thriller adaptation apparently.

29:53 Lee Oh dear.

29:53 Chris

29:54 Lee I don't quite know what you Oh, yeah, no, I don't want to think about it.

29:57 Lee I can't.

29:58 Adam There's there's a French adaptation.

30:01 Adam There's a German adaptation with Christopher Lee called The Blood Demon in 1967.

30:08 Adam yeah.

30:09 Adam And there is a reading of it by Vincent Price on An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe.

30:15 Adam Which is basically a filmed TV special where he sits and performs for Poe stories.

30:19 Lee I have that on DVD as well.

30:21 Lee That's also midnight releases, I think.

30:23 Adam Yeah, 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.

30:35 Adam

30:36 Adam And yeah, suddenly I was like, oh shit, I've just had this.

30:39 Adam Nice warm slice of entertainment set there for ages and I'm like, oh, look at it.

30:45 Lee I couldn't find my arrow release.

30:47 Lee So I watched my.

30:48 Lee Dodgy old DVD copy, you see, so I've missed all these extras.

30:51 Lee I don't know if I've actually watched my arrow release version, but yeah.

30:55 Adam As as you guess, it looks incredible.

30:56 Adam By the way.

30:57 Adam We're not being paid by Arrow.

30:58 Lee No.

30:58 Adam I mean.

30:59 Adam But.

30:59 Adam They can pay us if they want and they can send us free discs if they want.

31:02 Adam But,

31:04 Adam Yeah, we're not actually being paid by arrow.

31:05 Adam We just like them.

31:06 Lee Yeah.

31:07 Lee They 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.

31:18 Lee Yeah, 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.

31:23 Lee It's always worth getting anything that they released that you're interested in, but yeah, that's.

31:27 Adam Yeah, they're they're always good value.

31:28 Lee Yeah.

31:29 Adam And 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.

31:35 Adam It was like talking about extras, for fuck's sake, just show me the film, Jesus Christ.

31:40 Lee but yeah.

31:41 Lee Roger Corman's career has been.

31:43 Lee I 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.

31:57 Lee But, you know, stuff like Death Race and although, you know, like big name stuff.

32:00 Lee Like he seemed to be able to turn his hand to almost anything.

32:02 Lee Didn't he do a load of softcore porn stuff and things as well?

32:05 Adam I 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.

32:13 Adam So 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.

32:19 Adam And.

32:20 Adam I think it's just it's the thing of being a, what's the word for it?

32:26 Adam It's the it's just.

32:27 Adam Part and parcel of just doing, well, we're throwing enough shit at the wall, make some money.

32:32 Lee Yeah.

32:32 Lee Actually, I did very.

32:33 Adam In a lovely way.

32:34 Adam But you know, you know, really.

32:36 Lee I did very nearly actually in the the run-up to this I,

32:39 Lee I was going through my collection, yeah, and I did find, you're saying about bikinis, the Doctor Goldfoot, the two Doctor Goldfoot movies.

32:45 Adam Oh, yes.

32:46 Lee yeah, and I I think I watched half of the first one and didn't get to finish it.

32:52 Lee And I was tempted to watch it just to sort of, because it was an excuse to watch them really.

32:56 Lee But, yeah.

32:57 Lee I didn't quite get around to it in the end.

32:59 Lee But I definitely will watch the.

33:00 Adam Have they also got on there a film called Master of the World or something as an extra?

33:06 Lee Possibly.

33:07 Lee I I think it's two films either one on one disc or the two films in one box, so yeah.

33:13 Lee I don't think there's many extras or anything, so they're.

33:16 Adam Right.

33:17 Adam but no, it might be worth checking.

33:19 Adam Just because that is a sort of a it's an adaptation of a Jules Verne story called Rober Master of the World.

33:25 Adam And it's Vincent Price is basically this steampunk Sky pirate.

33:29 Lee Oh, wait, I've seen.

33:31 Lee I have seen that.

33:31 Lee Yes.

33:32 Adam

33:32 Lee Yes, I not sure if I saw it as an extra on the.

33:34 Lee But I have seen that, yeah, it's very cardboard scenery and stuff.

33:37 Adam Yeah, I still need to see it.

33:38 Adam I've never seen it to be honest.

33:39 Adam But it's always just I and I like I like the the Verne, so, yeah.

33:44 Lee Yeah, 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.

33:51 Lee I think it was just very early filmmaking, so yeah, it all just felt very, you know, plastic.

33:56 Lee And stuff.

33:56 Lee When they were supposed to be in this huge zeppelin flying around the world.

33:58 Lee yeah, and it looked like an office that had been built in a in a warehouse, funnily enough.

34:03 Lee but yeah.

34:04 Lee But yeah, I just I need to watch more Vincent Price.

34:06 Lee But I do go through phases of just getting swamped.

34:09 Lee And I keep going back to the same old classics again and again.

34:12 Lee So.

34:12 Lee I do need to diversify a bit, I think, and, like I bought one of his pirate movies and I watched Dragonwick and,

34:17 Adam Some of his Noir's good.

34:18 Lee Yeah.

34:19 Lee Yeah.

34:19 Adam That that's some good stuff.

34:21 Adam Because again, he's just very good at being a menacing bastard.

34:24 Lee Yeah.

34:26 Adam And actually if you're feeling really go and seek out.

34:27 Adam When he was egged on Batman.

34:29 Lee Oh, yes, I never really watched Batman.

34:30 Lee So I missed all of that.

34:32 Lee So I think I might have to.

34:33 Adam I mean that that was the original series.

34:34 Chris Yeah.

34:34 Chris That was the the original series.

34:35 Adam Yeah, the Adam West one.

34:36 Adam So be prepared, it's basically him in a giant bald head making egg puns.

34:41 Chris I think that that has got to be.

34:41 Lee That's super bad.

34:41 Adam Yeah, and that's exquisit.

34:43 Lee So.

34:44 Adam So.

34:45 Lee Yeah.

34:45 Lee Okay.

34:46 Lee It's super bad.

34:48 Lee Right.

34:48 Lee let's wrap this up.

34:51 Lee So thanks very much for that Dave, that was a perfect excuse for us to go back to another Corman Poe film.

34:55 Lee Quite soon after we recently did, they're always good.

34:57 Adam I'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.

35:02 Adam The Holy Trinity of Cushing, Lee and Price.

35:05 Chris Yes, true.

35:06 Adam So well done that wheel of horror.

35:08 Chris It's almost like it there was a spirit guiding it.

35:10 Adam Yeah.

35:10 Adam Google.

35:12 Lee Okay.

35:13 Lee So, 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.

35:18 Lee Because currently it's a very scant list.

35:22 Lee and after that, we will be on episode 150, and we've got something planned for that.

35:30 Lee We're hoping it's going to be entertaining, but it might just entertain us and nobody else.

35:34 Lee So we don't know, but we will definitely, let you know on the next episode what we've got coming.

35:40 Lee So thanks very much for listening.

35:42 Lee Good night.

35:43 Adam Night.

35:44 Chris Good night.

35:44 Lee I said good night a bit rush there.

35:47 Lee Sorry.

35:47 Chris Eggy Poo gives boy one a shampoo.

35:50 Chris I'm looking up at Vincent Price Batman.

35:52 Lee I'm hooked up.

35:53 Adam Oh.

35:54 Adam Possibly.

35:54 Lee Yeah.

35:55 Chris Oh.