Manthast Absolutely amazing

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

kidboots Even though the opening warning addressed to "those who are squeamish" etc, and with the sound of a heartbeat on a black screen now seems a cheesy gimmick (think William Castle), overall the film is quite a scary experience. You know it's going to be good when you realise it is an early Brian Clemens (he of "The Avengers" and "Thriller" fame) script.Laurence Payne's haggard looks gave dimension to his performance as the shy Edgar, a reference librarian, whose hobby is chess and who is desperate to find his ideal love. He contrasts strongly with his Carl (stalwart of British Bs, Dermot Walsh) who has all the charm and worldliness that Edgar lacks. They both fall for the same girl, Betty (pretty Adrienne Corri,) and she is attracted to Carl's ease of manner - next to him Edgar appears like a neurotic wimp. Within the first ten minutes you realise Edgar has a drug addiction, he has almost an aversion to women in the flesh but has a need for pornography - did I say he also has a mother complex!!Betty is a flower seller who moves in across the road from Edgar who, in taking tips from Carl, attempts to sweep her off her feet. His manic enthusiasms turn her off but she is more than willing to be romanced by Carl who tries to warn Edgar about her flirtatious ways. Edgar takes a voyeuristic delight in watching her undress - their windows face each other across the street but one night he sees more than he wants to when Carl keeps a midnight rendezvous with Betty.The murder of Carl is particularly vicious as Edgar, blood spattered and wild looking, drags his body down the stairs. Jenny seems to show undue concern when after three days Carl has still not shown up. Meanwhile, back at Edgar's residence, the cleaner has been given strict instructions not to enter a locked room. Ticking clocks, dripping taps - even rocking vases, chess pieces and metronomes do their best to send Edgar completely around the twist. He removes the heart, takes it to the parkland and buries it - all very grisly. Observing Edgar, Betty feels he is at the bottom of Carl's disappearance but the police laugh at her complaints, thinking she can't get over the fact that she was thrown over!! And even though the ending is a major let down it still doesn't take away from what is an unsettling, horrific movie!!Throughout the movie Edgar's sexual repression was pounced on by the censors who apparently removed scenes involving a brutal murder with a poker, the resurrection of the victim's body from it's hiding place and the removal of the heart - all to do with sexual arousal through violence, something the British Board of Film Censors wouldn't put up with. Just a couple of years previously there had been a huge controversy over Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom" (1960) that was finally given an X certificate which may explain why the release of "The Tell Tale Heart" was delayed for two years.

The_Void The Tell-Tale Heart is one of the best known of Edgar Allen Poe's works; and I was surprised that I had not seen a film based on it. The original story is just a short story, and while there have been many versions of this tale committed to screen; most of them are only shorts themselves; thus making this film one of the few feature length editions of the story. Well...after having seen it, I have to admit that I'm not surprised there aren't more feature length versions because really there isn't enough plot to stretch to such a long running time. Thus, most of the story of this film has no relation to Poe's original story. We focus on a man named Edgar (a bit of a ham-fisted reference if you ask me); a quiet man that lacks experience with women. When he notices a young lady named Betty in a house across the street; he resolves to romance her and asks his close friend Carl for advice on how to speak to women. He and Betty are getting on well; until he discovers that Carl and Betty are also getting on well, and so Carl is murdered.The film is shot in black and white and looks really cheap throughout. Director Ernest Morris appears not to have the resolve to elevate the film above the mundane and also fails to get a good performance out of his any of his (relatively) unknown cast; which renders the whole production rather bland. Of course, the whole film is just build up to the inevitable situation whereby the murderous central character is haunted by the echoes of the beating heart from the man he has killed, and this leaves most of it feeling rather pointless. To the film's credit, however, it does handle Poe's actual story well and things do become much more interesting once we reach the main part of the film. This version of The Tell-Tale Heart never really gets into the psychological side of Poe's original story; and the reason for that really just goes back to the characters, which aren't interesting enough. Overall, this is really a lacklustre effort and I wouldn't recommend tracking it down; this story is more suited to a short film anyway, and I'm sure that at least one of the many short film versions is superior to this effort.

Skragg Like a few of you, I found this on an inconspicuous DVD along with "Chiller," and I just saw it a few hours ago. This film is as good at "stretching out" a short Poe story as the AIP movies (and I'm VERY attached to those). I'm not familiar with Lawrence Payne, but he was great in the part, as were the Dermot Walsh and Adrienne Corri. But I didn't realize Frank Thornton was the barman till I read it here - I'll have to watch for him next time. As for the ending - which I won't give away here - some people might see it as a "cop-out" ending, but I think it works perfectly well. As some of you say, the "risque" side of this film was slightly surprising for a film of 1960 - I kept thinking I was seeing a Hammer film (minus the cleavage!).

Bub_the_zombie Definitely one of the better takes on the classic Poe story. The acting in this version is simply fantastic. A moody little piece with some risqué' scenes to be of such an early caliber. A very interesting rarity.The quality of the print isn't great, but has still held up well throughout time, considering... It's a wonder that someone still had the negative.. I was really surprised,as a lot of times, films like these can really be tedious, but not this one.A welcomed attempt is what this is. One gets the sense that even tho it had been done to death (even previously from 1960) the filmmakers took their approach seriously, with an end result that is creepy and risky.I'm surprised that more people haven't seen this film, given the fact that it's pretty readily available on a one buck DVD alongside Chiller.