Wordiezett So much average

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

GManfred Three stories make up "Twice Told Tales", and only the first is worth mentioning. That's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", and all three were written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Vincent Price is in all three, but none of these stories have any visible scare quotient. In fact, the stories aren't horror stories but melodramas put on screen by MGM. No atmosphere, no moody photography and no scary moments."Rappaccini's Daughter" is the second and is about a radioactive plant and a girl infected by it and is not that interesting. The third is a truncated version of "The House Of The Seven Gables", which does not stick to the original story and is the least scary - and the least interesting of the three. You can read other reviewers for a summary of the three but the entire product is not worth the trouble to record it, much less watch it.

utgard14 Trio of horror stories based on works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first story is "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," about two elderly friends, Dr. Carl Heidegger (Sebastian Cabot) and Alex Medbourne (Vincent Price) who discover magical water that they use to become young again. Heidegger decides to use the water on the corpse of his long-dead love Sylvia (Mari Blanchard), with surprising results. The second story is "Rappaccini's Daughter." Giovanni Guasconti (Brett Halsey) falls in love with beautiful Beatrice Rappaccini (Joyce Taylor) at first sight. Beatrice is the daughter of scientist Giacomo Rappaccini (Vincent Price) and, much to Giovanni's horror, her father has injected her with plant toxins that make her deadly to touch. The third, and most famous, story is "The House of the Seven Gables." Gerald Pyncheon (Vincent Price) returns to his ancestral home with his new bride (Beverly Garland). Ignoring warnings of a family curse he scours the house looking for a treasure reportedly buried somewhere inside.All of these stories are loosely adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne stories. The segments are of varying quality but they are all watchable and enjoyable enough. The first story is probably my favorite, helped in large part by Sebastian Cabot's sensitive portrayal of Heidegger. The second is my least favorite and the third is OK. Price is in all three and, as usual, is excellent. Price was also in the 1940 film adaptation of "The House of Seven Gables." It was far superior to this version so please check it out if you can. Twice-Told Tales is an enjoyable time-killer but nothing exceptional. Vincent Price fans will love it more than most.

Andrew Taylor Another triple play of Poe/Price, like Tales of Terror, but without Corman, and not quite as good. The stories are a bit too nice... a bit melodramatic and drawn out. The tales are Heidegger's Experiment, Rappaccini's Daughter and The House of Seven Gables, and the stories are really the stars. Heidegger's explores that nugget of eternal life, Rappaccini's is about the relationship of poison and purity and Seven Gables is a twisted ghost/blood feud with lots and lots of blood. All three are certainly unusual topics, but I'd say Heidegger's and Rappacini's were my favourite. Again, the sets and design were fantastic, if limited in scope and the actresses beautiful (especially Garland and Taylor). The attention to detail is remarkable. Still, it's something only a Price/Poe fan will love, which is fine by me.

Coventry "Twice-Told Tales" is a wondrously fascinating horror omnibus and probably one of the most underrated genre efforts of the entire sixties. I'm ashamed to admit that I wasn't really familiar with Nathaniel Hawthorne's writings before (apart from multiple adaptations of "the Scarlet Letter") but, even though he's not as prominent as Edgar Allen Poe or H.P Lovecraft, his stories are pure Gothic goodness and morbidly poetic horror material. Each of the three tales told here are magnificent, albeit slightly suffering from their shortage and I'll definitely continue to look for the long-feature film version of "The House of Seven Gables", as I know it's available somewhere. The first tale; Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, is an atmospheric appetizer handling about an ancient horror topic, namely the search for eternal youth. Life-long friends Alex and Carl fortuitously discover that the water dripping on the coffin of Carl's dead bride contains the power to restore their own youth and even to resurrect the unfortunate Julie. But the revival of old friendships sadly also emerges hidden secrets and forbidden passions from the past. There are some excellent set pieces used in this first episode and the brief use of special effects is well-staged and definitely ahead of its time. Vincent Price shines as the initially reluctant guinea pig and his sudden transformation into deceptive Adonis is believable. Sebastian Cabot and Mary Blanchard are very adequate in their supportive roles. The second story is arguably the best and unquestionably the most ingenious one of the three. "Rappacchini's Daughter" also is one of the few horror tellings that ever managed to frighten me with its content. Price this time stars as the tormented scientist Rappaccini, who pumped his poor daughter Beatrice so full of poison that she absorbs the color and life out of everything she touches. Supposedly to protect her from all the evil in this world, but now the young beauty can't return the honest love of new student in town Giovanni. This particular tale is haunting, saddening and petrifying all at once! No matter how selfish and monstrous the crimes of Price's character are, he's a hurt soul and you're more likely to pity him rather than to loath him. The flower garden, where most of the story is filmed, is truly enchanting and Joyce Taylor is simply mesmerizing as the poor Beatrice. The tragic climax to this tale could have come straight from Shakespeare's repertoire. The third and final tale in this marvelous horror anthology is called "The House of Seven Gables" and revolves on a feud between two families that still lives on after several generations. Gerald Pyncheon and his sister Hannah desperately seek a hidden vault in their family mansion and the only person who knows where it might be located is Jonathan Maule, descendant of the architect who originally designed the house. But Jonathan won't help, because his ancestor was cowardly killed by the Pyncheons for falling in love with the wrong girl. Gerald's attractive wife Alice turns out to be a spiritual link between the two families and able to clear up several ancient mysteries. As mentioned above, this tale suffers the most from being part of an omnibus. The screenplay was adapted from an entire novel and thus a lot of Hawthorne's thoughtful sub plots and character drawings were lost in the 45 minutes tale. Still, it's a very decent 'haunted house' premise with nice scenery and a handful of genuinely suspenseful moments. Vincent Price is at his most fiendish here and there's quite a lot of bloodshed. Perhaps I'm over-rating this film slightly, but it deserves a bit of extra attention! It's a wonderful film, rich on symbolism and Gothic charm and it would be a damn shame if true horror fans let it pass by them.