Twice-Told Tales
Dr. Heidegger's Experiment concerns a man, Dr. Carl Heidegger (Sebastian Cabot) determined to not only restore youth to himself but to his best friend Alex (Vincent Price) and to restore the long-dead body of his fiance Sylvia (Mari Blanchard). Alex tries to talk him out of his well-meant intention, arguing that it cannot be done. But then Heidegger does the seemingly impossible...however not without a price.
Rappaccini's Daughter is about a man named Rappaccini (Vincent Price) so scarred by his wife leaving
him that he is determined to never lose his daughter Beatrice (Joyce Taylor) in the same way. He inoculates his daughter with a deadly poison that ensures she can never leave the garden which contains the deadly plants, and makes her touch deadly to everyone else. A young man, Giovanni Guasconti (Brett Halsey) happens to see her looking out her window and is instantly smitten. However, she tries to dissuade him from visiting her. True love cannot be thwarted, even though she can never go out with him...until her father discovers what's up and determines to sever that connection for good.
In The House of the Seven Gables, Gerald Pyncheon (Vincent Price) returns to his ancestral home with his new wife Alice (Beverly Garland) after a very long absence, in order to claim what he believes is rightfully his. His sister Hannah (Jacqueline deWit) attempts to persuade him to let the matter go, but to no avail. Alice seems inordinately sensitive to the presence of something or someone. When Jonathan Maulle (Richard Denning), a descendant of Mathew Maulle, arrives to right an old wrong, things go horribly awry.
These are three stories told by Nathaniel Hawthorne, but they are not quite as he told him. The writer and director have conspired to give them somewhat of a Poe-esque twist. So be warned if you read the book, this isn't really it. Especially House of the Seven Gables, which is a novel, not a short story. At any rate, it's worth watching for Vincent Price alone, even if it's rather dated now. You may remember Sebastian Cabot from Family Affair as the gentleman's gentleman, Mr. French. Beverly Garland was quite the femme fatale in her day but I remember her from My Three Sons as Fred McMurray's second wife. Richard Denning is probably best known for Creature From the Black Lagoon. All in all, still worth watching. I give this film 3 Stars.
Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines
A group of college students decide to attend the Mountain Man Festival in West Virginia, on Halloween, and they meet you know who. Because of course they do.
I'll make this short and sweet. I didn't finish this one either, which apparently is the sequel to Wrong Turn 4 that I also turned off. I think I didn't even last as long with 5 because it was that bad. The sad thing is that I didn't even realize Doug Bradley was in it, and I always liked him as Pinhead. Oh well, can't win them all. I'll give this .5 just for Doug, but I recommend avoiding it like the plague. Guess we'll see what the sixth one brings. Will that be the charm?
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