The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe

I was excited to locate this movie on the Fox Movie Channel after looking for it for years on the late show and AMC. After reading Poe's works and seeing the much-altered film versions starring Vincent Price, I was sure this film would be a winner. However, why 20th Century Fox wasted 67 minutes on this film and made it look like an expanded episode from the MGM John Nesbitt Passing Parade Shorts is beyond me. It really seemed like a good idea to make a bio pic of Edgar Allan Poe, but this was not the way to do it. Edgar Allan Poe apparently had a life as interesting as his classic poems, but 20th Century Fox did not seem to care to take his story beyond "B-pic" level. John Sheppherd (later known as Shepperd Strudwick, veteran of daytime soaps) isn't all that bad as Poe, but this overly-narrated bio didn't really give him a chance to really delve into Poe's darkside. From his early years as an orphan with a kindly foster mother and jealous foster father to his ill-fated romance with a wealthy socialite, to his marriage to his own cousin (Linda Darnell, given top billing, but wasted here), Poe's life could have been expanded and given more detail. While "less is more" in some cases, this needed to be given less over-the-action narration and more character development. There is nothing to suggest why he fell in love with his own cousin or why he was considered an outcast by his foster father and ultimately society.

Jane Darwell, as his aunt and future mother-in-law, has the best acting moments in the film; This was right from her Academy Award Winning appearance in "The Grapes of Wrath", and obviously Fox wanted to play on her success. Linda Darnell was one of Fox's most over exposed stars, and only gave a few interesting performances. (Watch 1948's "Unfaithfully Yours" and 1949's "Everybody Does It" to see her at her best). It would have made more sense to cast the rising Gene Tierney in that part, as she could act as well as be beautiful. Mary Howard is simply way too young to be convincing as the foster mother who raises young Edgar Allen Poe; By the time he is an adult, their relationship seems more incestuous than loving. In real life, Ms. Howard was five years younger than Mr. Sheppherd! Frank Conroy is appropriately cold as Howard's husband, but his pairing with Ms. Howard just made me cringe as he aged and she remained fairly young and alluring. An interesting touch is the presence of Thomas Jefferson and Charles Dickens in single scenes with Sheppherd.

John Sheppherd (Strudwick) would have better luck exploring the dark side of a character with his Emmy Nominated role as Vicky's father, Victor, on "One Life to Live" in the mid 1970's, which followed a long stint as patriarch Jim Matthews on "Another World".

While more polished than Universal's series of horror films at the time (this only hints at the horror behind Poe's works), it fails even more because with Universal films of that era, you knew you were not getting gloss and glitter. But, from the studio that was giving us Henry Fonda, Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, and Don Ameche at that time, you would expect a bit more. Maybe some day, Hollywood will give us more than just a passing glimpse into the life of one of the greatest American literary figures ever.

Rather boring biopic about Edgar Allan Poe. If you removed the characters' names I doubt anybody would be able to figure out who this was about. The movie plods along with little excitement. Poe is a fascinating person and could make for a great biographical picture. He certainly was a complex man with many personal demons and an undeniable genius. This movie isn't willing to get that deep. Like other reviewers have said, it feels like a few short films pieced together. Shepperd Strudwick is part of the problem. He was a fine character actor but not a good leading man. Linda Darnell is pretty as always. Jane Darwell is her mother. Wish I could recommend this one but I can't. It's a cure for insomnia if there ever was one.

I can't attest to the historical accuracy or inaccuracy of this film--though I tend to think it is woven from whole cloth--but The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe is surely one of the least interesting biopics of all time. John Shepperd is a rather stiff Poe, Linda Darnell does little to enliven the proceedings as his great love, and even Jane Darwell is given precious little to work with. It's always fun to see Harry Morgan on screen, here a year away from his terrific performance in The Ox-Bow Incident, and Frank Conroy is sufficiently loathsome as Poe's stepfather. Otherwise, this is a Bryan Foy misfire, though thankfully bereft of Mr. Foy's penchant for newspaper headline narration.

This is not a movie about black cats in long corridors, ravens, casks of Amontillado, burials, tell-tale hearts, falling houses, rue Morgue or pendulums, but a melodramatic (and "sanitized") approach to Poe's struggle as an author during all his life, and about the women he loved. As such it is an efficient double-bill feature that there is not much to complain about, except perhaps dull Sheppherd Strudwick in the leading role - but he was always dull. Curiously there are not more films about Poe's life to compare.

Average bio of the famed author, featuring Shepperd Strudwick (billed as John Shepperd) and Linda Darnell as one of his "loves." The other "love" is played by Virginia Gilmore, who ends up marrying somebody else. It's a little distracting to hear everyone calling Poe "Eddie," but you get used to it eventually.

A quick running time of 67 minutes keeps this film from getting too dull. Much of the second half deals with Poe's inability to get publishers to a) publish his work, and b) provide copyrights. Thus, he is unable to keep a job and provide for Darnell, who eventually becomes ill.

Strudwick is actually pretty good as Poe, even though I would never consider him a romantic lead. Ironically, a few years before filming, Strudwick recited "The Raven" at a dramatic tryout at the University of North Carolina, but lost the competition.

Darnell is lovely as the doomed wife. Production was held up because she had lost 14 pounds prior to filming and needed to gain some weight back so she could fit into her costumes.

Jane Darwell is fine as Darnell's mother. Thomas Jefferson and Charles Dickens make cameo appearances. However, no one refers to them as "Tommy" and "Chuckie."

One of the trade papers reported that Director Harry Lachman, who had a pet talking Minah bird, toyed with the idea of having it appear in various scenes in the film, croaking "Nevermore." This sounds a bit far-fetched. However, a raven does appear early in the film. It was played by a "professional" named Jim, who already had over 200 films to his credit. Jim earned a whopping $50 a day for his trainer.