La chambre des tortures

Watching this again after many years and with such a wonderfully clear print is a revelation. The story is slight but well told with stunning cinematography and a most impressive set, cleverly lit with colour tints, inspired perhaps by Mario Brava. Vincent Price has the time of his life, as impressive in close up as in medium. If he overdoes the old acting bit we love him for it because he does it so well. Certainly he makes most of the rest of the cast look a little wooden and we long for the arrival of Barbara Steele. Of course the wait is worth while but perhaps we could have had some flash backs early on in the film when we are gradually being let into the true horror of the situation. This is a very good solid Corman production, helped by decent script from Matheson but much reliant on the aforementioned, Price and Steele.

Boy, If I hadn't read another review beforehand which suggested hanging around for the end of this film, even if one gets bored early on, I might have given up on it. I'm glad I stayed with it. It's true; the last part is terrific.

Once again, Vincent Price, as billed, has the lead and deserves the recognition as he emotes as only he could. The surprise is that Price plays such a wimp in this movie, which is out of character for him in his horror films but then - bang! - his REAL personality comes out. Ole Vinny fooled us all. It's shocking and it's pure Price. You'll love it! Price plays, "Nicholas," a guy with a bad family tree. His father tortured people during the Spanish Inquisition and poor "Nicholas" saw his uncle and mother die, too, in the torture chambers of his father's castle (which is a pretty cool place, by the way)..

John Kerr, a horrible actor in this movie, plays a guy ("Francis") to comes to the castle to find out what happened to his sister who had recently died. Oh yeah, she was married to Nicholas. That guy just has no luck with relatives.

I won't say what happens but involves some neat twists and helps make up for the corny and somewhat-boring dialog of the first hour. Talk about torture, though. The first hour, especially the first 20 minutes, is torture to get through. Then a couple of cool all-blue flashback scenes spiced up things for a few minutes, and then it was snooze time until the last 20 minutes which were great!

That last quarter hour is really a hoot for horror fans, especially the last shot!

In the mid-16th century, Englishman Francis Barnard (John Kerr) travels to the Spanish castle of Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price) to try and uncover the details surrounding the sudden death of his sister Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), Nicholas's wife. Soon after arriving at the castle, Francis begins to suspect that Nicholas is hiding the truth, but what he eventually discovers is far more terrible than he could have imagined.

I'm not the greatest fan of the Roger Corman/Edgar Allen Poe cycle of films, finding their combination of creaky Gothic trappings, trite atmospherics and overwrought melodrama just a little too cheesy to be wholly effective; for much of the time, Pit and the Pendulum is just the same, with Price hamming it up and Corman laying on the eeriness with a trowel.

Thankfully, the film is short enough to prevent boredom kicking in and is saved somewhat by a great final act that provides one or two neat twists, some well handled excitement (the razor-sharp pendulum of the title finally making an appearance, swinging to and fro above a shackled Francis) and a befitting closing shot (I won't say what it is, but it's a corker).

"The Pit and the Pendulum" is the second of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe's adaptations with a screenplay by Richard Matheson.Vincent Price's performance is an obvious highlight of the film.Legendary horror actresses Luana Anders("Dementia 13")and Barbara Steele("Shivers","Silent Scream","Black Sunday")co-star in this extremely atmospheric chiller.To sum up,"The Pit and the Pendulum" is one of Roger Corman's finest offerings-it's creepy,unsettling and extremely entertaining.A masterpiece that easily gets 10 out of 10!

Three legendary figures, one in writing, and one in film-making, and one in acting are responsible for bringing The Pit and the Pendulum to life. It's Edgar Allen Poe's story about a brother struggling to come to terms about how his sister's untimely death happened. He goes to the mansion of Nicholas Medina, played by the magnificent Vincent Price, to look for answers. The Pit and the Pendulum for a 60's movie is attention getting by how powerful and mystique the actors and actresses characters are, and the brilliant story and script that intertwines very nicely. Roger Corman direction was astounding as well, making me realize why he's so acclaimed by his film-making peers. The Pit and the Pendulum is a nice little horror flick that I watched with no expectations and had no regrets spending the time and money to watch it.