A dangerously sexy woman is in a dark interview room accused of murdering her lover. Her husband sits next door while a detective tries to break them both in rooms filled with smoke and heat. It is not a new story and indeed part of the appeal of Tell-Tale is that it gets the noir conventions so right in terms of tone and look. The plot builds pretty well through the noir into the Poe link suggested by the title. As a narrative it is decent but as it goes on it spells things out too much and the scene with the lady on the concrete floor would have been better without so much dialogue spelling everything out as if the viewer would not be smart enough to understand the meaning by way of the reference.
Outside of this the film delivers something that is engaging because although it is derivative, it is a very strong reference which is very well filmed so that you feel the heat in the interview room, feel the sexual passion in the flashbacks and get drawn into the tough conventions of the genre. The very impressive cast list help this with good performances from Gugino, Collins, Arkin and Spencer – all of whom you will know from much bigger projects. A shame that the conclusion could not have been smarter and more satisfying but still, it looks and feels the part and engages for the most part of the running time.
