Themes: Haunted By the Past, Assumed Identities, Mental Breakdown
Main Cast: Vincent Price, John Kerr, Barbara Steele, Luana Anders, Anthony Carbone
Release Year: 1961
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
American-International's standing "haunted castle" set is exhibited to peak advantage in Roger Corman's Pit & the Pendulum. Save for the climax, Richard Matheson's script bears but little resemblance to the Edgar Allen Poe original, though there are pronounced echoes throughout of Poe's The Premature Burial. Vincent Price stars as Nicholas Medina, the son of a notorious Spanish Inquisition torturer. Nicholas' wife Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) has died under mysterious circumstances, prompting Elizabeth's brother Francis (John Kerr) to arrive at the Medina castle to investigate. The tormented Medina believes that Elizabeth was buried alive, and is convinced that he can hear his wife's voice calling out to him. In truth, Elizabeth has faked her death, part of a plan concocted with her lover Dr. Leon (Anthony Carbone) to drive Medina mad. She succeeds in this goal (albeit to her own grief, as the film's very last shot reveals), pushing Medina over the brink. Convinced that he's his own father, Medina dons Inquisition robes, straps Francis to a table, and arranges for a huge steel-bladed pendulum to slowly, slooooowwly descend on his helpless victim. You'd never know that Pit & The Pendulum was shot on the budget and schedule of a B western; the film is consistently good to look at, with eerily evocative color camerawork (Floyd Crosby) and sumptuous art direction. Stock footage of the climactic torture sequence would later find its way into the 1966 spy spoof Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, which also starred Vincent Price. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The second in Roger Corman's series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations (more accurately called variations, since most of them bore little resemblance to the original stories), The Pit and the Pendulum improved on the previous year's House of Usher in nearly every respect. Daniel Haller's production design and Floyd D. Crosby's color cinematography make the film look and feel lush and lavishly atmospheric, no small feat given Corman's slim budget. While Richard Matheson's screenplay is closer to Poe's "The Premature Burial" than to the tale from which it draws its title, it's intelligent and well-crafted, giving a fine cast plenty to work with. Vincent Price's notorious hamminess creeps in at odd moments, but for the most part he plays it straight in a well-controlled performance as a man slowly descending into madness. While the first act is more about mood than scares, the superb finale delivers the goods, and Les Baxter's score is the perfect seasoning for this gourmet feast of fear. Beware of the pan-and-scan TV and video versions that make mincemeat of the visuals and the rhythms of Anthony Carras's editing. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Patrick Westwood - Maximillian the Butler; Lynn Bernay - Maria; Larry Turner - Nicholas as a Child; Mary Menzies - Isabella; Charles Victor - Bartolome
Credit
Marjorie D. Corso - Costume Designer, Roger Corman - Director, Anthony Carras - Editor, Samuel Z. Arkoff - Executive Producer, James H. Nicholson - Executive Producer, Les Baxter - Composer (Music Score), Daniel Haller - Production Designer, Floyd D.Crosby - Cinematographer, Bartlett A. Carre - Production Manager, Roger Corman - Producer, Harry Reif - Set Designer, Pat Dinga - Special Effects, Kay Rose - Sound Editor, Richard Matheson - Screenwriter, Edgar Allan Poe - Short Story Author
