The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

Who's In It: Vincent Price (The Invisible Man Returns, Laura) and Elizabeth Shepherd (Damien: Omen II, the 90s Silver Surfer cartoon).

What It's About: A new bride (Shepherd) begins to fear that she may be possessed by the spirit of her husband's (Price) first wife (also played by Shepherd): a woman who claimed that her will was too strong to let her die.

How It Is: It was cool to watch this so soon after rewatching Rebecca since both are about women trying to overcome the ghosts of their husbands' former wives. Only in The Tomb of Ligeia, the ghost is potentially literal.

I'd heard that Ligeia is the masterpiece of the Corman/Price/Poe series and I can see why. It's a strong story, well shot and acted in a fantastic location, with some great, creepy moments throughout. One of my favorites is a scene when the red-haired Rowena is brushing her hair and finds Ligeia's black hairs in the brush. And then there's the creepy, black cat that stalks the mansion and really doesn't like Rowena very much.

It's also cool that Price's character has enough complexity to keep me interested. Like I said before, I really don't like it when his characters are purely evil and this one oscillates between concern for Rowena and captivated by Ligeia. He's unpredictable and I dig rooting for him to overcome Ligeia's influence.

Rating: 3 out of 5 photophobic fellows.

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Who's In It: Vincent Price (Tower of London, The Hollywood Squares), Hazel Court (The Curse of Frankenstein, The Raven), and Jane Asher (The Prince and the Pauper, Alfie)

What It's About: A sadistic prince (Price) offers his castle as sanctuary from a brutal plague to other nobles willing to obey his every whim. But when he also includes and begins to seduce a young village girl (Asher), his current romance (Court) starts a scheme of her own.

How It Is: I've said before that I prefer film noir Vincent Price to horror Vincent Price. I should rephrase that, but it's movies like Masque of the Red Death that make me think it. I quite enjoyed him in The Raven and The Haunted Palace, because those roles gave him a chance to be funny, or at least complicated. In Masque, he's pure abomination and while he's good at that, I get tired of it quickly. Turns out, I want to like Vincent Price, even when he's eeeevil.

Masque is a great-looking movie though. Especially compared to other, cheaper Corman films I've seen, but I don't need to set it next to those to see its beauty. It makes glorious use of color in the castle decor and in the crimson, plague-heralding specter that gives the movie its name.

The story is compelling, too; I just don't especially like any of the characters. Francesca (Asher) is particularly frustrating, because I start off liking her, but Prospero (Price) leads her through a seduction and transformation that should be fascinating, but turns out unconvincing.

Rating: 3 out of 5 rainbow revenants.

The Haunted Palace (1963)

Who's In It: Vincent Price (House of Wax, House of Usher), Debra Paget (Anne of the Indies, The Indian Tomb), and Lon Chaney Jr (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, High Noon)

What It's About: A married couple (Price and Paget) move into the estate of the husband's ancestors, but the ghost of the last owner isn't done with the place yet... and also has plans for his descendant.

How It Is: Spoilers for my opinion of some of the Corman/Price/Poe movies I watched after this, but The Haunted Palace is my favorite of them. Ironically, though, it's not really a Poe movie at all. The Haunted Palace is just a Poe title slapped on an HP Lovecraft story, complete with the town of Arkham and references to Cthulhu and other elder gods. The title is pure marketing, cashing in on the success of the other Corman/Price/Poe films.

I especially like Price in this one though. He's got a nice, complicated role as a good man who's gradually being possessed by the spirit of his evil ancestor. And Paget is wonderful as the only one who sees what's happening to him.

Frank Maxwell has a significant role as a local doctor who at least wants to believe Ann's (Paget) reports and I like him a lot, too. The film is ambiguous about whether he's attracted to Ann, but if he is, he's never creepy about it. He seems to legitimately want to help the couple, even though it puts him in conflict with the rest of the town and even with Price himself (depending on whether kindly Charles Dexter Ward or malevolent Joseph Curwen is in control).

Chaney gets third billing as basically Curwen's Ygor (or maybe Renfield). Chaney could be unreliable at this point in his career, but he's engaged this time and does a good job alternating between amiable and creepy as needed.

The makeup effects on the various creatures (including deformed townspeople) aren't awesome, but they're serviceable and the sets are all fantastic, from the palace itself to the foggy streets of Arkham.

I'm not crazy about the way everything wraps up, but based on the performances and mood, I'll be wanting to watch this one again.

Rating: 4 out of 5 mutant townspeople.

The Raven (1963)

Who's In It: Vincent Price (The Fly, The Haunted Palace, The Tomb of Ligeia), Peter Lorre (M, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca), Boris Karloff (Bride of Frankenstein, How the Grinch Stole Christmas), and Jack Nicholson (The Shining, Wolf).

What It's About: A despondent wizard (Price), mourning the death of his wife, helps another sorcerer (Lorre) who was turned into a raven by third (Karloff), drawing them all into a contest for the leadership of the entire magic community.

How It Is: I needed to finally see some of the Roger Corman/Edgar Allen Poe/Vincent Price movies and this is the year. This was a weird one to start with though, because of the humor. It's a fun, lighthearted story about rival wizards and there's plenty of room for Price, Lorre, and Karloff to ham it up as Olive Sturgess (playing Price's daughter) and young Jack Nicholson (as Lorre's son) look on in horror. And there's even a plot twist or two to keep things moving.

It's slight, but delightful. Deslightful!

Rating: 3 out of 5 bawdy blackbirds.

She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)

Who's in it?: Don Durant (Johnny Ringo), Lisa Montell (World Without End), and Bill Cord (who pretty much just did this and some TV work).

What's it about?: A former Navy man (Cord) helps his gunrunning brother (Durant) escape the law in the South Pacific, but the two of them are stranded on a tropical island inhabited solely by women. Unfortunately, the local shark god may not be to happy about their arrival.

How is it?: I've been eager to see this one from the title alone, but sadly - though not surprisingly - Roger Corman's film doesn't live up to its potential. Corman often had great ideas, but his breakneck speed and lack of money always meant slapping them together as clumsily as possible.

That said, I didn't hate it, which is again not surprising. With Corman films I'm used to looking past the shoddy production to the story at its core and I usually like what I find. That means that I'm imaging a much better movie than the one that I'm watching - an exercise that likely doesn't work for everyone - but it's how I relate to Corman's stuff and it works for me.

With She Gods, there's some nice drama between the two brothers and the island women. Chris is the good brother who comes to the rescue of his criminal sibling, Lee, out of loyalty. The difference between their worldviews creates tension, especially when they learn that the island women are pearl divers. And then, to complicate matters more, Chris falls in love with one of them, Mahia (Montell).

None of this is groundbreaking storytelling, but it's a classic plot and though the movie has many flaws, the actors are competent and the setting is interesting. Faint praise, I know, but what I'm saying is that She Gods of Shark Reef - while undeserving of its awesome title - is a pleasant-enough amusement that wins extra points from me with its tropical island location and an at least functional plot.

Grade: C+

The Terror (1963)

Who's in it?: Boris Karloff; Jack Nicholson (yes, THAT Jack Nicholson); Sandra Knight (Frankenstein's Daughter, Thunder Road)

What's it about?: An officer (Nicholson) is separated from Napoleon's army and gets entangled in ghostly goings on in a baron's (Karloff) spooky castle.

How is it?: Hammer horror a la Roger Corman. Corman does a nice job replicating the mood of Hammer films, but there are two major problems with The Terror. First, Jack Nicholson is as convincing as you imagine he'd be playing a French officer. He's a strangely likable hero, but completely out of place in this period piece.

The more serious problem though is that the story makes no sense. It starts off confusing enough with Nicholson's meeting a girl (Knight) who may be a local villager in thrall to a witch, some sort of Ladyhawke-like were-raptor, the ghost of Karloff's dead wife, or something else entirely. That's all weird and cool; I like being kept on my toes. But the more twists and surprise revelations the screenplay reveals, the less it all holds together. By the end, there's some whackadoo supernatural stuff going on that can't be resolved with the rest of the stor; it's just there to be shocking.

Karloff was 76 years old when he made The Terror, so he's not very physical in it, except in the climax. I don't want to spoil details, but the biggest shock in the film is Karloff's impressive burst of activity at the end after watching him shuffle slowly around the castle for the first hour. Regardless of his activity level though, Karloff easily outacts everyone else in the movie.

Rating: Turkey, but worth watching for Karloff fans or anyone interested in the novelty of young Jack Nicholson and Roger Corman's trying to emulate Hammer's period-horror films.

Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)

Who's in it?: Antony Carbone (The Pit and the Pendulum); Betsy Jones-Moreland (all those Perry Mason TV movies); Robert Towne (wrote the screenplays for Chinatown, the first two Mission:Impossible movies, and Days of Thunder)

What's it about?: American criminals help Cuban officials smuggle money off the island after Castro's revolution, but plan to steal the loot by claiming that a sea monster is murdering the guards and forcing them to divert course. Unfortunately, the monster is REAL!

How is it?: It's a Roger Corman movie, so adjust expectations accordingly. Also, it's a comedy. The monster is absolutely ridiculous-looking, but it's supposed to be. The film spoofs everything from monster movies to spy films and musicals and it's often legitimately, intentionally funny. I laughed out loud several times. There's an especially memorable scene where the girlfriend (Jones-Moreland) of the lead crook (Carbone) croons a song to entertain the crew and continues unfazed when a gunfight erupts around her. Towne is also very funny as the deadpan, hapless secret agent XK150 who's undercover on the boat to spy on the bad guys.

Rating: Good.