Twice Told Tales
Directed by Sidney Salkow
Written by Robert E. Kent from stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1963/USA
Robert E. Kent Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Beatrice Rappaccini: Your daughter is a fine specimen, too, isn’t she father? A specimen of the most deadly thing that was ever given life.[/box]
Vicent Price stars in an omnibus production of three mildly scary tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The first story comes from “Dr. Heddiger’s Experiment” in which a scientist (Sebastian Cabot) who lost his beloved on their wedding day comes across a liquid that can turn back time. The second, is “Rappaccini’s Daughter”. A scientist (Price) seeks to keep his child eternally faithful buy making her very touch deadly poison. The final story is from the novel The House of the Seven Gables, about a family cursed through many generations by its greed and evil.
I don’t have much to say about this one. It is OK, with Price in fine form. There are more horror moments than perhaps Hawthorne intended but it’s a little too camp to be really chilling.
Trailer
