Twice-Told Tales (1963)
Directed by Sidney Salkow

Film Review

Twice-Told Tales look like a pretty desperate attempt by a rival company to climb aboard the horror bandwagon that AIP had set in motion with its inspired adaptations of the works of Edgar Allen Poe.  This time, it is Nathaniel Hawthorne who provides the stories, including two from his anthology of the film's title and one from his novel The House of the Seven Gables, which had previously been adapted by Joe May in 1940, with Vincent Price in the lead role.  Price not only narrates Twice-Told Tales, he also takes the lead in each of its three tales, an indulgence that helps to brighten what might otherwise have been a pretty lacklustre offering in the horror genre.

To be fair, the production design is on a par with Roger Corman's memorable offerings for AIP but Corman's directorial flair is noticeably missing.  Sidney Salkow directs the film without any real enthusiasm for horror and merely turns out an attractively shot period drama which is lacking in both atmosphere and genuine chills.  What horror content there is is laughably tame, the kind you would expect to find dangling with embarrassment from a peg in a joke shop.  The third story (House of the Seven Gables) is particularly disappointing and resembles a poor man's version of AIP's House of Usher (1960), complete with amateurish effects and cheap plastic skeletons.  The second tale, Rappaccini's Daughter, is far more successful, a warped version of the Tristan and Isolde story that succeeds in spite of its obvious staginess.  Here, Price gives a surprisingly subtle performance as a character who is not (in stark contrast to the others he plays in this film) a one-dimensional villain.  Twice-Told Tales is pretty feeble compared with AIP's similar horror offerings but, judged on its own merits, it is entertaining enough, its only real sin being its woefully unimaginative direction and a few let-downs on the special effects front.

Film Synopsis

Three tales of terror.  In Dr Heidegger's Experiment, an elderly scientist named Carl Heidegger discovers that his fiancée, who died 38 years previously on the eve of her wedding, is perfectly preserved in her vault.  Heidegger attributes this miracle to the water that drips onto her coffin from the vault's damp ceiling.  When they imbibe the water, Heidegger and his lifelong friend Alex are both instantly rejuvenated, and the scientist even succeeds in bringing back to life his long dead beloved.  All too soon this happy reunion ends in  horror as past secrets are revealed...   In Rappaccini's Daughter, a university student falls in love his neighbour's daughter, only to discover that she has been turned into a monster whose merest touch brings death...  In House of the Seven Gables, Gerald Pyncheon returns to the family home to recover a valuable treasure hidden in its vault.  He scorns the legend of a curse that threatens death to any Pyncheon who claims ownership of the house...