Edgar Allan Poe Filmography

Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Curtis Harrington

Synopsis: Curtis Harrington, a perennial cult figure who made such atmospheric low-budget horror films as Night Tide, Queen of Blood, and Games, both stars in and directs this adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Harrington plays Roderick Usher, a poet who lives in his Read More

The Mesmerist

Crew: Book Author

Synopsis: Science allows a man to cheat death and continue to be a thorn in the side of his family in this dark comedy. Mr. Valdemar (Howard Hesseman) is a wealthy but ill-manned man who is elderly and in poor health. Knowing he doesn't have long to live, Valdemar agrees to take part in an experiment by Dr. Read More

The Tell-Tale Heart

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Edgar Allan Poe's timeless tale of murder and madness arrives onscreen in filmmaker Scott Mansfield's loyal adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart. Driven to madness and compelled to take the life of his elderly, bedridden charge, a man seeking peace and quiet finds that death is only the beginning of Read More

Morella

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Angela Jones, Nicholas Guest, Khrystyne Haje

Synopsis: Edgar Lynden is a prison hospital doctor who conducts some unauthorized and certainly unethical medical experiments in company with his ruthless paramour, Dr. Patricia Morella. He has a twisted relationship with her, which becomes macabre when, as she is comatose and dying from a rare degenerative Read More

Two Evil Eyes

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Adrienne Barbeau, E.G. Marshall, Harvey Keitel, Madeleine Potter, Ramy Zada

Synopsis: Two well-known directors each adapt stories by Edgar Allen Poe in this horror drama. George Romero's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" tells how the wife of an elderly, wealthy man and her lover--who also happens to be the husband's private physician--scheme to control his assets. Dying Read More

Haunting Fear

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Jan-Michael Vincent, Brinke Stevens, Karen Black

Synopsis: Exploitation king Fred Olen Ray bulldozes Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Premature Burial" in this sleazy direct-to-video thriller. B-movie babe Brinke Stevens stars as an heiress tormented night and day by the ever-present phobia of being buried alive. Thanks to hypnotic past-life regression Read More

The Masque of the Red Death

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: A contemporary version of the masterpiece by Edgar Allan Poe follows a photographer (Michelle McBride) as she spies on a soap-opera star at a party in Bavaria. She must solve the crimes when several guests are murdered by someone in a skull mask and red coat. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Pit and the Pendulum

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Lance Henriksen, Rona de Ricci, Jonathan Fuller, Jeffrey Combs, Tom Towles

Synopsis: Only loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story, this well-rendered and intelligent horror film was filmed on location in a spooky Italian castle and tells the convoluted story of a mad priest who devises exquisitely painful ways of getting his victims to confess to dabbling in Read More

The Haunting of Morella

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: David McCallum, Nicole Eggert, Chris Halsted, Lana Clarkson, Maria Ford

Synopsis: One of a few abortive attempts by B-movie legend Roger Corman to recapture the questionable glory of his 60s Edgar Allan Poe films as well as his 70s sexploitation romps, this is definitely the least entertaining of the lot. Taking massive liberties with Poe's tale, the plot involves lovely young Read More

Buried Alive

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Tim Matheson

Synopsis: Produced for cable TV, this pedestrian thriller (also known as Till Death Do Us Part) purports to be a riff on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Premature Burial" but actually bears more of a resemblance to Diabolique. It stars Tim Matheson as a cheated-upon husband who can't stay down after his wife's (Jennifer Jason Leigh Read More

Buried Alive

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: John Carradine, Donald Pleasence, Robert Vaughn

Synopsis: Although this bloody, relentlessly weird South African production purports to be a modern-day treatment of the works of Edgar Allan Poe (most promotional materials list the author's name above the title), it actually bears so little relation to Poe's writing that it makes Roger Corman's Poe Read More

The House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Donald Pleasence, Oliver Reed, Romy Windsor

Synopsis: Without a doubt the weirdest adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe tale in recent memory, this lurid production features a raging, leering Oliver Reed as Roderick Usher, who treats his nephew (Rufus Swart) and the man's bride-to-be (Romy Windsor) to some genuine family hospitality by raping her and Read More

The Masque of the Red Death

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Patrick Macnee, Adrian Paul, Clare Hoak, Jeff Osterhage, Tracy Reiner

Synopsis: A remake of Roger Corman's 1964 adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe tale was produced by Corman but directed by Larry Brand. Its the story of a medieval prince (Adrian Paul) and his attempt to avoid a vicious plague among the populace. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: George C. Scott

Synopsis: Edgar Allan Poe's classic 1841 detective story Murders in the Rue Morgue was adapted for television by David Epstein. Two women--a mother and a daughter--are brutally killed in their tiny Paris apartment. There are no eyewitnesses, and the earwitnesses are wildly contradictory. The evidence points Read More

The Pendulum, the Pit, and the Hope

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Jan Zácek

The Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Martin Landau

Synopsis: A maddened Roderick Usher (Martin Landau) and his dying sister Madeline (Dimitra Arliss) are the only surviving members of the ancient race of the Ushers in this rendition of the classic Edgar Allen Poe tale. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

The Black Cat

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Patrick Magee, Mimsy Farmer, David Warbeck, Al Cliver, Dagmar Lassander

Synopsis: Italian goremeister Lucio Fulci applies his characteristic touch to the Edgar Allan Poe tale (of which very little remains intact) to tell the story of a deranged, wheelchair-bound English psychic (Patrick Magee) who can record the voices of the dead on tape, and apparently possesses the ability Read More

Gold Bug

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Based on the story by Edgar Allen Poe, this tells of a young boy searching for treasure on a deserted island...or so he thought! He finds himself involved with pirates. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Neurosis

Crew: Short Story Author

The Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

The Rue Morgue Massacres

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: In this gory horror movie one of society's pariahs finds the will to live when he receives the tender, innocent affections of a young girl. Unfortunately, she dies. The man refuses to let go and so engineers a replacement. Blood and gore ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Mansion of Madness

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: This bizarre Mexican production is loosely based on The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather by Edgar Allan Poe. The story involves a visit from a newspaper reporter (Claudio Brook) to a sanitarium in 19th century France, where he eventually comes to realize the asylum is being run by one of Read More

Edgar Allan Poe's The Oval Portrait

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: This low-budget Mexican production (originally produced for television) is a tepid but fairly accurate adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's tale, set during the Civil War. The story involves a young woman haunted by the vengeful spirit of a young bride, whose soul had been trapped for decades within Read More

Web of the Spider

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Peter Carsten, Karin Field, Anthony Franciosa, Klaus Kinski, Michele Mercier, Silvano Tranquilli

Synopsis: In this remake of his own La Danza Macabra, director Antonio Margheriti casts Anthony Franciosa as writer Alan Foster, who accepts a bet from Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) and his friend Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman). No one has ever survived a night in Blackwood's castle, but the skeptical Read More

The Tell-Tale Heart

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Steve Carver directs Sam Jaffe in Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale of man who kills his torturous boss and stores the body within the bowels of his own house. Once the deed is done, the young man is driven into madness by his crime, and imagines -- or does he? -- the persistent beating of his Read More

An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Not really a movie, An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe is a videotaped 90-minute TV special starring Vincent Price. Appearing solo, Price recites several vintage Poe tales, including The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Cask of Amontillado. Price is dressed in period costume and performs Read More

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Christine Kaufmann, Herbert Lom

Synopsis: The fourth film to explore Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale, this clever adaptation takes some rather broad liberties with the source material. A flamboyant Jason Robards plays Cesar Charron, owner of a Grand Guignol theatre in 19th-century Paris, who is launching a stage adaptation of "Murders in Read More

Apokal

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: This German language film is said to be loosely based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe. It is difficult to say, as there is no story to be discerned in this non-stop pastiche, heavy with symbolism but with no other distinguishing features. It was, however, a German entry in the 1971 Cannes Film Read More

The Oblong Box

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Alister Williamson, Hilary Dwyer, Peter Arne, Harry Baird

Synopsis: When Sir Edward Markham (Alastair Williamson) is horribly disfigured by African natives, he is kept chained and out of sight by his brother Julian (Vincent Price). When Sir Edward escapes, he goes on a killing spree in a desperate attempt to get even with the society that has made him a monstrous Read More

Spirits of the Dead

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Jane Fonda, Terence Stamp, Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, James Robertson Justice, Peter Fonda

Synopsis: Released in Europe as Histoires Extraordinaires and Tre Passi Nel Delirio, this is a portmanteau picture, comprised of three supernatural playlets based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. "Metzengerstein," directed by Roger Vadim, stars the director's then-wife Jane Fonda as a medieval woman prone Read More

Castle of the Walking Dead

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Lex Barker

Synopsis: Just the thing for spooky Halloween-night viewing, this good-looking German film from director Harald Reinl tells the story of the horrible Count Regula (Christopher Lee), who murdered a dozen virgins and drained their blood. For these heinous crimes, he was sentenced to be drawn and quartered. Read More

The Black Cat

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Harold Hoffman directed this Dallas-made oddity about a man named Lew (Robert Frost) who receives a black cat from his wife Diana (Robyn Baker) on their anniversary. Lew hates his father and thinks the cat is a reincarnation of the old man, so he gets drunk and gouges out its eye. Later, obsessed Read More

Cask of Amontillado

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: In the early- to mid-1960s, the University of Michigan shipped out several half-hour TV series to local stations. The best of these included The Plays of Shakespeare, The Inquiring Mind and a group of programs spotlighting the Interlochen Youth Camp. Likewise well produced (and well received) was American Story Classics Read More

Scream of Death

Crew: Short Story Author

The Masque of the Red Death

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, David Weston, Patrick Magee

Synopsis: Though based on two Edgar Allen Poe stories, Masque of the Red Death relies more upon its mood and atmosphere than its story values for its success. During a devastating 12th-century plague called "The Red Death," the decadent, devil-worshipping Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) holds court over a Read More

The Tomb of Ligeia

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook, Oliver Johnston, Derek Francis

Synopsis: Once again Vincent Price stars for director Roger Corman in The Tomb of Ligeia, the last of Corman's eight Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, a film graced by a script by Robert Towne and moody cinematography by Nicolas Roeg. Price has the creepy lead role of Verden Fell. In 1821, when Verden's wife Read More

The Raven

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess

Synopsis: Although Roger Corman narrowly managed to avoid self-mockery in his pulpy, flamboyant adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe tales, it appears that the director chose this opportunity to let loose with outright parody; the result is a wonderfully entertaining romp with tongue planted firmly in cheek. The Read More

Tales of Terror

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Debra Paget, Maggie Pierce

Synopsis: Roger Corman's Tales of Terror stars Vincent Price in a trio of short stories, liberally adapted by Richard Matheson from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The film gets off to a rousing start with "Morella," in which Price's bitterness over the long-ago death of his wife results in tragedy for his Read More

The Premature Burial

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Ray Milland, Hazel Court, Richard Ney, Heather Angel, Alan Napier

Synopsis: Roger Corman's success with low-budget adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe tales continued with this third installment, the first to lack the commanding presence of Vincent Price. Instead, we have Ray Milland as tormented protagonist Guy Carrell, who is so traumatized by the death of his father -- whom Read More

Pit and the Pendulum

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Vincent Price, John Kerr, Barbara Steele, Luana Anders, Anthony Carbone

Synopsis: 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 Read More

Obras maestras del terror

Crew: Short Story Author

The Tell-Tale Heart

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Horror tale inspired by the classic Edgar Allan Poe story, in which a writer fantasizes murdering his friend over a beautiful woman, and then hearing the dead man's heart continuing to beat. (Alternate title: The Hidden Room Of 1,000 Horrors) ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide Read More

The Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe, Bill Borzage

Synopsis: The first of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films, Fall of the House of Usher was originally released as simply House of Usher. Vincent Price stars as the foredoomed Roderick Usher. Living in his decaying family mansion with his young sister Madeline (Myrna Fahey), Roderick does his best to shoo Read More

Calypso

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Cary Grant

Synopsis: The culture of a Caribbean island drenched in sun and rhythmic music, and the calypso sounds themselves are the main focus of this thinly plotted drama about a racially mixed family. Popular activities like cockfights and festival occasions interrupt the story of Resy (Sally Neal), the attractive Read More

The Living Coffin

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: The Living Coffin is a Mexican filmization of that old Edgar Allan Poe standby The Premature Burial. A seriously ill woman is terrified that she'll be buried while in a comatose state. To avoid this contingency, she has an alarm installed inside her coffin (indicating that someone involved with Read More

The Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe's macabre tale of family curses, premature burial, and horrible revenge, was adapted for television in 1958. Marshall Thompson plays the tormented Roderick Usher, whose sister has died under mysterious circumstances. Upon the arrival of her fiancee (Tom Read More

Manfish

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: John Bromfield, Lon Chaney, Jr., Victor Jory, Barbara Nichols, Tessa Prendergast

Synopsis: Edgar Allan Poe's The Gold Bug and The Tell-Tale Heart were updated and woven together into a single narrative in the ultra-cheap adventure yarn Manfish. John Bromfield, Lon Chaney Jr. and Victor Jory head the cast as three fortune hunters, combing the West Indies in search of buried treasure. The Read More

Phantom of the Rue Morgue

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Karl Malden, Claude Dauphin, Patricia Medina, Steve Forrest, Allyn Ann McLerie

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' followup to its 3D hit House of Wax, Phantom of the Rue Morgue bears only the slightest resemblance to its alleged inspiration, the Edgar Allan Poe mystery yarn Murders in the Rue Morgue. Karl Malden delivers one of the hammiest performances on record as mad scientist Dr. Marais, who Read More

The Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Kaye Tendeter, Irving Steen, Lucy Pavey, Vernon Charles

Synopsis: Filmed in 1950, this British adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher made the U.S. art-house rounds in 1952. Essentially an amateur production (though its non-union participants received minimal salaries), Usher is nowhere near as stylish as Jean Epstein's 1929 version or Roger Corman Read More

Histoires Extraordinaires

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Roger Blin, Paul Frankeur

Synopsis: The French Histoires Extraordinaires is an "omnibus" film in the traditon of the English Somerset Maugham anthologies and Hollywood's Tales of Manhattan and Flesh and Fantasy. The three stories dramatized herein are based on the works Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas De Quincey. The Poe stories utilized Read More

The Mystery of Marie Roget

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Patric Knowles, Maria Montez, Maria Ouspenskaya, John Litel, Edward Norris

Synopsis: The Mystery of Marie Roget is more faithful to its Edgar Allan Poe original than most Universal films of its ilk, even though the Poe story and the film aren't exactly twins. Based on the factual unsolved 1842 murder of one Mary Rogers, the film stars Maria Montez as the unfortunate heroine, a Read More

The Black Cat

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Basil Rathbone, Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford, Bela Lugosi, Gale Sondergaard

Synopsis: 1941's The Black Cat is neither a remake of the 1934 Karloff-Lugosi film of the same name, nor does it bear the slightest relation to the same-named Edgar Allan Poe story (as if the 1934 picture did!) The fact that the heroes are played by Hugh Herbert and Broderick Crawford is indication enough Read More

The Crime of Dr. Crespi

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Erich Von Stroheim, Dwight Frye, Paul Guilfoyle, Harriett Russell, John Bohn

Synopsis: One of several Liberty productions picked up for release by Republic, The Crime of Dr. Crespi is a modern-dress adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Premature Burial. Erich Von Stroheim stars as brilliant surgeon Dr. Anton Crespi, who seeks revenge against Ross (John Bohn), the man who stole his Read More

The Raven

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Irene Ware, Lester Matthews, Samuel S. Hinds

Synopsis: Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff team up in this excellent 1935 chiller. Lugosi is crazed brain-surgeon Dr. Richard Vollin who is infatuated with the characters and devices found in the Edgar Allan Poe stories. When a local judge brings his beautiful daughter for brain surgery, the doctor falls in Read More

The Black Cat

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells, Lucille Lund, Andy Devine

Synopsis: The first cinematic teaming of horror greats Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is a bizarre, haunting, and relentlessly eerie film that was surprisingly morbid and perverse for its time. Peter (David Manners) and Joan Allison (Julie Bishop) are honeymooning in Budapest when they meet mysterious Read More

The Tell-Tale Heart

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: John Kelt, Yolande Terrell

Synopsis: This 51-minute adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's Tell Tale Heart was a labor of love for co-producer-director Brian Desmond Hurst, who funded the production (his first) from his own far-from-bottomless cash reserves. Norman Dryden stars as the tortured young hero whose hatred for his elderly Read More

Bucket of Blood

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: This horror film, based on Poe's classic story "The Tell-Tale Heart," chronicles the mental break-down of a psychotic who keeps hearing the heart-beat of his last victim. He eventually confesses his crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Maniac

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: Produced and directed by exploitation specialist Dwain Esper and written by Mrs. Esper, Hildegarde Stade, this ultra low-budget "educational" melodrama not only defied logic but broke virtually every rule of narrative film-making. That would not necessarily be a detriment to a film ostensibly Read More

Jaws of Justice

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Kazan the Dog, Jack Perrin, Robert Walker, Ruth Sullivan, Lafe [Lafayette] McKee

Synopsis: Filmed at picturesque Lake Tahoe, NV, this ultra-low-budget dog melodrama starred one of Rin-Tin-Tin's better successors, Kazan, and silent Western hero Jack Perrin, billed for unexplained reasons as "Richard Terry." The latter plays Kincaid, a Mountie coming to the aid of Judy Dean (Ruth Read More

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Bela Lugosi, Leon Waycoff [Ames], Sydney Fox, Bert Roach, Brandon Hurst

Synopsis: Having missed the opportunity to direct Frankenstein for Universal, Robert Florey was offered Murders in the Rue Morgue as a consolation, whereupon he transformed a pedestrian property into a minor classic. Owing more to Cabinet of Dr. Caligari than to Edgar Allen Poe, the film stars Bela Lugosi Read More

Unheimliche Geschichten

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Paul Wegener, Harald Paulsen, Mary Parker, Gerhard Bienert

The Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Marguerite Gance, Jean Debucourt, Charles Lamy

Synopsis: The French silent film La Chute de la Maison Usher is adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher. Director Jean Epstein studiously avoids cheap shocks in this tale of hereditary madness, choosing instead a tightly controlled, spookily subtle technique. The hero, having indirectly Read More

The Fall of the House of Usher

Crew: Short Story Author

Der Student von Prag

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss

Synopsis: Considered the magnum-opus of filmmaker/screenwriter Henrik Galeen, and featuring actor Conrad Veit in one of his finest performances Student of Prague is considered an important work in German Expressionist cinema. It is also the first to present a dark exploration of the inner realms of the self Read More

Raven

Crew: Play Author

Synopsis: Although Henry B. Walthall (the "Little Colonel"