the Arrow discs offer no audio commentary for this title, while Kino presents two, one by this writer. The Tim Lucas commen- tary is scene-specific and presents production facts, quotes excerpts from Matheson’s screenplay (in- cluding the cut sequence from “Valdemar” set in Limbo), offers some critical interpretations of the film, explores some arcane as- pects (like the origins of Peter Lorre’s “Who Dat” song in “The Black Cat”), and also questions the extent to which the very simi- lar Argentinean Poe anthology MASTER OF HORROR (whose release in the US was curiously postponed until Corman retired


TALES OF TERROR: Price poses with the severed head of co-star Peter Lorre, created by Don Post Studios for the film’s nightmare sequence.


three stories: “The Case of M. Valdemar,” “The Black Cat” and “Morella.” The order of stories was subsequently rearranged to underscore the strengths of the whole, and like all such omnibus pictures, it is uneven—but “The Black Cat” (with the superb comic performances of Price and Peter Lorre in an uncredited pastiche of Poe’s “The Cask of Amontil- lado”) is one of the earliest films to successfully shuffle horror and comedy, and “The Case of M. Valdemar” benefits from a commanding performance by an aquiline Basil Rathbone. TALES OF TERROR is available from Arrow Video as part of SIX GOTHIC TALES (which, with the inclusion of this film, might more accurately have been titled “EIGHT GOTHIC TALES”) and also individually, but it is not among Scream Factory’s offerings. Instead, MGM—the current rights holder to this and other AIP titles—opened the bidding to a wider range of participants, resulting in a flurry of new AIP releases coming from Olive Films (THE WILD ANGELS, PSYCH-OUT) and Kino Lorber (who happened to acquire TALES OF TERROR). Arrow’s 2.35:1 presentation again demonstrates a maximal bit rate; Kino’s looks slightly brighter, yet not conspicuously less detailed. Surprisingly,


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from the Poe series) may have influenced the film’s making. The other commentary finds David Del Valle in conversation with “Case of M. Valdemar” cast member David Frankham, now in his 80s, whom Del Valle also en- courages to reminisce about his other experiences of working with Price in RETURN OF THE FLY (1959) and MASTER OF THE


WORLD (1961). TALES OF TERROR is a film that Del Valle clearly loves and he conveys an infectious enthusiasm for it and its various players, particu- larly his late friend Joyce Jameson, a tragic figure whom he describes touchingly and to whom he dedi- cates the track. Frankham also looks back on this production fondly, vividly communicating the thrill of working alongside his boyhood matinee heroes onscreen. He talks about some of the private time they shared, as well. One wishes that Frankham had been given more air time, but he sounds like he’s never had more fun and he and Del Valle get along like the proverbial Poe house on fire. All in all, a very pleasant and privileged listen. The Kino set also includes a new video inter- view with Roger Corman about the picture (10m 43s, in which he admits that the widely-covered black cat audition call was just a publicity stunt—as I speculate in my commentary); the original theatri- cal trailer (2m 22s); and Corman’s TRAILERS FROM HELL commentary.


The Arrow extras include another most welcome isolated Music and Effects track; “The Directors: Roger Corman” (58m 32s), a cable television docu- mentary with input from Corman, James Cameron,


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